9th Day: Jaipur

It's amazing that in India all the way you can see monkey on the streets, walking freely like cats in Europe, camels which are used instead of horses, wild porks eating trash as homeless dogs and even eagles, flying freely in the air. On the way to Jaipur we were witnesses of all this :D:D:D

Jaipur, Pink city, chaotic, noisy, but very nice, special. Shopping paradise for indian products, where you can bargain without limit. The prices can go from 1,500 rupees to 250, not kidding :-)We spent nice time in Jaipur, bying 17 pashminas for me and jewerly, what didn't make Juli very happy:D

In one of the shops the owner was very fond of Spain so he even invited us to have a dinner in the shop, just like this :-)

8th Day: Agra, Taj Majal

Finally this day came - we were going to see Taj Majal!!! Our driver said that there were 250km from Delhi to Agra, so it meant 4 hours. We arrived to Agra, had lunch and were leading to Taj Mahal.


Cars can't go close to Taj, they have to park 1km before and the only way to get there is to walk or take rickshaw. After bargaining, as usual, we agreed about the price (100 rupees two ways) with a strong young rickshaw boy with a bycicle, which had place for two passengers. His boss told us he will wait for us till we get out of Taj and drive us back to the parking, where our driver was waiting. We agreed. Young boy jumped on his bycicle we sat in and....after 5 meters ride he switched on with an old man, who was meant to be our rickshaw- Oh my God!!! He was so old so it was a suffering just watch him riding the bycicle and carrying us, but luckyly all the way was down the hill, so we arrived fast and noone died :-)

Taj Mahal is just a wonder!This is one of the most impressive things I saw in my life...and Juli agrees with me:-)A long trip to India worth seeing it. First impression is that you are dreaming or it's some kind of hollywood movie, doesn't seam real....

Ok, after spending 5 hours watching Taj Mahal and shooting 100 photos, we got out. Rickshaw men outside were ofering to drive us back for 20 rupees, but we had to find our old man, promise is a promise. He was there, a bit complaining that he was waiting for too long, but still happy that we didn't leave with someone else.

So now it was a tough task - he had to ride us all the way up the hill to the car parking. He got on the bycicle we sat inside and he start riding...slow slow..breathing hard. Juli said: " I have a feeling we are killing him...let's go down". So we got down and walked till the end of the hill, where he got on the bycicle again and ride us for 5 min more to the parking. We dicided to give him 50 rupees more, was a pity to see this old man, riding this bycicle , almost dying....So Juli gave him 150 rupees and said: "these 100 as we agreed for the both ways and 50 are just for you"...and the old man said: "but this is too less money, give me 200!" hahaha bastard!!! Welcome to India!!! :D

7th Day: Delhi sightseeing or cheat&treat

During our trip around golden triangle we learned some more things about India:

1. If you want to buy something, be aware, before you ask about the price it already got higher with at least 50%, just because you are a tourist.
2. There is no limit for bargaining.
3. Everyone expects you to tip them: beggars, waiters, taxi drivers, guides, even going to the toilet, there is someone expecting you there. He will give you a paper tissue and wait for a tip. This is how it works in India.
4. People who beg may be richer than you :-)
5. Not important how much you tip, it's never enough.
6. Don't ever try to drink wine in India. It could be the worst you ever tried in your life.
7. If you are european, Medium spicy is not for you....for you is Mild :-)

First objective we visited in Delhi was the biggest mosque in India, Jami Masjid. The entrance was free, but before going in you should leave your shoes outside. One man was selling some white sleepers at the entrance, which actually you can wear inside...just if you buy them of course. I should admit that the mosque is really nice and worth visiting. Before going inside, I had a photo camera over my shoulder, so he made us pay for photo shooting. Starting with this day, camera was always in the bag, and we succesfully took pics everywhere....for free.

