Grand Overland Voyage (2005-2009)

Jodhpur – Omelette War

November 14, 2005 Gopal Hotel, 150 Rs luxurious double-bed room After being down for quite a while, the server of my blog is working again today, so I can update the story again. Spent the last 8 days in Pushkar, and just arrived yesterday in Jodhpur. Very lucky that we could find a very spaceful luxurious room with the price that suits our budget. Jodhpur, the blue city, seems quite affected by tourism competition among hotels and restaurants. Every single unit related directly to tourim business, has at least a dozen of guest books to prove how the guests, foreigners, tourists, etc feel about their service. In every guesthouse we visited, the owner will be busily showing the books to us. Not only hotels, but even omellete stalls have guest books!!! Under the gate of clock tower, there are two omelette stalls. One has big board written in big colourful letters: “Recommended by Lonely Planet”, and the other is not. The former, with half a dozen Western guests enjoying the omellete there, seemed had a better business after the recommendation of that very traveller bible. But for us, who prefer to avoid everything listed by LP, the second one was [...]

November 14, 2005 // 3 Comments

Jaipur – It’s A Small World

November 3, 2004 Hotel Abinandhan, 100 Rs It has been about a week I am travelling with a Malaysian female journalist, Lam Li. I met her a month ago in Kathmandu, and we had been together for quite a while. Since her arrival in New Delhi, she had been attacked by the annoying stomach problems, and we even were together when the bombs blast in Delhi. Today we were also together visiting the Amber fort, about 12 km away from the Jaipur Old City. And it was so interesting to listen to her travel plan. Yesterday we watched movie together about Uzbekistan and it came to her mind to go to Uz after her trip in Afghanistan, after watching some pictures I took there. Suddenly, when we were exhausted of visiting the fort (it was beautiful, but I dont know why now I am losing the mood of taking pictures….), we were chatting about future plans of travelling. And suddenly I remembered that going to Russia is not so easy. I told her that I know someone, a Malaysian girl, who tried to take Russian visa in Mongolia then got refused, returned back to Beijing and stayed in my apartment [...]

November 3, 2005 // 2 Comments

Jaipur – The Pink City

November 2, 2005 Hotel Abhinandan, 100 Rs The nice and friendly staff of the hotel made me decided not to move anywhere. Eventhough I got very bad location for my room, just next to the main road, which always makes my bed quaking when a bus or truck passing. And yesterday night was really a nightmare, with the crackers exploding for every single minute for the Diwali celebration, up till 2 a.m. Fortunately today the hotel staff offered me to move to another room, which was much better. My Malaysian travel companion and I went together to the pink city of Jaipur today. Since my first day in India, actually I lost the mood of travelling and taking pictures. I hope with her appearance again I would gather fresh ideas for my photography work. The pink city itself is not really pink, only the buildings around the mainroads are painted pink, and just for the surface. The “old town” itself looks new and modern, brightly coloured in pink colour, and has very busy traffic. The real “old atmospheric” part of the town was near the palace area. The royal palace ticket is 180 Rs, which is too expensive for our [...]

November 2, 2005 // 1 Comment

Jaipur – Happy Diwali

November 1, 2005 Hotel Abhinandan, 100 Rs Today is Diwali, the most important Hindu celebration in India (pretty sure that Balinese Hindus not celebrating Diwali). I am alone in Jaipur, and my Malaysian friend said that she was going to come today. After being ramped in Delhi with lots of bureaucracy problems, somehow I lost any mood of travelling, and I was waiting for her to give me some fresh mind. I spent the whole morning in the old city, seeing how the market started by preparing lots of sweets (and mind you, Indian sweets are really, really sweet, even for Javanese sweet standard). Some temples were crowded by the people. I tried to go to Internet cafe, and the electricity suddenly went down, maybe because of the festival, which kept me about 1 hour waiting in the cafe. I met my Malaysian friend in the afternoon, as she suddenly came to the same hotel where I live. She said that she was invited by a rickshaw walla to go to their house to celebrate Diwali. She is always suspisicious towards Indians, maybe mind-setted already by the stories from other travellers, and today she decided to open a little bit [...]

