The long road to Thailand
I born in the 50. After I done my school and a diploma in mechanics in Switzerland, the country enter her worst economy period in time. All factory were closing down and people went unemployed.
At that time i was just out of my diploma and looking for a job. The decision was not hard to take and i decide to leave Switzerland.
The day i left Switzerland i had in my though to go to India for a yearly period.
I didn't know what India would be or look like in 1970's. I board a plane and went. The first trick was to find a way to learn English in a few day. My only English language was yes and no. But you would be surprise how fast you can learn this language when you get hungry, thirsty and need a room to sleep. After a week you doing very well and can move around easy.
The first contact with India was at the airport with 1000 of people asking you for money. I didn't expect that but i had to get true. The next thing was the humidity with the heat and the smells. Every meter it's another smell from bad to worse but after few days you get use to. I was sleeping at the salvation army just behind the Taj Mahal hotel next to the gate of India. They were only dormitory and i had to share the room with other peoples. One of them, next to my bed was a Japanese whom was sat on his bed most of the time meditating. I thing he was smoking too much black Bombay everyday. We had electricity from 18:00 to 19:00hrs only and every body was queuing in front of the shower from 17:00hrs already. If you get an hassle whom was taking time in the shower you could forget your shower.
I spend 3 days in Bombay and move north to Amedhabad just because everybody was going south to Goa.
I took a train to Amedhabad and that was another experience. I had book a sleeper carriage but someone was there asleep. No way to ask politly to move out of the sleeper when you are in the jungle. I took it (he was very tiny squeleton) and true it on the floor where he stay all the trip to Amedhabad. All the time i was going down my sleeper i had to work on him and the others one all the way to the toilet.
The first thing in Amedhabad was to find an hotel. We, me and 2 persons that i meet in the plane from Switzerland found one, the Bombay hotel and i will alway remember this hotel. When I check in in my room i found a bed with a black sheet, black cause he was dirty. I call the reception to change it and they say yes, after 30 minutes nobody was coming, i call again and ask them maybe 3 - 4 time until they came take the sheet out of the bed turn it upside down and put it back. I had with me a sheet in aluminium to sleep in the nature and that was the solution i found.
Later my friend came and ask me to go to the railway station with him to by ticket for the day after to Agra, his girl friend would wait at the hotel.
We took a taxi to the station. There was a queue of an hour in every ticket office and some people were jumping the queue. I get upset and i catch one whom was jumping the queue and tell him to go back in queue. He shout at me but every body shout at him and even an old man in the queue start to hit him with his stick. It was a chaos for few minutes before everybody cool down. At the end we bought our ticket and when out of the station to find a taxi to go back to the hotel. When we board the taxi no one, me and my friend had taken the name of the hotel with us. We didn't no where his girl friend and our bag were. Amedhabad is just few millions peoples and i thought that it will be impossible to find this hotel again. My friend kept calm and tell the driver to go left, right, left, for 20 minutes and that was in front of the hotel.
The next day we went to visit a temple by foot. Amedhabad is a funny city with nobody on the street durant the day, everybody is working. On the way down to the temple someone was digging the road in front of a mechanics shop and i didn't understand what he was doing. When we came back to the hotel, evening, we past true the mechanics shop and they had put a car on it to remove the engine by let it down in the hole. That like the sikh man in the railway station in Bombay whom buy our train ticket to go 3 stations down the line because we were lost with the booking of our sleeper seat. He didn't accept any money and take us to the right train.
When we reach Agra we take a horse carriage to the hotel. It was early morning and the weather was cool. The hotel was 10 minutes walk from the Taj Mahal and was very cheap something like 4 roupies a day. There were sharing shower and they didn't clean them for a century. I remember i nearly break my leg one day when the light went off as i was taking a shower, it was so sleepery that you could not move when it was dark. when light was there you could see the floor and where you put your feet.
I remember another day afternoon when i order a tea in the hotel, the guy was not happy to make a tea for me and say that it was no tea. I ask him why in the morning it was tea and he accept to make it for me. The tea he bring me was awful and undrinkable but i toke 2 - 3 sips out. The evening when i went on the roof to listen to a tabla musician i understand why the tea was horrible. They had a sink big as a bath tube with dirty water where they wash the dishes. The fact is, they don't have running water every day and that they had to use this water to make my tea.
The next day in the morning we went to visit the Taj Mahal and that something somptuous. It is made of marble and it change color between the morning sun true the evening.
After 2 -3 days hanging around in Agra visiting hashish shop, looking at the horse eating newspaper and had some milkshake and beautiful meals made out of boiled eggs and plain rice we decide to move up to New Dehli.