We visited some more spots in Delhi and discovered another funny thing. The entrance fee was different for local visitors and foreigners...and how different! Everywhere locals were supposed to pay aproximately 10 rupees (20 euro cents), while foreigners were paying 250 rupees (4,5 euro), funny ha? :D

6th Day: Delhi Xmas eve

Before going to India we were sure about going around golden triangle. I was suggesting just book hotels and go by ourselves, using public transportation, but Juli said we go the safe way. After searching in internet for travel agencies and prices, reading forums and blogs, we decided to apply to the services of Raju (http://www.rajuindia.com/ ). In spanish forums people were giving good references, so we wrote him and got the following proposal:

Dec 24 – Flight from Mumbai to Delhi and Transfer to Hotel Grand Godwin
Dec 25 – Delhi – Hotel Grand Godwin
Dec 26 – Agra – Hotel Clark Shiraz
Dec 27 – Jaipur – Hotel Bissau Palace
Dec 28 – Jaipur - Hotel Bissau Palace
Dec 29 – Flight to Goa

Services included:
-1. An A/C Car, Fuel, Insurance, Toll Taxes, All State Taxes, Parking and all transport related expenses.
-2. Driver food and lodging.
-3. Car will be with you from your arrival till your departure, 24 hours a day.
-4. Hotel accomodation
-5. Elephant Safari at Jaipur [Amber Fort]
-6. Two flight tickets from Mumbai to Delhi
-7. Two flight tickets from Jaipur to Goa
-8 Excursions to Fatehpur Sikri, Bird Sanctuary, Sikandra, Amber Fort.[City sight seeing as per your itinerary]

So, as a real capitalists, we agreed to take this offer and to have our own car with driver on our disposal and I think it was one of the smartest decissions of this trip :-)

We arrived to Delhi aiport from Mumbai with 2 hours delay (which is also normal for India, as we discovered later). Our driver, Bahwar met us a bit tired of waiting and started to joke from the 1st minute. His favourite expressions were: "Really, not broma?" and "Thank you, gracias, de nada". He knew some spanish words picked up from the spanish tourists and he had a young spirit, talking all the way, all the day, all the time, what was actually fun :-)

This night was Xmas eve and we needed a nice place to spend it. Delhi manager, from Raju Company, gave us an advice to go to a very nice restaurant, a bit expensive as he said, but OK for European people. In the restaurant one dish costed 35 euro, so we asked Bahwar to take us to some nice place with local food, what he actually did and we spent a pretty nice evening.

4th/5th day: Arriving to Gujarat - The Wedding

Before leaving Mumbai, we asked our driver how far is the ressort where the wedding had to take place. He told us:"180 km", and added "3,5 - 4 hours of driving"...yeah, this is India.


Another typical thing you see on the road in India, is that evrybody is blowing their car horns like crazy. We discovered that actually this is the way to prevent the driver in front of you that you are coming and not to do smth stupid. The trucks have on the back the message "Blow horn please", which means, please tell me you are there and I will let you pass. Funny huh? :-)

We arrived to Silvassa, with Amit, our indian friend who is living in Barcelona now and two more friends of him. It was a ressort rented for the guests, a very nice place with guest houses, swimming pool, restaurant and open space for the outdoors reception. In this huge place 600 people were expected for the wedding. The wedding was planned to last two days: 21-22 nd of Dec.

We were kind of starving when we arrived, so, after leaving our stuff in the rooms, we found a room where the lunch was served. First Juli's words in the restaurant were: "OK, so finally, I can have a beer and eat a big plate of meat!", on what our friend replied - "Sorry, this is a Vegetarian wedding with no alcohol"....you should have seen Juli's face haha

Actually Gujarad is a dry state, what means alcohol is prohibited by law. Of course people drink, but only in their houses. Besides that, parents of the groom were ortodox (meaning conservative hinduists), convinced vegetarians. Well, Juli had to relax for 3 days without meat, although alcohol was found in some hidden rooms, where precacious guests kept bottles of alcohol brought from home :-)

These first days we discovered that in India even tea can be spicy. Everything was so hot so after 2nd bite we actually didn't care what we are eating:-D Juli was suffering fishing pieces of cheese and potatos in the food, since he can't eat any other vegetables and I was pretty happy with the food, but still , it was soooo spicyyyy. You can see it on the pic haha

The ceremony of the wedding was really colourful and beautiful. Sauil and Arpita, groom and bride, were dressed in golden red clothes, surrounded by a lot of people doing some indian traditional rituals. We were watching and ejoying this magic scene...feeling like in a Bollywood movie:-)

We dressed in the indian traditional clothes (our friend Aparna helped us to buy everything in Mumbai a night before), we ate indian food, saw national dances and traditions, met great people and had a really good time.