November 1, 2005 // 1 Comment

Jaipur – Welcome to Rajasthan

October 31, 2005 Hotel Abhinandan, Banasthali Marg, Jaipur, 100 Rs After staying in Delhi for about two weeks without doing much sightseeing and scrumbled by the bureaucracy, now I think it;s time to move. Tomorrow is the Diwali festival throughout India, and I wish to witness some celebration in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state. I arrived quite early to the Interstate Bus Terminus (ISBT), New Delhi, before dragged by the touts to their agent to purchase the ticket of a private bus to Jaipur. They told me the bus was going to depart at 9, just few minutes to go. And the ticket was 260 Rs. They said that the government bus would cost me 220 Rs. OK, now is festival day, I imagined that the government bus would be really crowded and slow, so I took this private bus, and insisted them to depart ASAP. One lesson, never pay before the bus really moves. I had to wait from 9 until 12, before then I was throwed away to another agency to take this luxurious bus. The bus itself is comfortable, but it is also crowded. And it also stopped everywhere to pick up passengers. And I had [...]

October 31, 2005 // 0 Comments

New Delhi – Indian Way of Business

October 30, 2005 Hotel Bajrang 100 Rs The day is getting normal on the second day after the bomb last night. In the morning, people still discussed the about what happened last night, and almost all TVs were showing news about the bombs. “We have helped them (Pakistan) for the earthquake, but why they still kill us?”, an ordinary worker in Delhi screamed, emotionally. The road of the main bazaar is for sure quieter, as the open market just like being removed away from the area. The government prohibited open market in this area apparently. And for sure, the harassments towards foreigners from the road sellers and rickshaw drivers was much less. The road was just quiet, clean, and had very different atmosphere from the people. When the afternoon comes, the live in Paharganj is getting about normal again. Shops are getting busier. Just witnessed how strange the Indians shopkeepers dealing with their business. I tried to bargain for a pair of trousers, and complained that the trousers were too long and asked the owner to give alteration without any further additional cost. When I bargained quite politely, suddenly the shopkeeper said, in broken English, “OK, you speak over. My [...]

October 30, 2005 // 0 Comments

New Delhi – After the Blast

October 30, 2005 The everyday life was just started in Paharganj. The days usually start very late here in India, and now after the blasts, the atmosphere in the morning is even much quiter. You can say that almost all TV running are showing the news about the blasts, and even the news about the drowned train with 100+ victims are really “drowned” by the blast news. The usually busy open market in main bazaar in Paharganj is gone. Someone said that it was prohibited by the government after the blast. The topic of discussion of all people today was only the blast. “We have helped them for the earthquake, why they killed us?” condemned a common worker in Delhi towards the Pakistanis. Even it is not proven yet, the people tend to blame Muslims and Pakistani terrorists for the blasts. Still, there are many interviews around the area, and curious people with high expectance to be filmed on TV coming around. The shops are opening at 10, a little bit later than usual, but the harassments from the sellers and touts towards tourists are much lesser. It was part of our daily life to be yelled, “hello, hello…, annyonghaseyo, [...]

October 30, 2005 // 0 Comments

New Delhi – Bom Blast

October 29, 2005 Hotel Bajrang, 100 Rs New Delhi shooked. There were several bombs rocked the city, and one of them is just less than 100 m from the hotel when I live. During the moment of the blast, we were all in Indonesian embassy for breaking fast party. (Thanks God, just couldnt imagine what would happen if I was lingering around the location, because it is just so close with the restaurant I use to go. Thanks also to the Indonesian embassy party). The bomb blasted at 5:40 pm, by the time I was just arrived in the embassy. OK, I heard the news when I was in the embassy. Suddenly rushed my way to go back to Paharganj to see what happen. Along the way, everything just looked normal, the traffic is normal, and even not so many police on road. But getting closer to the New Delhi station, there were more police everywhere. The road to Main Bazaar, Paharganj, was closed to traffic. But curious locals coming all over the area to see what happened (and also to steal the chance to be filmed on TV when the reporters reporting from the area. Just cant understand how [...]

