One eventually get cheated in India …. Its only a matter of time.

I was on the journey to Ahmedabad from Mumbai … late in the evening I was headed to the bus stand for an overnight bus ride. Taking a walk in the rain to the bus waiting point I finally used the poncho I bought in Peru. The so called bus stop was a small little shack of a travel agency. I was semi shocked I guess for I was not used to the bus system in India but then again what the hell …. 

The agency was a man just minding his own business … everyone just wait at the road looking at the massive traffic jam and hoping a bus would pull up. None of the bus pulled up and sometimes you see one person stops a bus for a second before hopping on. 

Luckily the bus I was going on was late …. I manage to decipher the bus code system in time … else I would have missed the bus and no one to help me with it. The bus all had a name written on the top of the bus like a dark screen and it is plastered big in bright colours so one can spot it a mile away even at night. The ticket gives the name of the bus … so all those people waiting by the road was looking out for busses with the right name …. 

Fortunately I was looking too and not waiting inside the crappy travel agent shack and when the bus did come I had to flag it and ran after it … I was the only boarding that bus from that junction. The travel agent did nothing …. If I did not see the bus I would have missed it and left holding a useless ticket and with no place to stay the night. 

Ok so I was in the bus now … got my sleeper bunk and it was air-con …. A quick look and no toilet on the bus … this was not South America ….. I am regretting the bus ride already. No sheets too … I so miss AC class on the train …. And no blanket nor pillow …. Air-con was freaking cold too … it now remind me of the greyhound bus in USA …. Luckily I pinched the sheets from the train … it was now my thin sheet of blanket which was all it needed to keep my body heat with me.

The bumbs, the horn, the sudden swaying … the bus was trying his best to get out of the Mumbai traffic and it was almost driving me sick …. Motion sick …. I hate the bus already

Once we were out and on the road it was not that bad thou ….. stolen sheet for a blanket, a toilet break every 4 hours and but then early morning and I got jerk woken up by a splash of dripping cold wet air con water leaking from the overhead vents. I hate the bus. 

Reached Ahmedabad and guess what .. the bus chucks me out outside the city … I so miss the train now …. A bit slower is still better than a bus. Then again the bus was not even faster than the train … it took 12 hours, 2 hours longer than the train allocated time … f*ckers …. Rs 1700 too.

This is where the cheating started …

When the bus spits me out, vultures of Auto-rickshaw drivers with big grins was fighting to see who can eat the delicious yellow man. I was in the outskirts of the city …. Nothing nearby to help me get to the city …. Rickshaw is all there is …. And they know it ….

I settle for the first guy who spoke …. What was I to do anyway …. Plus when I asked how much he said meter …. Fishy but then again I really did not have a choice …. And after a long journey decision making aren’t that good anymore. Inspecting the meter it was those mechanical distance counter like one normally see on a car or motorbike. Rigged to show the distance in numbers …. I was guessing it was tuned differently to show the price of the journey, …. Not electronic anyway so how bad could it be ….

He took me to where I wanted to go approximately since I had no idea where I was going, anywhere other than the area near the train station and the sights … Bandra colony …. Another light up glint in his eyes as he realized I dun have a hotel booking and he brought me to the first recommendation … good hotel he said ….. 

How Much I asked the hotel manager …

Rs 2000 …..

No …. 

As the hotel manager tries to desperately cling to his only customer, the price actually drop till Rs1200 …. F*ckers …

The second hotel was much better …. They had a board and it was clearly stated Rs 700 for a night in non – ac …. I could do with that and settle on it. 

Time to pay the rickshaw driver …. The meter had jumped till 467 …I thought it was a long ride but it was still high …. I gave him 500 and left it at there and he left ….. Later chit chatting with the hotel desk guy, the hotel guy told me it was a little high … or rather very high …. 

How does one charge with the meters anyway in Ahmedabad I asked …. 

The meter was this round thing at the side of the cab …. But then that was not the meter but the point counter based on the kilometres travelled …. Then one has to ask the rickshaw driver for the price chart … you then convert the points to the price in Rs ….

