In India

The plan was that we'd go to Mumbai for some business matters on Sunday.

The plan was to wake up @ 6 AM on Sunday and get the car out to Mumbai.

The plan was to spend the whole day doing business, and return at night.

The plan was not to my tastes.

So I figured I'd take 1/2 a day friday get a car to Mumbai , do some touristy stuffand meet up with the company on Sunday.
The first challenge was booking the car. Thanks to services like expedia, hotels are a non-issue. After much misunderstanding, my coworker acted as interperter.

Note: Indica is a type of car, the guy is not asking how many people are in the car.

You agree on a price ( 3 hours about $60)...they pick you up. Here's the fun part, you don't pay until you're out of town and the dirver stops for gas, then you pay the whole fare. This is to ensure you will actually pay because the car has enough gas to get to that point and maybe back again.
So at some lonely truckstop 20 minutes outside of Pune the driver pulls over to something right out of Mad Max ( I overuse the anology, and I'll try not to anymore, but seriously....that's what this is), three scragly dudes sitting on two gas pumps in the middle of a pile of dirt.

Dude leans over the window and in a gravely voice utters:
'Baba...money'

And you think to yourself
This is how I die, I hand over all my cash and they leave me for dead here.

But as with so many things in India you don't actually die, you just think you might.

It's 80% paranoia.

Actually the driver was quite friendly. The only english he knew was 'High five' and 'cigarette'.

He kept pantomiming zooming around cars and cutting people off.

I tried to read the signs this amused him, for example

टेल

is 'Toll', which meant the driver would soon go 'Baba..' and hold out his hand again.

>>Kitne? ( how much)

Every sucessful transaction rewarded with 'high five'. Fun stuff.

When we got to Mumbai he started asking 'where baba?'

>>'Well I don't know...I've never been here'

We ended up taking the tour book, circling the spot on the page and passing it to other cab drivers at stop lights. Then for the final leg, we hired another taxi to be a lead car, and followed him the rest of the way through the serpentine streets in Colaba.

This was all surprisingly effective, I can't imagine doing it back in New York.

I have been asked ( by my mother of all people) , if I make this stuff up just to amuse my friends....NO!
This blog is a true testimony. I did go to 20 stores to find a coffe pot, the electricity does go out, I have spent a full day in the bathroom, roads don't have names, there are stray dogs everywhere. It's all true. Here's one you can't dream up.....

It had been a particularly trying week, I needed to find a bar and wih no one in the office able to help me ( no one in India drinks) I googled and ventured forth.

I had already scouted out all bars withing walking distance. I had a bar review to go with the restraunt review ...but frankly none of those bars are worth going to.

Ten Downing Street
One of the more popular (or one of the only) bars from what I understand.
It was a 20 minute rickshaw from my apartment , that was scary enough. Drive through lord knows where....and the dude stops at an abandoned shopping mall. Enter the cavernous mall, find 3 dudes sitting in there. This is apparently the entrance, I had paid the rickshaw guy extra to wait at the door for a bit.
There's a 2 drink minimum, so you pay the guys in the folding chairs and go upstairs.
The pub is on the second floor of the mall.

Inside it looks like a pub, and for the most part it is.
So I sit down and order a whiskey...NEAT! Slump back and listen to awful music...

After a few drinks I had a long conversation with the barkeep, it was actually his music.
We were in serious disagreement on the following topics:

• the musical achievments of Brian Adams.
• UB-40, gretest band ever?
• John Denver is good bar music.

I think the key to his musical selections was the enunciation of the lyrics.

Once again, as with the first few days walking down Ganeshkind road, I got the strong feeling....I'm in a mad max movie....

Here I am drinking whiskey on this wierd dirt road in an abandoned shopping mall , sitting in the remains of a bar, there are bedsheets on some of the windows (I'm not clear what the windows would face anyway, since we're in the mall), while the bartender sings along to Red Red wine...

"barkeep! ek aur....NEAT!" (one more)

At night the rickshaw guy charged me double and claimed 'night time prices' after 11. I was too drunk to argue (paradoxical but true). I just told him if he was lying, he'd be reincarnated as a monkey.

I have a a splitting headache this morning (yep,hangover...right on schedule). I figured I could cure this with a pot of my hard won coffee, that'd be good. But the electricity's on the blink again and that means cold shower, cornflakes and filtered water. I almost punched the wall but instead I sat down , lit a smoke ( remembered to pop a malarone) and typed this. Someday I'll look back on this and laugh....someday.

The solution I've been told is to get out of Pune as often as possible.

Shaniwarwada

Up Shivaji road is Shaniwarwada. It's is a palace/ settlment buid by the Peshwar King Bajrao the 1st in the 1730's ( see, when the plaques are in english I can learn stuff). It served as a palace/fort/settlement for the peshwar kings and some 1000 inhabiatnts. It's about 4-5 city blocks square. This is the imposing entrance, surrounded by two bastions.

And an imposing entranceway:

So you get in and read the plaque about the Peshwars and what a magnificant palace this was, the beutiful murals that were there, the renowned beuty of the palace itself. But then you get to the last paragraph about how in 1818 the Peshwar kingBajrao II, abdicated his throne to a British general named Malcom. The British used it as a hospital.

Then in 1828, the whole complex burned to the ground in a fire that lasted for a week (a scenario I have no trouble imagining). So all that is left in Shaniwarwada's interior is foundations of these buildings. No photos or paintings of the orignal ones either.

The walls and bastions are still pretty impressive, and you're allowed to go up to the upper walkway.

But it's empty, just some old mango trees

(which are starting to bear fruit, because the temperature is picking up).

Lemme set this next pic up, there is this tree that I've been told is peculiar to the sub-continent, and I've never seen anything like it. It shoots down new roots out of it's branches, they eventually hit the ground, break offand become another tree.

Root Tree

There is a part of the north wall where this tree arches over the catwalk, and I took a picture of the fountain through the root-branches.

There is a big golden statue of one of the kings out front of the fort, charging into battle. I got a picture from the back because to get one from the front I'd have to stand in the middle of the chowk (intersection). I might go back and get a better pic.