North trip Feb 2009 Part 2

Wednesday 22-2-2009
Ahmedabad-at Eastern Gujarat
A Muslim city with terrifying traffic and horrible problems-solving skills

The train from Madgoan to Ahmedabad is the second longest journey throughout my trip--18hours. We thought it will be a dreadful journey in the train; you can either sit or lie down. If you want to lie down, you have to make sure that your bed is at the upper most one as the other lower 2 beds will be used as seats instead of bed. My plan for this 18 hours train is sleep! Sleep to the most so that I have energy to travel around! So, the 18 hours train becomes nothing for me as I was able to take a longer nap and sleeps earlier.

‘Chai-a-Chai’~
‘Coffee-take-coffee’~
‘biscuit-chips-biscuits’~
‘pani~ pani’
Oh gosh…its too noisy!!!
Who the hell keeps making noise around me!??!

WHO?!

It’s the pantry workers. There are pantry coach with workers keep walking around the train and sell food. Bread, set lunch and set dinner, pani=water, chai=tea, coffee, cutlet, snacks and etc. Someone told us before that the food in train is not really clean and guaranteed free of diarrhea risk. Therefore, we didn’t buy anything but just eat the bread we bought in Infanteria. Now, I realized how precious is my bah gua. Mummy asked jiejie to bring 1kg bah gua for me, forgetting that it cannot last more than 2 weeks! So, I brought it together with the ‘peanut cookies’ to multi-purpose lab and share with my batch mates after exam. We couldn’t finish the bahgua and I was hesitating to bring it to trip. Luckily I brought. It becomes the best food ever again as there is no other choice in the train already! ‘May, 明天找好吃的啊！’ CC said. Haha~ he was the one who said that we should save money, spend less for food, but after having bread only for one day, the desire for food returns!J

We played ‘OHNO’ (fake UNO in India); jiejie keeps asking se to tell ghost stories happening in Chung Ling; Wc and CC tell ghost stories in their respective schools as well. How come their schools have so many ghost stories one? I heard Chung Hwa has too, but I don’t think it’s a ’powerful’ ghost? Maybe, I’m not sure! I never realized that CC was school prefect last time, some more is head of a group of prefect in a particular building who is not even under control of head prefect. And, he seems very happy for our unbelievable look!
A satisfying long sleep.

We do not need to rush out from the train as its ‘Ahmedabad Junction’ where the train will stop for 30 minutes--more than enough time to jump out from the train isn’t it?

Stepping out from the train, I can see many red-colored shirt people is helping the passengers to carry their luggage. ‘Kuli’ is their occupation. Its amazing to find how they carry the bags. For example, they can carry 2 on their heads, another 2 bags on each side of hand, meaning they can at least carry 5 bags! At least! Trust me, no matter how heavy or how many luggage you have, they seem can manage it without dropping it halfway. (So far, I don‘t see any luggage dropped.) ‘We have not take photos with our backpack’ wc kept reminding us to take that since we were able to take our backpack photos in Madgoan station only. So, plenty of time was spent for PHOTOS

Once we go out from the station, 4 of us were shocked to see different color of auto. Its green and yellow instead of black and yellow. Maybe it’s a Muslim city, that’s why the auto color changes? Honestly, the Station gave me a very good perception about Ahmedabad; if it has such big and moderate clean railway station with fresh air, the city should be very up to standard and comfortable too! But, everything changes once I leave the station. The good images are seen only in the station. The auto men kept yelling to each other; many people were following us, trying to get us to his own auto… we were totally surrounded by them and bombarded by the noises. Cool down~ we need to look for prepaid auto stand. Immediately, wc and cc asked se to look for it. Surprisingly, there is NO prepaid auto stand. (Usually, in a big city, prepaid auto stand is seen everywhere!) So, time to bargain. 100?80? No? 50? How much? You tell me how much? 30! Nonono! Then goodbye! CC and SE are really expert in bargain! The people seems so fierce and they are just acting like gangsters; very chiun and just try to look down at you. Finally, we got the price we want and the automan has to fight with other automan before he can get us into his auto! God……

Since jiejie said that she is not comfortable sitting at the site, so we just let her sit at the center. It was about 7 in the morning, nothing on the road. We hardly see people walk by; all the shops are closed; not many vehicles on the road too. The automan drive okay at the beginning but not after jiejie shows some worry sound and mix some ‘wah!’, ‘aiyo’, ‘auto’ in her conversation with us. He speeds and show off all the way, risks our lives, driving as the auto is a autobus in transformer! How do we know? Because he asked us how was his driving skill when we reach the hotel and kept telling my sister ‘no problem! Very safe!’ Well, luckily we were in the morning, so I don’t really feel dangerous as there are many automen like to do this in Manipal as well.