October 29, 2005 // 0 Comments

New Delhi – Pakistan Visa Struggle

October 25, 2005 Hotel Bajrang 100 Rs The day started not quite in smooth way. I took a bus to Channakya Puri, and this is my dozenth time taking the very bus. I know exactly that the fare should be 5 Rs, but the conductor insisted to get 7 Rs. The person beside me paid only 2 Rs and travelled further than I did. So I really dont know how the fare system works here, maybe conductor mood? OK, what was occupying my mind only the Pakistani visa, so I didnt argue at all for this 2 Rs rip off. Friends, I got already a letter from Indonesian embassy in Beijing. The diplomat there was so friendly and helpful, I just got it by sending my passport photocopy by fax. And the second day my aunt went to the embassy, picked it up, and faxed to me here in Delhi. The problem is whether this would help, because now I am in India, not in China. First I went to the Indonesian embassy to find the staff, to ask for suggestions of what to answer if I was asked. Then I went directly to the Pakistan embassy. There was long [...]

October 25, 2005 // 2 Comments

New Delhi – In the Middle of Nowhere

October 24, 2005 Hotel Bajrang, 100 Rs Another stories of how ridiculous taking a public bus in New Delhi could be. Today I was invited by someone to have a tea somewhere out of the town, and I took public bus considering that autorickshaw could be amazingly expensive. The bus was departing from Connaught Place, and was really crowded (comparable to those of Beijing). I have told the conductor to tell me when it arrives, as the area is completely greek to me. But, oho, as expected, he didnt call me at all. The bus was overcrowded at that time, I had to struggle to get my way down, and I have passed some stations. So I had to go back, taking the same bus of opposite direction. The bus I took was empty, so I told the conductor, please, please tell me when it arrives. And as, again, expected, he didnt call me at all, and I missed one station. I decided to go back by walking…. When I wanted to return back to Connaught Place after the meeting, I took the same bus, paid the full fare (10 Rs), but after an hour, there were only two passengers [...]

October 24, 2005 // 2 Comments

New Delhi – Sightseeing Delhi

October 22, 2005 Hotel Bajrang, 100 Rs As planned before, today I went with Nef to do sightseeing around New Delhi. We visited Red Fort and Jame Masjid of New Delhi. With the brain stuffed with the visa problem, I didnt really enjoy the huge, red (of course) Red Fort. The mosque is also huge, and there were lots of people waiting for eating time. Now is Ramazan/Ramadan fasting month, but surprise…, around the mosque you can find easily people selling food. Something that wont be happen in Indonesia. And there were lots of fakir (poor people) begging for donation on the stairs to the mosque. What I felt was, how lucky I am. For a moment, I just can be thankful the God, forget all of my problems, and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon in the mosques. Sometimes some people stopped and asked to take pictures with me. Every Saturday, 6 pm, there is “buka puasa bersama” programme in Indonesian Embassy where Indonesians are invited to have dinner together during the Ramadan fasting month. I have met some diplomats, students, staff, and many other Indonesian communities here in New Delhi. Felt little bit awkward though, the atmosphere was just little [...]

October 22, 2005 // 0 Comments

New Delhi – Letter to Mr Ambassador

October 21, 2005 Hotel Bajrang, 100 Rs Thinking all of those alternatives, I tried to send a letter to Indonesian Embassy in Islamabad, mentioning that I have been before in Pakistan and wishing their help to give me a supporting letter. Later on the day, I received a quick email from them, stating that they are supporting my idea, but just cant be a sponsor. I also have posted some messages in Internet forums, sending some emails to Pakistani journalists, etc etc. It was very busy night yesterday. Another attemptable way is writing a letter to the mr. ambassador in new delhi. For such a formal and diplomatic letter, I asked a friend of mine, working in Indonesian embassy in Tashkent-Uzbekistan, to help me to give corrections to my letter. And in the afternoon, I got my letter corrected, with very beautiful words, ready to be delivered to the embassy in New Delhi. I took the bus from Connaught Place (No.620, 5 Rs), and alas, I fell asleep in the bus….. Had to walk back for around 40 minutes to reach Indonesian embassy from where I stopped. The staff told me, I should have the letter to be put in [...]

October 21, 2005 // 3 Comments

New Delhi – Good Bye Pakistan?