The Auto-Rickshaw Meter in Ahmedabad

Going on other rickshaws with this knowledge visiting sights in Ahmedabad I studied one … and it was about 250 which was the fee I was soppose to pay the first ride … that guy got me I guess …. Sooner or later you get caught in their scheme … 

Everyone gets cheated in India sooner or later …

Travelled on : Aug 2015

Exploring the Slums in Bombay – Mumbai

I decided to spend a day on a paid walking tour …. Priced at Rs 500 but with tips it came to Rs 600. It was not the usual kind of walking tour for it was a walking tour into the slums of Dharavi at the heart of Mumbai city India. It was also one of the scenes from the famous movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which I have not seen. 

The tour was unique for, slum tours was done by many tour operators made of independent people trying to earn a buck but I went with this organization recommended by the hostel called Reality Tour. It was a NGO …. I dunnu how much I trust NGO nowadays for it just means so many things and nothing sometimes. 

They claimed that 80% of their nett profit after tax is given back to the slums in the form of community education and help program. Nett profit as I heard it means they still make a profit. Big companies as far as I know takes a lot of salary and only produce a small nett profit in the end of the year. Still no point judging I guess. 

We were told to get to Mahim Train station and locate this Café where the guide would meet us. We were also warned that some random strangers might pose as the company and we were to look out for the actual guide which should be wearing a company t-shirt. True enough a guy in plain white shirt tried to pass off as the company but Zack (from England but is a mix race of British and Thai) decided to spend international call to get the hostel guy to find us the right guide. The guide came in good uniform and we were set on our way.

There is so many lechers in India 

The tour took us into the slum which was a misconception of the name explained the guide. Slums means people who occupy government land without permission. That’s all. So a slum is technically a free place to stay. Reality tour mission was to bust the misconception of slums and to show people the actual reality to the world. Slum has a very negative word and is not really what it describe when we see it. 

The slum was quite organized. There was heavy industrial area which was basically hazardous to anyone who works there. Mainly on recycling they showed us a few of them. The production of plastic crushers in factories, homemade with steel and welding’s and simple motorized mechanism to actually crushing all kinds of plastic they could find, melting and dyeing them to form plastic pallets before it was sold to big factories to be made into new plastic products. 

Recycling of paint cans … stripping of paint, marks, logo and labels and make new for reuse and after a few times of recycling paint cans the cans themselves is being cut and bend and used as sheets for building more slum houses.

They say there is no waste in Dharavi. 

The most highly paid work was the aluminium recycling … here they collect all the aluminium cans and melt them in a small room which is filled with toxic fumes and chimneys that pump out who knows what like a train hopper. Melted and formed into pure aluminium bricks they are then sold to big factories who use them to make new product. 

These industries only survive because of cheap labour …. Labours was intensive in sorting and making all these rubbish pure enough for the factory to use. If it were sorted before recycling factories would have ran the job more efficiently and cheaper and much safer but then most people heap their rubbish together in 3rd world country. 

Then the next industry was located further away from the heavy one … the non-hazardous to health sits between the hazard and the residential area of the slums. There was large industrial no food inspection bakery which supplies puff to all of India … 

*Gasps*… I probably ate some of those somewhere in India

Then there was the leather factory, wood work and even hand rolled manufactured papadam by household wife as part time job.

The residential sits at the far end far away as possible from the toxic hazard and these are a clusterfuck of house shacks, string and woven so close together that you have to kiss someone if he was coming from the opposite direction. They are not poor thou …. A keen eye will notice the hi tech plasma TV in the small house of 5 by 5, computers, and a hoard of satellite dishes which supply endless TV channels to the slums. 

It was free land ….. if you stay there long enough it will be yours …. 

Interestingly no one pester us for money … they have pride here in the slums …. Hard work drive them but they have the pride of one who knows he is better than a beggar. 


Note : No photos in the slums ... coz some stuff seriously is against health codes ...
Travelled on : Aug 2015

A short stop in Mumbai

Mumbai is the new name …. While the old one rings with Bombay during the British colony. Hence Mumbai was one of the more civilized city in India that have seen with more historical buildings and monuments that is not related to temples and palaces.

