Oz in India

[TotallyOz]

Sorry, I have not been around for a bit. I have been in India with my beloved Thai boyfriend having a honeymoon. We are working mostly though the week but are touring a lot on the weekends. Last week was Mumbai and this week was Delhi and the Taj Mahal. I have great stories and some great reviews for hotels in a week or two when things slow down here. I just wanted to let you know I am reading but not posting much.

Cheers from India!

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

The Taj Mahal standing tall and proud.. Have you seen/taken pictures of any other "national monuments" standing tall and proud as well?

[TotallyOz]

I haven't been with anyone other than the BF but we have seen lots of locals that were hot. At the Taj, we saw several gay groups. Obvious to us anyway.

And, at our hotel there were many gay couples. At dinner one night it was all filled with gay partners.

[TotallyOz]

Mumbai is a great city. The Thai boyfriend and I had time for a visit recently and really enjoyed ourselves. We took a tour of the city and we also hired a private guide to give us a tour of the slums that Slumdog Millionaire was filmed in. We saw everything we could from the Gateway to India to the Billion Dollar House to the Hanging Gardens to the local spice market. The city is crazy. The traffic is nuts. I have never seen anything like this in my life. It was dangerous only in traffic. I felt very comfortable everywhere we went. I had zero issues with safety and don't think anyone would worry there.

I loved the look of the old taxis and the bicycle taxis as well as all the Tuk Tuk's in the city.

I really enjoyed the Spice Market. We bought some great spice for the BF's family. The old man that sold it to us was so much fun as he wanted us to smell everything.

I have attached a few photos from Mumbai. More to come from other cities. I hope you enjoy!

[Guest FourAces]

WOW love the photos OZ. Its such a different world than here in the states. Its like controlled chaos ...

[lookin]

Great pictures! Takes me back, although when I was there forty-some years ago, there weren't any skyscrapers.

If you like mangoes, be sure and try some. The best in the world. Cut a ripe one around the circumference, twist apart, and eat with a spoon. Yum!

And clothes! You should be able to get a shirt custom-made in a day or two, and at a price close to store-bought.

One thing I recall, and I wonder if you and your beloved notice it: You can be walking along the most crowded street or in the bazaar, and you'll never have anyone touch or even brush against you. A remnant of the caste system.

I really envy you your time there. What cities are you going to next? I'm sure Westerners aren't much of a rarity in the cities but, if you get into the boondocks, don't be surprised if a stranger invites you home for dinner and gives you the best meal of your life.

आनन्द!

PS: A few weeks ago, there was a TV program that showed Indian pole wrestling. It's not what you think. It's a form of gymnastics using only a pole, and popular among twenty-somethings. It's done on the street or in a park, so you won't have to buy tickets. Just ask around until you find places where it's practiced. You'll see some incredible bodies and, from what I saw, the boys love to show off.

[eeyore]

Great photos! I feel like I'm right there with you!

[TotallyOz]

Thanks so much guys. We are also going to Delhi, Agra, Pune and Goa on this trip.

I have looked for the pole dancers but I have not found them yet. I have been told they are mostly up north. We are spending so much time down south, I am not sure we will see them. But, I hope to.

For Mumbai, we stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel on Marine Drive.

The Intercontinental Hotel in Mumbai is a very nice small hotel. The rooms are clean with a nice view of the ocean. The area is safe to walk around and enjoyable to walk on the sidewalk near the water.

The food in the hotel is average to sub average. It was just nothing special and did not do the Intercontinental Hotel brand justice.

I did have a corner room but the windows were filthy and it was hard to see out and taking photos outside were useless. Perhaps it is hard in Mumbai to keep clean windows but more effort should be made.

The noise from the blowing of horns on the street kept us from sleeping well every night. I realize the hotel can’t control the noise but the windows should have been thicker to keep out the noise.

I am a Platinum Member of the hotel and I thought I booked a room with free Internet but on check out, I had a high charge for the Internet. If I had known this, I would have booked a Marriott Hotel as they do give Platinum Members Free Internet. The Internet was slow and the speed was less than OK the majority of my stay.

The staff was friendly and professional. All in all, this is a good 2-3 star hotel but with so many other options, I wish I had chosen better for my stay in Mumbai. Price wise, we spent average of 400 USD for each night of stay. I guess this is the reason I was disappointed. For that rate, we should have had a fabulous experience.

[Guest EXPAT]

loved the pictures, thanks for sharing.