October 20, 2005 Hotel Bajrang, 100 NRs The earthquake in Pakistan, with more than 40,000 victims, has haunted my nights since I came back from Annapurna. What I am thinking is simply rushing my way to Pakistan, and do all the best there to help the people. I just cant forget the suffering faces of the victims of tsunami in Aceh, and I am sure, the people in Pakistan side of Kashmir suffer the same pains at this moment. Today I went very early to the Pakistani embassy in Santipath, Channakyapuri. The embassy is a huge, mosque dome shaped building, with several gates. And the visa section on the gate no.3, which was quite difficult for me to find and I had to make a tour around the embassy. There were lots of people queueing, but there is special window for foreigners, so not until 2 minutes, there was someone answering my questions. The procedure was straightforward, I was given an application form, he let me to fill it out, and…. get a letter from my embassy. According to my previous experience, letters from Indonesian embassy are always easy, considering that many of the diplomats encouraging young people to travel [...]

October 20, 2005 // 2 Comments

New Delhi – The Ending of Broken Camera Story

October 18, 2005 Bajrang Guesthouse 100 Rs My camera is broken, since I entered Nepal from Tibet. Just to refresh the memory, I had a new camera of Nikon 8800 and suddenly it started not to work properly just after i crossed the border of Nepal. In Nepal there is no Nikon service centre, and I have tried to service my camera in a Canon office, but it failed. Now I am in Delhi, where there is at least a Nikon office (got the address from the internet). I rushed to the address (quite far away from the city centre) right after my arrival in Delhi (yesterday). The guy over there told me that I needed around 10 days at least to get my camera repaired because one sparepart is not available. I am in rush because I want to go to Pakistan as soon as possible. He gave me an address of another Nikon authorized service in Delhi, that is Interfoto. On the very day, I went to Interfoto. The technician just heard me explaining the problem, and said “You need to change your motherboard, which is 14000 Rs (450 dollar)” without even looking at my camera. I just [...]

October 18, 2005 // 10 Comments

New Delhi – Culture Shock

October 17, 2005 Welcome Inn Guesthouse, 100 Rs Just arrived today in Delhi, and wanna share how shocked I am by the scene here. It seems that no matter how many countries I have been travelling, I am still a complete beginner in India. I. Scheme 1: Rickshaw wallah (rickshaw driver trick 1) Place: Near India Gate Time : October 17, 2005 afternoon I was trying to go to Indonesian embassy in Chakyanapuri embassy area, by walking. Many rickshaw drivers passed and asked me where to go. I just ignored them, until once I missed my direction. The driver, with a Sikh turban, offered 40 rupees to go. And he insisted that the embassy was soooo far. I said 20 rupees only that I can pay. He tried to bargain from 30, 25, until he agreed at 20. OK, I was seated in the rickshaw. He knew I spoke Hindi. So he said in Hindi, that he needed commision from a shop, so he would bring me to a shop, I just need to look around without buying anything for about 10 minutes. I told him that i was not agree, I was indeed rushing to the embassy as it [...]

October 17, 2005 // 2 Comments

Kathmandu – World Tourism Day

September 27, 2005 Thamel Guesthouse 80 NRs World Toursim Day? Never heard before. But today, on every single corner of Thamel, you can see brochures and banners to welcome “all distinctive guests” on the world tourism day. I read on the newspaper that today there would be special performances, like pop rock bands, japanese dances, …. hmmm….. :question: So, the real festival started after dark. The road is full of people selling food (remember “pasar malam” (night market) of Indonesian small towns). It seems that almost every single shop in Thamel want to participate in this Tourism Day. Restaurants offer “open air tables” where guests can have dinner on the main street (reminded me to Kaoshan Road of Bangkok). And even hotels, supermarkets, and internet cafes turnt to be an instant restaurant. I wonder myself whether what supposed to be “world tourism day” is “thamel food day”. At the evening, the rock band starts. Everybody came down to the main road of Thamel, everybody dance together. And Thamel Chowk has turned to be a huge open air discotheque! (plus the open air restaurants selling all kinds of Newari snack). It’s indeed a climax of all kind of entertainments in Thamel. [...]

