Allahabad, we wish you were here...instead of us... :(
We arrived at Allahabad a little later than scheduled, no real issue as it was 9ish and the city was just waking up. We got off the train and used the maps we had cached on our phones (thanks Al - this tip has turned out to be very handy!) to navigate our way to the hotel I had booked in advance.
We were both looking forward to a stay in a budget room but one that comes highly recommended in the lonely planet. Ignoring the cycle rickshaws and local touts that are a standard part of arrival in any large India city, we made good progress towards 'Hotel Prayag' it looks pretty good on the outside, must have ahad a new lick of paint in the last year or so to look white-ish in this pollution!
Headed into reception to escape the sysle rickshaw who was still insistent he voulf giive us a lift to the hotel that we were now standing outside!! The guys were really friendly and welcoming and were impressed wityh my efforts at Hindi (I am now fluent by the way, I can say thank you, water, bread, milk, what is your name, etc - I may start my own language school soon...) and they had a guy show us to our room.
Now to be very clear, I dont want what follows to be taken lightly, as we have stayed in some very basic accommodation in India and we have been happy to do so, there are a few minimum requirements but on the whole we are pretty easy going and have stayed in some much cheaper rooms than Hotel Prayag and been very happy to do so....
The room was hideous. Dirty, Grimy, live electrics hanging overhead. Scummy bathroom with mould all over the walls and door and the invasive smell of drain permeating through the door to the room. The toilet stank and had not been flushed, let alone cleaned since the room had last been occupied, in fact - I could well believe that the last occupant may well stil;l be lying around somewhere. The bed had a filthy 1.5" thick matress which I did not even want to put my sleeping bag on. So desicion made, we dropped our bags and went out in search of another hotel. To start with we hunted out the local tourist information office to get some guidance or a recommendation on possible alternative accomodation and things to see and do in the city.
Its probably worth mentioning at this point the allahabad is a bit of an unknown quantitity for us. We added a couple of days here at relatively late notice as we had some addition time to ensure that our visa's lined up with arrival dates in Nepal. Allahabad is between Khajuraho and Varanasi (our planned final stop) and is also the site of the Kumbh Mela, the largest single human gathering on earth.
In late 2013 70 Million people. more than the UK population arrived in this one city for this huge Hindu festival and celebration so there must be something to see here - right?
Our walk to the tourist information office was not promising, 25 minutes of filthy, busy streets similar to some of the other larger cities we have already visited but without any of the redeeming features.
We got into the Tourist info office and the guy was really friendly and helped us find an alternative place (Hotel JMD) a little further out of the city in the 'Civil Lines' area, we agreed to take a look and he even did some negotiating on our behalf unprompted to secure what seems to be a pretty reasonable rate.
He then went through the list of attractions, top of his list - and I am not joking, was a tree that lovers used to commit suicide by throwing themselves off the top if their families did not condone their relationship, not a great start! It turns out there is a rather cool fort, however this has recently been commandeered by the military and turned into a munitions dump. Apparently (and not suprisingley) this makes it difficult to get in to see!!! I WAS a little suprised when he said that he could still try to get us in but it might be difficult (we decided to sit this one out to avoid being imprisoned as spies like those people you see on BBC news 24 sometimes....)
After a little more discussion and without a real plan we headed off to check out Hotel JMD, it did not disappoint and appears our fortunes are changing, nice guy at reception, clean room, hot water and even a nice confy bed - the works, now thats more like it!
Deciding to give lonely planet the benefit of the doubt we walked to one of their recommended places to eat and decided on the way to stop in at the train station en route and change a ticket to a day earlier and have an additional day in Varanasi and draw a line under Allahabad as a lesson well learned!
Surprisingly, this was the first time we had tried to change our train ticket and I was soon to be grateful we had not had to do it more often...each window we went to just ellicilted blank looks and for some reason even with my now extensive vocabulary of food stuffs no-one understood what we were trying to do and just kept saying - next window and pointing along one. It doesnt take to many queues before this becomers a little tiresome!
We must have been looking a little forlorn (probably me more than Ana) as a local lady came over and explained the system to us, it is as follows:
1/ Go to a specific window and queue up to get issued with a form
2/ Complete the form with what you would like to do, train numbers, times etc.
3/ Take this completed form to another window and queue to get a number token issued (a bit like the deli counter at Tesco)
4/ Wait for your number to be called out and then go to another window to discuss what you wanted to do in the first place.
2 problems: The form window guy has just decided to bugger of on a 1 hour lunch break leaving no-one to give out a form
The form, when recieved does not really fit what we want to do - more of a first time booking than a change of an existing reservation, however we filled out what we could and duly waited.