[Guest CharliePS]

Thanks for the photos, Oz. The last time I was in Mumbai was 20 years ago, but it doesn't look any different than I remember. My experience was somewhat different from Lookin's: on crowded streets I felt that everyone was touching me, which made me almost paranoid, since in New York when people touch you on the street, you immediately check for your wallet. I was more comfortable in the countryside or less crowded cities than Mumbai, though being pawed by a beggar, especially a leper, is not a pleasant experience anywhere.

I usually found that even in the best hotels in India, I was still aware that I was in the Third World. I can't remember all the places I stayed in Mumbai, but even the Taj Intercontinental at the Gateway (the one that was attacked by the terrorists) was somewhat disappointing. In Ooty, we stayed at what was once a grand palace, but it was so dilapidated that we left after one night (everything in the dining room was so filthy we couldn't eat there). One time at the Sheraton in Agra I was too sick to go anywhere, so they gave us a room with a view of the Taj Mahal, where I could lie in bed and look at it; if you get a chance, try to see it on a moonlit night, when the inside is closed to tourists (I had to climb a wall to get a good view, before we were chased away by security guards).

I have friends with a winter home in Goa, but by now they have left for their homes in New York and London for the summer. I hope the weather isn't too hot yet for you.

[TotallyOz]

Charlie, I am on my way to Goa and very excited!

As for the heat, I am from the south and my family lives in Texas and I am use to over 100 degrees.

BUT, it is FUCKING hot here! HOLY SHIT. I thought I new hot. I didn't.

[TotallyOz]

The Oberoi Amarvilas Hotel in Agra, India

This was one of the best hotel experiences I have had. The hotel is beautiful and the moment you step out of your car onto the hotel grounds, you know you are in for a treat. The indulgence starts the moment you set foot on the property.

We were greeted by the front desk staff and sat in a nice waiting room as we were brought some drinks and cold clothes. The General Manager then came over to greet us and welcome us to his hotel and gave us his card and said to not hesitate to call him if we needed anything.

The room was nice and very comfortable but the view was fabulous. We had a balcony suite and the view from our room was what dreams are made of. We were in awe of the beautiful gardens and grounds. It was simply amazing to see. The view from the hotel is unlike any other you would ever see. We were adjacent to the Taj Mahal property. Simply Stunning!

We had several meals at the hotel and they were all fabulous. The food was delicious and we both enjoyed everything we ate. The waiters were top notch and on top of everything we needed or wanted.

The hotel staff was just as attentive and we had our own butler who waiting on us and took great care of the things we wanted. They have a golf cart that will take you to the Taj entrance at sunrise and we were up bright and early and had an amazing day. It has been a dream of mine for 45 years to see this amazing place and staying at this hotel was the perfect choice.

At checkout, the hotel General Manager again came to say goodbye and asked about our stay to be sure we had a great time.

A true first class experience if I ever had one!

I could not recommend a hotel more highly.

http://www.oberoihotels.com/oberoi_amarvilas/index.asp

[TotallyOz]

This is a little video we took at the Taj Mahal with our IPad3. I never knew how much I would love taking videos!

[Guest hitoallusa]

I want my future husband to build something better than Taji Mahal for me. Anyone up for the challenge lol... Oz thank you for sharing your trip and photos are nice...

[TotallyOz]

I want my future husband to build something better than Taji Mahal for me.

OK. I will. What were you thinking of dear?

[Guest hitoallusa]

Oh my Oz when can I move in? Lol.. You need to clear out one room just for my shoes.. As long as I have my true love I would be happy... No need for Taj Mahal... Except I would like to have a chapel built of diamond just for our wedding and also we need to break the record for the longest wedding dress. Can you manage it?

Me: hello? Are you there? Hello!!

Oz: (no signal) the number you've dialed is no longer in service.

[TotallyOz]

Me: hello? Are you there? Hello!!

[lookin]

Oh my Oz when can I move in?

Well, you know, Hi, despite the lovely grounds and beautiful exterior, the Taj Mahal is, after all, a mausoleum, a tomb for the emperor's third wife. Not so much as a formal dining room, let alone a shoe closet.

The Shah's beloved didn't settle in until after she'd been dead for better than twenty years.

So I guess the next move is up to you.

[AdamSmith]

Incredible.

Even though this all somehow puts me in mind of Umberto Eco's priceless description of California's Madonna Inn, in his book Travels in Hyperreality...