Colonial Buildings in Mumbai

Truth be told, Mumbai was not attractive enough to hold me more than two night there. I had to move on quick for in a way I felt that Mumbai was a standard metropolitan city …. I got the vibe that it was a type of city where if you know friends to go crazy with, it could be a beautiful adventure behind closed doors but alas I was not patient enough to do it alone.

Beach by Mumbai

Still this city has its own charm in India … for one, it’s a city next to a beach facing west … how many cities could you catch a beautiful sunset everyday … I just love those kind of cities … nothing like a stroll along the beach after a long day seeing the sunset. Sentimental wise I was not alone and many locals go on walks by the city beach romantically

Romantic is also something you dun see often in India as well. Mumbai was one place where you could see girls of India come out from home leisurely. I have to say, I kinda like the view here in Mumbai.

Port Gate where the British Set Sail Leaving India

The other main attraction was the slums all around Mumbai …. The slums on its own is worthy of a single post which I will have to do next after this lazy post

Not many hostels in Mumbai and the one I stayed was actually a house. Thing is about India and addresses … the numbers does not line up in any order … number 1 house and number 2 house can be on two far end side of the street and still has the same street name … there is no logic … best was to ask for direction and hopefully don’t get a random pointy finger which could also mean go away.

The old town Mumbai or better known as Bombay looked very much like London if you can ignore certain parts and imagine certain parts. It’s a beautiful city, very business-like and a city where you will hear locals speak English like it was their native tongue to each other.



Most Expensive Hotel in Mumbai .... I think

Traveled on  : Aug 2015



Hyderabad – The old Mughlai Empire City

If not for the change of plans and the recommendations by Ktan and his family I would have never go there and would have probably took a long distance train to get to Mumbai. The stop was surprising

Build by the old Mughlai Empire the city of Hyderabad can be easily mistaken as a city in the Middle East. Not that I have ever been there before other than Istanbul, but one can see a striking difference whereby mosque and Islamic architecture covers the city more than any other religion. Seeing the city thou is not as easy like taking a walk and just discovering it. The city is big and the sights are located far apart. 

Charminar - Hyderabad, India

First day after checking into the first hotel the auto rickshaw brought me to for Rs800 a night, I was surprised I accepted so easily for normally I reject the first place regardless of offer and condition just to check out the second one …. In a way I guess it was the first honest auto rickshaw I encountered in India … he only charged me Rs 120 for a long ride from Secundebad to Hyderabad …

I later found out that was a very fair price for most auto rickshaw was trying to rip me off to about Rs 300 for the same distance ride in Hyderabad. I trusted the first auto rickshaw guy for some reason I could not comprehend and the hotel he recommended was a good place, quiet clean with wifi …. Non-ac for 800 and ac for 1000 …. I caught a running nose from the AC 3 train so I decided to forgo the AC and take the cheaper 800 a night

Check in and out I went exploring, or more like exploring while looking for food. The first place I wanted to visit was the Falaknuma Palace …. Somehow I also started writing down the places I wanted to go on a piece of paper and just used them to show to the taxi drivers and yet I had no clue where it was in Hyderabad …. 

350 ….. f*ck it …. Walk away …. Offer the new devious auto rickshaw driver said …. And I said meter …. 

Meter plus 20 ….. ok fair enough … 

The ride was nearly 20 km away …. And the meter jumped like it was rigged and bounce up to 270 …. I gave up 300 at the entrance of Falaknuma Palace only to find out that it is not accessible to public as it has been privatized to be a luxury hotel ….…. 300 for nothing. 

Roasted Chicken Factory

I decided to walk back … a long walk to find food along the way and to have a look wandering around lost in Hyderabad looking and seeing whatever that comes by. Most of it was dusty shops and boring daily lives that would not register in my head but I finally found a restaurant after 1 hour of walking and they sold the famous Hyderabad Dum biryani …. I have to say the Biryani is Hyderabad is something special. So special that it ruin all the other Briyani I had in India … 


The best Briyani in India - Hyderabad Dum Briyani

I could say that Dum Briyani is the best Briyani I have ever eaten 

More walking to burn off the over eating of Biryani, I found the first monument …. Mecca Mosque … a large pilgrim site where a few bricks from Mecca was brought to build the mosque … no short pants allowed inside and I walk by to see the next door monument Charminar ….