Whilst we were waiting for our turn at the deli counter-cum-train reservation window some very persitent beggers who wouldnt leave us alone started tugging at clothes and asking for money.
Another friendly local come over and firmly moved them on and started chatting to us, he seemed like a nice guy and he was quite engaging and spoke impecible English so we waited with him, a few mninutes into the conversation and he mentioned he was a Colonel in the Indian Army and had visited The Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Gosport as part of his training. He spoke about travelling from Portsmouth to Gosport and Ana asked if he took the Gosport ferry. Apparently not, as an army Colonel, he was flown acxross in an army chinook!
After some more chat with Colonel Sumith, he recommended that for the journey we were trying to change, we might as well catch the bus and not take the train as in the winter the trains are almost always delyaed by fog in the winter (Ah - just like home) whereas the buses run regularly, are cheap and take the about same amount of time. This wasnt the first time this had been suggested so we gave up on the train station and headed out to grab some food at 'El Chicos'.
After what you may be able to tell was not a great day (I know I have hidden it well, but it was not my favourite day) El Chico's was a real western haven so we made the most of it to cheers ourselves up a bit. Downstairs is an in house bakery and coffee shop with cakes and pastries and biscyuits galore all baked onsite. Upstairs is a stylish western style bistro and next door is a formal dining retaurant, something for everyone!
Lamb burger and chips for me and I smiled so much when it arrived - see below!
Ana had Ana had the veggie melt sandwich - giving me food envy believe it or not!
After a great lunch we headed out to the local cinema to watch Dhoom 3, the latest Indian blockbuster action movie - also half price Thursdays so 75p each - bargain.
The film itself was mainly Hindi but had some English thrown in and anyway, it was a cheesy action movie so following the plot was not an issue. It was pretty good fun and a good way to rescue the evening, the film was 3 hours long, including an intermission for you to buy more snacks. It was great to have a real Indian movie experience with all the locals just answering their phones mid film and contantly facebooking each other all over the place - comedy! The movie finished so late that both Ana and I had started to doze off in our seats but I assume the good guy saved the day. Back to the hotel for some well earned rest.
Next day, checked out the buses to Varanasi, 1 pound each for a 3 hour journey and they leave every 15c mins - perfect! Off to El Chicos again for a farewell brunch, stocked up on travelling snacks and goit the bus around 2PM Hurrah. Goodbye Allahabad, some bitter sweet memories... :-|
We arrived at Allahabad a little later than scheduled, no real issue as it was 9ish and the city was just waking up. We got off the train and used the maps we had cached on our phones (thanks Al - this tip has turned out to be very handy!) to navigate our way to the hotel I had booked in advance.
We were both looking forward to a stay in a budget room but one that comes highly recommended in the lonely planet. Ignoring the cycle rickshaws and local touts that are a standard part of arrival in any large India city, we made good progress towards 'Hotel Prayag' it looks pretty good on the outside, must have ahad a new lick of paint in the last year or so to look white-ish in this pollution!
Headed into reception to escape the sysle rickshaw who was still insistent he voulf giive us a lift to the hotel that we were now standing outside!! The guys were really friendly and welcoming and were impressed wityh my efforts at Hindi (I am now fluent by the way, I can say thank you, water, bread, milk, what is your name, etc - I may start my own language school soon...) and they had a guy show us to our room.
Now to be very clear, I dont want what follows to be taken lightly, as we have stayed in some very basic accommodation in India and we have been happy to do so, there are a few minimum requirements but on the whole we are pretty easy going and have stayed in some much cheaper rooms than Hotel Prayag and been very happy to do so....
The room was hideous. Dirty, Grimy, live electrics hanging overhead. Scummy bathroom with mould all over the walls and door and the invasive smell of drain permeating through the door to the room. The toilet stank and had not been flushed, let alone cleaned since the room had last been occupied, in fact - I could well believe that the last occupant may well stil;l be lying around somewhere. The bed had a filthy 1.5" thick matress which I did not even want to put my sleeping bag on. So desicion made, we dropped our bags and went out in search of another hotel. To start with we hunted out the local tourist information office to get some guidance or a recommendation on possible alternative accomodation and things to see and do in the city.
Its probably worth mentioning at this point the allahabad is a bit of an unknown quantitity for us. We added a couple of days here at relatively late notice as we had some addition time to ensure that our visa's lined up with arrival dates in Nepal. Allahabad is between Khajuraho and Varanasi (our planned final stop) and is also the site of the Kumbh Mela, the largest single human gathering on earth.
In late 2013 70 Million people. more than the UK population arrived in this one city for this huge Hindu festival and celebration so there must be something to see here - right?
Our walk to the tourist information office was not promising, 25 minutes of filthy, busy streets similar to some of the other larger cities we have already visited but without any of the redeeming features.