‘快点走！’
Without realizing what’s happening, we just follow what se said and enter a building. I have no idea whether the automen are talking, joking or quarrelling with each other until I saw one strangulate another neck. (掐着脖子！) Immediately, I pushed jiejie and asked wc to enter the lift and I followed them. No one says anything until we reach the Hotel Sahil reception. Then, WC starts explaining the incidence to us : the A automan was asking us for auto since we stepped out from the station; B came later and keep asking us to go with a cheaper price than A. So, of course we took B’s auto. Then, A is very angry because B gives a lower price and some more he met us first. Therefore, they were fighting with each other from station till hotel, even when driving the auto. ‘哇，简直就像在拍电影这样！A 跳上 B 的auto 然后一直在那边打来打去~几危险啊！’ this is what wc told us and while listening, we can still hear their shouting sound!

After awhile, both of them together with my auto man came to the reception-- they want to fetch us out for sight seeing. HA! We are not stupid enough to take their autos again. And, the manager seems very seng muk too! He kept asking them to keep quiet and ask the boy and guard to bring us to our rooms.
No matter how bad the room is, we have to take it since we had already booked it. But, I never expect it to be so lousy: the lock of the door is broken, the floor is not clean, the beds are big but we just want to leave our luggage and go to toilet. We are not going to stay overnight; we are here just because that we need to change to another train to Udaipur and perhaps buy some winter clothing and chain lock. Sadly, the toilet seems dirtier than in the train one. The worst part is that the window is widely open and outside the window, there is a long pipe starting from the ground floor. Meaning, if there is a thief wants to enter our room, he can do it using the pipe without any difficulties because the window cannot be closed! Stupid, the room is just paid for fun. We have to bring all the luggage to guys room since their room is better.
After settling our luggage, is time for breakfast. Honestly, I had problem in understanding the timing. Maybe they have to adjust for their praying time? The timings are all very weird and there is only one restaurant--Green house, which serves breakfast but I don’t feel the description in LP is good. I picked another restaurant nearby assuming it serves food for the whole day since no timing is stated in the LP. But, I was wrong--the restaurant serves only lunch and dinner. The workers suggested us to go to Green House and they said that is the only restaurant serving breakfast!? People in Ahmedabad don’t take breakfast? Or they have too much night life, so they don’t wake up early?

At the moment we reach green house, I understand why the restaurant serves breakfast-- it is under House of MG, a top end hotel which many Whites and businessmen stay. How can those people skip breakfast? Because of it’s the only restaurant serving breakfast, we need to pay more for it. 80 something for a upma and dosa when we pay 8rupees in manipal?!! Errr….I don’t like this! Luckily, the taste is normal, in fact, satisfied for me~


Since the toilet in our hotel is not usable, why not we use the clean one there? And at that time, I realized that I have constipation--straining in the toilet for 20 minutes but no products at all! Well, at the moment, constipation is still better than diarrhea for us. J

After that, we walked along the road to another site where we can get all the things we need and visit some places. That was around 10 to 11 am. And surprisingly, the shops are not all opened yet! But many stalls and street food are available already (its just like the pasar pagi~) As people start working, the intensity of shouting sound, honking and quarreling sound increase too; the roads are jam and the exhaust add on the warmth. The first place we wanted to go is Teen Darwaja, which is a gateway into royal square. This is so funny! WC and I never know that ‘teen’ = three; Darwaja = gate/door. We didn’t know the gate we are pointing is actually the ‘place’ we are looking for, until we entered a market, trying to ask someone for directory and SE heard the name of the ‘place’. Haiz…maybe we should learn a little bit of Hindi? Especially me, having local Indian roommate and friends. As we walk further down, we reach Jama Masjid. The name is actually quite confusing- there are Jami, Jama in other states like Agra and Delhi as well and either one of them is going to be the oldest or the largest masjid in India. It is another problem for us to look for the entrance of masjid. The entrance is so small and its just like a normal masjid’s entrance. Besides that, there is no other visitor except us. Once we entered, the first thought that came to my mind is: wide and empty space; how come nobody one; is this the correct masjid; ah, squirrel!! Yes, there are many squirrel running on the floor, climbing up the pillar, just like the monkey in botanical garden--not afraid on human beings!