The poor words with which natural human speech is provided cannot suffice to describe the Madonna Inn. To convey its external appearance, divided into a series of constructions, which you reach by way of a filling station carved from Dolomitic rock, or through the restaurant, the bar, and the cafeteria, we can only venture some analogies. Let’s say that Albert Speer, while leafing through a book on Gaudi, swallowed an overgenerous dose of LSD and began to build a nuptial catacomb for Liza Minnelli. But that doesn’t give you an idea. Let’s say Arcimboldi builds the Sagrada Familia for Dolly Parton. Or: Carmen Miranda designs a Tiffany locale for the Jolly Hotel chain. Or D’Annunzio’s Vittoriale imagined by Bob Cratchit, Calvino’s Invisible Cities described by Judith Krantz and executed by Leonor Fini for the plush-doll industry, Chopin’s Sonata in B flat minor sung by Perry Como in an arrangement by Liberace and accompanied by the Marine Band. No, that still isn’t right. Let’s try telling about the rest rooms. They are an immense underground cavern, something like Altamira and Luray, with Byzantine columns supporting plaster baroque cherubs. The basins are big imitation-mother-of-pearl shells, the urinal is a fireplace carved from the rock, but when the jet of urine (sorry, but I have to explain) touches the bottom, water comes down from the wall of the hood, in a flushing cascade something like the Caves of the Planet Mongo. And on the ground floor, in keeping with the air of Tyrolean chalet and Renaissance castle, a cascade of chandeliers in the form of baskets of flowers, billows of mistletoe surmounted by opalescent bubbles, violet-suffused light among which Victorian dolls swing, while the walls are punctuated by art-nouveau windows with the colors of Chartres and hung with Regency tapestries whose pictures resemble the garish color supplements of the Twenties. The circular sofas are red and gold, the tables gold and glass, and all this amid inventions that turn the whole into a multicolor Jell-O, a box of candied fruit, a Sicilian ice, a land for Hansel and Gretel. Then there are the bedrooms, about two hundred of them, each with a different theme: for a reasonable price (which includes an enormous bed King or Oueen size if you are on your honeymoon) you can have the Prehistoric Room, all cavern and stalactites, the Safari Room (zebra walls and bed shaped like a Bantu idol), the Kona Rock Room (Hawaiian), the California Poppy, the Old-Fashioned Honeymoon, the Irish Hills, the William Tell, the Tall and Short, for mates of different lengths, with the bed in an irregular polygon form, the Imperial Family, the Old Mill.

The Madonna Inn is the poor man’s Hearst Castle; it has no artistic or philological pretensions, it appeals to the savage taste for the amazing, the overstuffed, and the absolutely sumptuous at low price. It says to its visitors: “You too can have the incredible, just like a millionaire.”

Well, maybe not quite.

http://www.madonnainn.com/

[Guest FourAces]

OZ did you take a wrong turn? Hope you are doing well.

[TotallyOz]

Thanks guys. Sorry, have been traveling a bit and it was a HELL of a trip! LOL more stories to come on that later.

The Taj was really incredible. It was a dream come true. We got to the Taj at sunrise and we got to see some of the most beautiful scenes imaginable. We hired a private guide for the day and I was glad we did. He was full of knowledge and history and I am so happy we had him to help us with the day. He was part of the price we paid for our car from Delhi to Agra and then back the next day and then 2 days in Delhi. The entire cost was 9,000 Rupees. That is less than 180 UDS for 4 days and 2 full tours. We got this cost because my friends who are Indian booked the service. If we had done it, it would have been much more expensive.

Agra is an odd city. It is full of beauty from the ancient world and there were monkeys in the streets and the cows roamed freely. It was also like other Indian cities in that the traffic was a nightmare. It took a while to get around in the "inner city."

The city has a few major attractions and the one for this post is the Taj Mahal. I hope you enjoy these photos. I'll post about the Agra Fort tomorrow.

[Lucky]

Many years ago in Bangkok I wanted to go on the River Kwai tour, but the bus left so damn early. My friend and I hired a car, driver, and guide for a full day tour. The total cost was $60. I think in India I would have to have a guide to help me get around.

As it is, your trip is the closest I am going to get, so thanks for sharing.

[Guest CharliePS]

Many years ago in Bangkok I wanted to go on the River Kwai tour, but the bus left so damn early. My friend and I hired a car, driver, and guide for a full day tour. The total cost was $60. I think in India I would have to have a guide to help me get around.

As it is, your trip is the closest I am going to get, so thanks for sharing.

The first time we visited India, we spent too much time hanging around airports, so the second and third times, we had a car and driver for several days. Although we paid him for a place to stay each night, he saved the money by sleeping in his car. The first time he drove us all the way from Goa to Cochin, with many stops along the way. The next trip he drove us from Kovalam to Calcutta. It was a wonderful way to see the countryside.