We got into the Tourist info office and the guy was really friendly and helped us find an alternative place (Hotel JMD) a little further out of the city in the 'Civil Lines' area, we agreed to take a look and he even did some negotiating on our behalf unprompted to secure what seems to be a pretty reasonable rate.
He then went through the list of attractions, top of his list - and I am not joking, was a tree that lovers used to commit suicide by throwing themselves off the top if their families did not condone their relationship, not a great start! It turns out there is a rather cool fort, however this has recently been commandeered by the military and turned into a munitions dump. Apparently (and not suprisingley) this makes it difficult to get in to see!!! I WAS a little suprised when he said that he could still try to get us in but it might be difficult (we decided to sit this one out to avoid being imprisoned as spies like those people you see on BBC news 24 sometimes....)
After a little more discussion and without a real plan we headed off to check out Hotel JMD, it did not disappoint and appears our fortunes are changing, nice guy at reception, clean room, hot water and even a nice confy bed - the works, now thats more like it!
Deciding to give lonely planet the benefit of the doubt we walked to one of their recommended places to eat and decided on the way to stop in at the train station en route and change a ticket to a day earlier and have an additional day in Varanasi and draw a line under Allahabad as a lesson well learned!
Surprisingly, this was the first time we had tried to change our train ticket and I was soon to be grateful we had not had to do it more often...each window we went to just ellicilted blank looks and for some reason even with my now extensive vocabulary of food stuffs no-one understood what we were trying to do and just kept saying - next window and pointing along one. It doesnt take to many queues before this becomers a little tiresome!
We must have been looking a little forlorn (probably me more than Ana) as a local lady came over and explained the system to us, it is as follows:
1/ Go to a specific window and queue up to get issued with a form
2/ Complete the form with what you would like to do, train numbers, times etc.
3/ Take this completed form to another window and queue to get a number token issued (a bit like the deli counter at Tesco)
4/ Wait for your number to be called out and then go to another window to discuss what you wanted to do in the first place.
2 problems: The form window guy has just decided to bugger of on a 1 hour lunch break leaving no-one to give out a form
The form, when recieved does not really fit what we want to do - more of a first time booking than a change of an existing reservation, however we filled out what we could and duly waited.
Whilst we were waiting for our turn at the deli counter-cum-train reservation window some very persitent beggers who wouldnt leave us alone started tugging at clothes and asking for money.
Another friendly local come over and firmly moved them on and started chatting to us, he seemed like a nice guy and he was quite engaging and spoke impecible English so we waited with him, a few mninutes into the conversation and he mentioned he was a Colonel in the Indian Army and had visited The Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Gosport as part of his training. He spoke about travelling from Portsmouth to Gosport and Ana asked if he took the Gosport ferry. Apparently not, as an army Colonel, he was flown acxross in an army chinook!
After some more chat with Colonel Sumith, he recommended that for the journey we were trying to change, we might as well catch the bus and not take the train as in the winter the trains are almost always delyaed by fog in the winter (Ah - just like home) whereas the buses run regularly, are cheap and take the about same amount of time. This wasnt the first time this had been suggested so we gave up on the train station and headed out to grab some food at 'El Chicos'.
After what you may be able to tell was not a great day (I know I have hidden it well, but it was not my favourite day) El Chico's was a real western haven so we made the most of it to cheers ourselves up a bit. Downstairs is an in house bakery and coffee shop with cakes and pastries and biscyuits galore all baked onsite. Upstairs is a stylish western style bistro and next door is a formal dining retaurant, something for everyone!
Lamb burger and chips for me and I smiled so much when it arrived - see below!
Ana had Ana had the veggie melt sandwich - giving me food envy believe it or not!
After a great lunch we headed out to the local cinema to watch Dhoom 3, the latest Indian blockbuster action movie - also half price Thursdays so 75p each - bargain.
Spot the wannabie extra!
The film itself was mainly Hindi but had some English thrown in and anyway, it was a cheesy action movie so following the plot was not an issue. It was pretty good fun and a good way to rescue the evening, the film was 3 hours long, including an intermission for you to buy more snacks. It was great to have a real Indian movie experience with all the locals just answering their phones mid film and contantly facebooking each other all over the place - comedy! The movie finished so late that both Ana and I had started to doze off in our seats but I assume the good guy saved the day. Back to the hotel for some well earned rest.
Next day, checked out the buses to Varanasi, 1 pound each for a 3 hour journey and they leave every 15c mins - perfect! Off to El Chicos again for a farewell brunch, stocked up on travelling snacks and goit the bus around 2PM Hurrah. Goodbye Allahabad, some bitter sweet memories... :-|
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