I born in the 50. After I done my school and a diploma in mechanics in Switzerland, the country enter her worst economy period in time. All factory were closing down and people went unemployed.
At that time i was just out of my diploma and looking for a job. The decision was not hard to take and i decide to leave Switzerland.
The day i left Switzerland i had in my though to go to India for a yearly period.
I didn't know what India would be or look like in 1970's. I board a plane and went. The first trick was to find a way to learn English in a few day. My only English language was yes and no. But you would be surprise how fast you can learn this language when you get hungry, thirsty and need a room to sleep. After a week you doing very well and can move around easy.
The first contact with India was at the airport with 1000 of people asking you for money. I didn't expect that but i had to get true. The next thing was the humidity with the heat and the smells. Every meter it's another smell from bad to worse but after few days you get use to. I was sleeping at the salvation army just behind the Taj Mahal hotel next to the gate of India. They were only dormitory and i had to share the room with other peoples. One of them, next to my bed was a Japanese whom was sat on his bed most of the time meditating. I thing he was smoking too much black Bombay everyday. We had electricity from 18:00 to 19:00hrs only and every body was queuing in front of the shower from 17:00hrs already. If you get an hassle whom was taking time in the shower you could forget your shower.
I spend 3 days in Bombay and move north to Amedhabad just because everybody was going south to Goa.
I took a train to Amedhabad and that was another experience. I had book a sleeper carriage but someone was there asleep. No way to ask politly to move out of the sleeper when you are in the jungle. I took it (he was very tiny squeleton) and true it on the floor where he stay all the trip to Amedhabad. All the time i was going down my sleeper i had to work on him and the others one all the way to the toilet.
The first thing in Amedhabad was to find an hotel. We, me and 2 persons that i meet in the plane from Switzerland found one, the Bombay hotel and i will alway remember this hotel. When I check in in my room i found a bed with a black sheet, black cause he was dirty. I call the reception to change it and they say yes, after 30 minutes nobody was coming, i call again and ask them maybe 3 - 4 time until they came take the sheet out of the bed turn it upside down and put it back. I had with me a sheet in aluminium to sleep in the nature and that was the solution i found.
Later my friend came and ask me to go to the railway station with him to by ticket for the day after to Agra, his girl friend would wait at the hotel.
We took a taxi to the station. There was a queue of an hour in every ticket office and some people were jumping the queue. I get upset and i catch one whom was jumping the queue and tell him to go back in queue. He shout at me but every body shout at him and even an old man in the queue start to hit him with his stick. It was a chaos for few minutes before everybody cool down. At the end we bought our ticket and when out of the station to find a taxi to go back to the hotel. When we board the taxi no one, me and my friend had taken the name of the hotel with us. We didn't no where his girl friend and our bag were. Amedhabad is just few millions peoples and i thought that it will be impossible to find this hotel again. My friend kept calm and tell the driver to go left, right, left, for 20 minutes and that was in front of the hotel.
The next day we went to visit a temple by foot. Amedhabad is a funny city with nobody on the street durant the day, everybody is working. On the way down to the temple someone was digging the road in front of a mechanics shop and i didn't understand what he was doing. When we came back to the hotel, evening, we past true the mechanics shop and they had put a car on it to remove the engine by let it down in the hole. That like the sikh man in the railway station in Bombay whom buy our train ticket to go 3 stations down the line because we were lost with the booking of our sleeper seat. He didn't accept any money and take us to the right train.
When we reach Agra we take a horse carriage to the hotel. It was early morning and the weather was cool. The hotel was 10 minutes walk from the Taj Mahal and was very cheap something like 4 roupies a day. There were sharing shower and they didn't clean them for a century. I remember i nearly break my leg one day when the light went off as i was taking a shower, it was so sleepery that you could not move when it was dark. when light was there you could see the floor and where you put your feet.
I remember another day afternoon when i order a tea in the hotel, the guy was not happy to make a tea for me and say that it was no tea. I ask him why in the morning it was tea and he accept to make it for me. The tea he bring me was awful and undrinkable but i toke 2 - 3 sips out. The evening when i went on the roof to listen to a tabla musician i understand why the tea was horrible. They had a sink big as a bath tube with dirty water where they wash the dishes. The fact is, they don't have running water every day and that they had to use this water to make my tea.
The next day in the morning we went to visit the Taj Mahal and that something somptuous. It is made of marble and it change color between the morning sun true the evening.
After 2 -3 days hanging around in Agra visiting hashish shop, looking at the horse eating newspaper and had some milkshake and beautiful meals made out of boiled eggs and plain rice we decide to move up to New Dehli.
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