Mecca Mosque - Hyderabad, India

This was the old city of Hyderabad I later understood … most people do not venture beyond these streets which was packed with shopping goodies of all shinny kind. Jewellery, sari, of the sorts and pearls …. Hyderabad was apparently famous for making pearls.

Hyderabad - India

End of the day after walking another long two hours back to the hotel and I rested binge on the free TV they had which showed a lot of rubbish channels in English …. 

Day 2 was spent exploring only one place … Golconda Fort … built by the sultan of Mughlai it was a huge fort beautifully preserved and took me 2 hours just to explore part of it. The view from the top gave Hyderabad a different perspective.

The second item of the day Qutb Shahi Tombs could be seen from the top of the fort and it was a beautiful sight in the city of Hyderabad …. I decided seeing it from afar was enough and skipped going there … only one item that day and it was enough for the soul. 

Golconda Fort - Hyderabad

Golconda Fort - Hyderabad



Hyderabad View from top of Golconda Fort

Hyderabad View from top of Golconda Fort - India



Last day was spend wasting away as I had to burn time till I catch the train at 8pm. Morning temple visit to the Birla Mandir temple which was build with pure white marble was lovely. View of the lake was good but alas no cameras nor phones were allowed while going into and around the temple. The local said this was a new thing …. Not an old temple but given time it would be a prominent landmark for a tourist attraction. 

I also manage to find the all elusive Shiva Puran book at the temple souvenir store … so it was worth going to the temple even if the book was overly price at RS 200.

Then a slow walk to the public gardens I visited the State Archaeology museum. Have to say I was amazed how much time I manage to burn in that museum. 

Last stop was Salar Jung Museum … but when I arrived and saw the price tag to enter which was Rs 500 I decided it was not worth going in and headed for KFC for a drink and then after McD for another drink ….. it was time to head to the train station for Mumbai …. AC 2 this time … getting higher and higher up in class …. So excited but it was not much different from AC 3 only with a drawn curtain to give some added privacy.

AC2 Train in India

A.P Tourism – Visakhapatnam, India



Today was a whole day tour which I booked a day before from A.P Tourism which I thought at first was a travel company, but now I think its semi government linked. A.P stands for Andhra Pradesh Tourism which is the state I was in right now in India.

Train Ride from Visang to Araku - India

The tour was a package very local at a price of Rs 875. It was named Rail Cum Road day trip to see multiple sights but ultimately to see the famous Borra Caves. Morning I had to be at the railway station meeting point where they had an office at Gate 2. 6 am reporting time was no joke and I was there on time to only see them gather the rest of the local Indian tourist for the train. Luckily the guide could speak Hindi, Telagu and also English. 

I was the only abroad tourist on that trip of nearly 60 people. 

The train experience was not that great but that was also one of the major highlights of the trip. To take the train from Visang to Araku a 3 hours journey. At Visakhapatnam train station while waiting for the train to depart, packed breakfast was served with a bottle of water. Some sort of rice cake and a fry donut. Scenery was not bad for being in India …. Since good beautiful scenery is really hard to come by in India with all the people and trash and shit lying around. 

Train Ride from Visang to Araku - India

Train Ride from Visang to Araku

Passing By Karakavalasa - India

It look like one of the many many places I have been too …. Cameron highlands for one … but not as pretty …. Then again everything is relative …. I have been in India for nearly a month now …. It’s wonderfully pretty.

They were proud of the many tunnels that the train has to go through to get to Araku. Apparently it is not common for a train to enter tunnels in India …. That was the excitement …. As we enter the tunnels, I could hear screams of excitement, joy and a cheer while we sit in the train looking at pitch black walls. Out of tunnels …. Scenery … then back into tunnels and repeat till Araku.

Araku Train Station - India

Araku is one of the protected places in India. Some sort of Tribal act to protect it from being develop hence it still retains its culture and nature beauty. Off the train after three hours and onto the bus. Bus was pretty good surprisingly and since Araku was about 1000m above sea level the air was much cooler despite the Indian summer …. 

