Potholes, camels and Octopussy sum up the past few days that I’ve spent in India.
After leaving Mumbai, I spent three days in the city of Aurangabad (in Maharashtra state) visiting some historic sites including some thousand year old human-made caves, many of which were used as Buddhist monastries.
From Aurangabad, I had to take a 15 hour bus ride to the city of Ahmedabad (capital of Gujarat state) and based on my informal survey of Indian roads, I feel confident in saying that Maharashtra has the worst roads. I believe that if I had a rupee for every pothole we hit, I’d be a millionaire.
Upon arriving Ahmedabad, I immediately hopped on a bus for Udaipur, a historic royal city in Rajasthan. During the ride, we passed a lot of people (probably farmers) riding camel drawn carts (opposed to the multitude of ox drawn carts I saw in Maharashtra). It was pretty neat. Gujarat and Rajasthan are primarily desert states.
Last night, I saw the James Bond film, Octopussy, which was partially set in Udaipur. The movie was ridiculous and I don’t know whether it would be considered more offensive for its portrayal of women, Indians or Germans.
December 8, 2009 at 6:10 pm |
Stop taking the bus…travel via camel and avoid the potholes. mlw