‘Harlo! Come here please~’
He, stopped us from looking at the squirrel, draw back our attention to the masjid; he is the only person in the masjid besides us. Well, he looked like a tour guide instead of the people in charge in the masjid. Immediately, we rejected him in any ways so that he will not follow us, explain this and that to us and ask for money at the end. Everyone has tried, but everyone is failed to do so. Never mind, let it be. We will 扮猪吃老虎if he asks us to pay later. Nothing much has explained; he just told us that which side is for man and for lady;

where is the head sits; what is the masjid made of (stone of course, its written clearly there :p and that‘s why CC kept saying that Muslim are people who 拜墙壁！)~ After taking some photos, when he has nothing to talk to us anymore, he starts asking where are we come from? I am collecting different countries money, do you have Malaysian money? I just want to keep it, one is enough! Oh, stupid~ even we have ringgit with us, its RM100! How to give???? Hehe… Luckily, WC remembered that she has some one ringgit golden coins in her bag! So, this useless coin is given to him as a souvenir lah!J

After coming out from the masjid, we went to the shops nearby to buy winter clothing. The 2 guys are buying but the 3 girls get free hand bag from the boss. Weird huh? And jiejie finally get 2 handmade ‘zhu zhu’ bags after buying ’zhu zhu’ boxes in Goa. Next, we went to Hotel ZK to have lunch. It didn’t disappoint us by means of AC(its very hot outside), taste and price! We ordered 2 full chicken tandoori and some veg dishes. All are delicious and that is for 3 to 4 hundred only. After that, we went to Bhadra Fort. We saw something looked like fort on the way to Hotel ZK just now. But, we were unable to find the entrance of the fort though we are in correct direction and correct position. People keep pointing here and there, but none of it looked like the entrance. Moreover, there is another pasar outside the fort, pasar is at the roadside, so you can just imagine that the auto, car and bike seem to crush pedestrian and stalls at anytime at any point. After spending so much time looking for the entrance, we realized that this is an abandoned fort-- no one borders, no one maintain, no one visit, no one respect! Its just another place which can become a market. Also, walking up to the top most part of the fort is another wrong decision. We were exactly under the sun at 2pm! 2 people were following us- a woman and a child who understand English and was actually translate the Hindi from the lady to English for us.

If someone wants to rob us by the time we leave the fort, I can guarantee that he will definitely success! I can tell you what are the consequences of being under sun for sometimes now--SEVERE headache, PROFUSE sweating… In short, you are going to faint!! Interested to go to other places? Nope~ We stopped at one restaurant for ice-cream on the way back to hotel. This is the hotel suggested by SE as he saw it from his room. In fact, all of us thought it will be good but… First, the workers in such a big restaurant don’t want to on the AC for us; second, you can feel the dust on the table; third, there is nothing! Only few flavor of ice-cream is available! So, what’s the purpose of them making the restaurant so beautiful but serves nothing? I do better take Hangyo! 名副其实的金玉其外，败絮其中！

By the time I reach the hotel, im already ‘wan toh toh’. Feel like sleeping but everyone is busy packing their bags and put the new chain locks, so do I. Suddenly, SE told us that the Uni results are out. He called to his mentor and confirmed his results. 3 of us were paying attention when he was calling and suddenly, he asked whether he has distinction or not. Zha dao! Kept telling people he don’t want to take it but actually he wants it so much. Even CC was laughing at him too. :p The result is all clear pass from 1 to 120 something except one person and then there are some failure after that. The exception is my ex-room mate. Shocked? Yup~ a bit. Then, CC and I decided to call our mentor too. We know she never pay attention on anything but at least she should know that the results are out since she is our mentor! Eventually, I was the one who told her that the results are out! Very very very sweat!!!!

Finally, I lied down and slept halfway chatting with them. By the time I wake up, all of them are very exciting looking at the crows and pigeons--they are all resting on the roof, wall and wires. Amazing view!

When is almost time for dinner, we take all our luggage and go to Moti Mahal which is near to railway station. Another auto journey across the hustle and bustle roads. Now, its worse than in the morning as the vehicles are more, people are more, dark suroundings and people seems more fierce! A 10 to 15 minutes journey, we saw about 5 ‘accidents’ --after the auto crush the bicycle, the only thing he needs to do is shout (something like rude words) then ask the fellow to leave. No one complains about accident; everyone is just crushing with each other; speeding; show off ; and staring violently whenever they can do so! Well, at the time, not only jiejie is worrying about our safety, CC and I feel its scary too. But, sadly, there is nothing we can do except praying to GOD or be confident to the auto man’s skills.

It took us a tough time to reach the restaurant but none of us is very hungry as such. We ordered 3 dishes and about 5 cups of extra ice-cream and beverages just because we need to stay at the restaurant till 10 something then go to the railway station for 11pm train. The next thing I do after settling down in the train is again : SLEEP! It was such a relief to leave the city. For heaven sake, even for us who had been staying in India for 2 years, were terrified by the way the people behaves and they drive. We are in danger and risking our lives if we stayed longer!
Ps: we have not bath for 2 days already!!!!

Coming up next: Udaipur...horse riding?! yup yup...