On the 23rd we were back in Mumbai and the next day we flew to Delhi, starting our trip in the golden triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur).

3rd day: Chabolandia/on the way to Gujarat

What shocks you on the first sight and never lets you go after in India is the extreme poverty.

When our plane was landing in Mumbai's international airport, from the window we could see a huge area of houses which we call "chabolas" in Spanish. This is kind of small barracks/shacks, made from different kind of construction boards, plastic or wood, practically remainings from the construction. Homeless people live in such houses, gipsies in Romania live in such houses...and now I have a feeling that at least 20% of population of India lives in such houses. People living without any civilized conditions, families with children, you would see "chabolas" everywhere, every city, every village, even in the central parts of Mumbai & Delhi. You can see big rats on the street, a lot of garbage, food remainings, the streets are so dirty that you imediately get a feeling you need some more covered shoes (outside 35C though). Looks really awful!

2nd day: Mumbai, paradise for driving

In the plane, steward told us: "There are many many people in India, Barcelona is empty if you compare it to Mumbai :)". Some hours after, stuck in a traffic jam, we thought how right he was. If some of you some day had a nightmare about traffic, dreaming about all kind of cars driving in all kind of directions, no traffic lights, no signs, no rules, blowing horn like crazy, not checking their rearview mirrors and not indicating when they are turning right or left - well this is a real picture of Mubmai's traffic. Some days later, when we were in a car on the highway from Delhi to Agra, we saw a truck going in oposite direction. Our driver Bahwar said then: " Don't be so surprized, this is India".

If you are brave enough you could use as a public transportation a bus or subway, but the most loved and used and the fasted way to get where you want is without any doubt a moto-rickshaw. It has place for 3 people on the back, but we saw it to carry up to 15...yeah :-)

If you are in Mumbai and you need to cross a street, be prepare for an extreme sport. Don't expect to find a traffic light or zebra to cross, no such things. Traffic is crazy, and you actually have kind of throw yourself forward and make the cars stop and let you pass....adrenaline is guaranteed :-)

1st day: Spanish scandal in Heathrow airport

Our flight was Barcelona-London Heathrow (Iberia airlines); London Heathrow-Mumbai (Air India). In Heathrow we had to change terminal, check in with Air India and fly to Mumbai, for all this trouble we had 2 hours according to the flight schedule. The problem was that Iberia had a delay and we arrived in Heathrow 40 min later. After changing the terminal we arrived to Air India check in desk 1 hour before our flight...but the boarding alredy has started. The nice chinese-english girl told us that she is awfully sorry but she can't check us in because the gate is closed. Her version was that we should go back to the other terminal, speak to Iberia, wich was responsible for the delay. At this moment we realized that we have a great opportunity to spend a night in Heathrow and no guarantee at all to arrive in Mumbai the other day...so we start to shout and argue, the only thing to do in the situation like that! I guess Juli looked pretty convincing to her as she started to call Air India telling them that two crazy passengers from Spain are freaking her out. At the end, after 15 min of shouting she told us: "I have two good news for you. First is that I am checking you in for this flight and the second is that you are going in Business Class". Yu-hu!!!!! 8 hours of drinking beers, eating and watching personal TV:-) It was a really nice flight :-)

"Chabolandia" or How we discovered the Incredible India

We travel so much so we decided to share our experience with you. We could write it in Spanish, Russian, Romanian, English...to share with friends we have all over the world, but finally we chose English, to have one version for everybody :-)

The reason we decided to start our blog is actually that we traveled out of Europe for the first time. The country we chose was India. We were invited to attend a wedding in Gujarat (our friend Amit was responsible for this, one of his best friends was getting married), and besides that I (Elena) wanted to see Taj Mahal so much, so that was a perfect reason to make this trip come true.