Modern Bus for A.P Tourism - Rail Cum Road Day Trip

First stop was the Botanic Gardens ….. Entrance fee of Rs10 was already covered in the package and a short stroll of 30 minutes and we were off again to the next stop. At the botanic gardens the guide told us about the famous food in Araku ….

Entrance to the Bontanic Gardens - Araku , India

Bontanic Gardens in Araku - India

Bamboo Chicken … it takes 30 minutes to cook thou so no chance to sit down and order one …. But …… you can place your order and they will deliver it at the next attraction. 

How to Cook a Bamboo Chicken .... India

Down the bus and I placed my order of one Bamboo Chicken putting a deposit of Rs100 

The next stop was the one item that was not included in the tour package …. The Tribal Museum. Only Rs 40 for the entrance fee and I paid it going in and getting a very good look at the Tribes information around Andhra Pradesh. Although small it was a good museum all in life size clay model and replica of all their houses, lifestyle, tools and costumes. 

Tribal Musuem

Bamboo Chicken - Araku, India

Walking out the museum I remembered my Bamboo Chicken. 

The stall was just outside the museum and the guys forgot about me …. Or rather they never really took any notes or names …. They just took the deposit money to count how much bamboo chicken they needed to make. The guide was there fortunately and vouch for me that I had given the Rs 100 deposit and I got my Bamboo Chicken. Price was Rs 130 so I paid the balance 30

Price of Bamboo Chicken

Bamboo Chicken was cooked without oil or water by stuffing the marinated chicken into the bamboo then roasting it. Reminded me of scout days when we use to cooked food similar ways as well and somehow it tasted similar but with Indian flavour .. 

Next stop …. Lunch …

Lunch was Indian Veg Thali …. Nothing special there but while I could only attempt half a portion of their serving I saw the crowd gorge themselves round after round. … 

After lunch at the same place we were treated to the second highlight of the day … Tribal Dance … Outside at the open field the local community started playing their music and the grandma’s dance their traditional dance for us tourist to watch. Watching them and the Indian tourist I realized how different they are ….



The tribal community was so much different in physical size, facial, skin tone from the tourist Indians that were there to watch them. I realized India was much much more than I thought it would be ….. 

One distinct marker that I notice on the tribal women was the nose rings …. They had three instead of the usual one … three thumb size rings loop their nose making it look like a bulls horn. 

As the dance progresses the tourist joined in. Hands were locked in a peculiar manner with one hand over a shoulder and the third person will grab the wrist of the first that is over the shoulder and this repeats down the line making them looked like a conjoined centipede from the back.

The dance was more like a coordinated movement of legs while walking. It looked like an evolved form of marching but with no fix pattern. The lead walker would change rhythm, direction and even form circles at time and somehow all the rest behind fall into sync with her all the time. 

Tribal Dance in Araku - India

The tourist that joined the dance never got the footwork down …. Or rather they never even tried …. They more or less thought it was a Bollywood type of dance and started doing their own thing while being drag along the centipede line.

One guy gave the lead a 500 tip while they were still dancing and a cheer was broke out … from my point of view … these tribal ladies knew how to milk the tourist crowd well … begging is much harder …. They were getting tip after tip and nothing less than 500 as the Indian tourist forget them self and the whole field become a mess of tribal dance, Russian leg kicking and Bollywood hand gesture. 

The bus horn blast and we parted to move on to the next destination.

Borra Caves … 

Along the way the driver stopped at the highest peak of Araku area for us to get a vantage viewpoint of its greenery …. 

Viewpoint somewhere in Araku - India

The entrance fee was Rs 60 but it was already included. Borra Caves reminded me of Batu Caves just on a larger grandscale …. It was after all, form out of limestone and has a Shiva Linga naturally formed out of the stalactite and stalagmite formation. The huge cave was a natural beauty in terms of its formations and history …. 

Borra Caves - Visakhapathnam India

Borra Caves - Visakhapathnam India

Borra Caves - Visakhapathnam India

Then it was the boring 3 hours bus journey back to Visakhapatnam …. We break for a chai along the way once and after it was Bollywood on board till the end ….. If only they had subtitles I would not have fallen asleep …

Travelled on : Aug 2015