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Tales of the Travelling Princess
Since we hitched a lift with a Punjab family when we were staying in McLoed we decided to visit them in Chandigarh hoping that they would show us around and give an insight into the rich Indian life. Chandigarh is also said to be the cleanest, greenest and most organised of all Indian cities. Hopes were high especially since we would be there for my birthday.
Disappointed. Not least because the father of the family we met turned up with his mate and we didn't just go for lunch as we thought. Not only were they texting all the way through drinks and lunch in a golf club, they weren't too interested in what we had to say (and sometimes I have a lot to say!). The guys turned out to be a little weird and we declined the offer of a hotel in the mountains for the night... 45 year olds thinking they were cool hanging with a couple of white 20 year olds. Didn't do much to boost our love of the country - well educated, older men are even more thoughtless than the younger ones. Will have to stop writing about them as they're making me angry 2 weeks after the event. Don't worry parents, wasn't anything dodgy, just quite inconsiderate. And I've been on enough dates/dinners with men to know how to be treated properly...
It would be harsh to say my birthday was a non-event. We had a lovely meal in a rather posh restaurant and treated ourselves (for the fiftieth time on this trip...) to cocktails. I was all psyched up for a bit of dancing but after a vodka and lemonade in a western looking bar we seemed to be the only 2 females within a 2km radius. The barman was nice and wrote me a birthday card on the back of a beermat but he hinted that it wouldn't be a good idea for us to go out clubbing.
Chandigarh as a city is a lot more organised than elsewhere. The roads are fairly well maintained and there are no cows loitering around. Not a great deal to do other than shopping though. We took the tourist bus one afternoon but didn't quite understand why we went to the university where the guide was fairly insistent we get off to take photos of what looked like my local council office. Rock Garden was full of wierd and wonderful things (and people). The staring finally got the better of me by the end and I was ready for a fight. Kept my head down and missed most of what the park had to offer.
Was looking forward to moving on after 3 nights here. Spent several hours at the train station (thank Buddha for ladies only waiting rooms) waiting for the 1am train to Kolkata. Tip: buy tickets before you get on the train to avoid stress of finding the man in white who sells last minute tickets.
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