September 27, 2005 // 0 Comments

Kathmandu – Dua Puluh Menit di Sebuah Sudut Kathmandu

September 25, 2005 Thamel Guesthouse 80 NRs Ting.. tang… ting… tang…, kedua bilah gunting besi beradu cepat, berdentang-denting bergantian di sisi kiri dan kanan telingaku. Sebuah irama yang sudah sekian lama tak lagi aku dengar, setelah pisau cukur elektrik merajai pasar salon kecantikan. Dimulai dari rasa gerah yang teramat sangat, menyengat ubun-ubun kepalaku yang ditumbuhi oleh rambut-rambut yang semakin hari semakin lebat, aku melangkahkan kakiku mencari tukang pangkas rambut. Cukup tersembunyi di balik lorong-lorong sempit tak jauh dari Thamel, Kathmandu, sebuah salon mungil dengan hanya dua bangku terjajar rapi, dua pemangkas rambut, dan dua orang yang “terpangkas rambutnya”. Ruangan mungil itu dilengkapi dengan dua buah washtafel, nampaknya kepala pengunjung akan dijorokkan (bahasa Jawa: didelungupkan)ke washtafel itu untuk dibasahi sebelum pisau-pisau cukur menunaikan tugasnya di kepala mereka. Tak nampak satu pun peralatan elektronik di sini, semuanya serba mekanis. Oh, tak lupa juga bunyi bilah-bilah gunting yang beradu seru. Ketika tiba giliranku mendapatkan pelayanan, rambutku terlebih dahulu mendapatkan “siraman” segar dari air yang mengocor deras dari keran mungil itu. Tak lama kemudian, bilah-bilah gunting cukur yang panjang itu mulai lagi beradu sengit menunaikan tugas mereka, yang denting-dentingnya mengingatkanku pada masa kecilku, dua puluh tahun yang lalu, ketika ayah menjorokkan kepalaku ke depan [...]

September 25, 2005 // 6 Comments

Kathmandu – National Geographic Traveller

September 24, 2005 Thamel Guest House, 80 NRs Received a good news today, that my article of Afghanistan and Pakistan is confirmed to be published on the 11th edition of National Geographic Traveller (Beijing). The total number of pages for my article is 12, quite much for a writer-beginner like me. The article will be in Chinese, a translation from the Indonesian version (downloadable in this website also). The translation was made by two of my friends who studying Indonesian language in Peking University, and I really admire their Indonesian proficiency. Today I spent the whole morning for giving captions for the photos used by the magazine. Too bad, I am not in China at this moment, so I even wont get the chance to see the magazine by [...]

September 24, 2005 // 3 Comments

Kathmandu – Loss Report

Ruang kerja kantor polisi Hanuman Dhoka. (AGUSTINUS WIBOWO) September 23, 2005 Thamel Guesthouse 80 NRs This story is still related with my pickpocketed wallet a week before. And after today, I completely give up the hope of getting back my wallet. Remember last week how I was ‘ping-pong’ed by the police officers when we tried to report the loss right after the accident. And I didn’t have any photos with me (required for report, and all of my passport photos were in the wallet). Not big deal, the second day I submitted a passport photo and passport photocopy. The officer of foreign section was not there, so I passed the stuff to another officer, who promised to make the report the second day. After visiting Gorkha (September 20), I came again to the office, supposed to have the report prepared. But, oho, I was just too optimistic. Nothing was done, and even they lost my loss report So I had to make another report, starting again everything from the beginning. The fat lady was busy of typing another stuff with the prehistoric typewriter, and asked me to wait for 5 minutes (and you know what 5 minutes mean in South [...]

September 23, 2005 // 0 Comments

Kathmandu – Indonesian Model

September 21, 2005 Thamel Guest House, 80 NRs After so many lazy days in Kathmandu, I decided to move on. Today I applied Indian visa in the Indian embassy. The embassy opens at 9:30 but I started queueing at 8:30 (got the 5th position). The embassy is famous for the low efficiency and strict working hours. It closes at 12:00 precisely, no matter how many people still waiting in line. For most of Asians, they only issue 3 month visa here if you have never been to India before. Multiple visa is possible, depends on your nationality. The total visa fee is 3350 NRs. For Chinese passport holders (and sometimes including Hong Kong passports) they only issue 1 month visa. Better not to have Pakistan visa in your passport if you wish to bargain for longer visa. During my waiting there, suddenly I saw a black man holding an Indonesian passport, applying for Indian transit visa. I was so curious, as this man seems completely not an Indonesian. And then a girl popped-up, quite Indonesian Chinese face. And the man told the visa officer that the girl was his wife. Brought by my curiousity, I talked with the girl, which [...]

September 21, 2005 // 0 Comments

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