Chandigarh, India

We now find ourselves in Chandigarh. This city, more like a big town aka Geelong, is supposedly India’s greenest and cleanest and my drift around the main mall area, located relatively close to our hotel, didn’t do anything to disprove it. It’s a lovely, clean, less frenetic place compared to Bengaluru, and is going to be a completely different world to the gritty monstropolous that will be Delhi.

Bengaluru finished on a great note. Although it was disappointing not to see the Aussies win, the cricket was engrossing well into Day 5. I loved where we stayed and the city in general. Although I had many great experiences in the city, the best were certainly on the last day there (Tuesday 14th), when we had a ‘rickshaw rally’ in the morning (like a car trial, only much more fun given the location) and I went wandering off the beaten track in the afternoon. Myself and Gill were the last team across the finish line back at the Highgates Hotel, around an hour later than the second last team, due to our ability to find ourselves off course and stuck in traffic. Still, it was a heap of fun covering many of the Bengaluru streets, away from the tourist areas. And the 3.5 hour adventure only cost us 201 rupees plus a tip of 100 – approximately 10 AUD in total.

A personal highlight during the rally was coming across the Bangalore Youth Hostel where big Gus Worland lodged during his time here in An Aussie Goes Bolly.

Plenty of dramas on the flights up to Chandigarh. First of all, a local had a seizure on the Jet Airways flight from Bengaluru to Delhi, just prior to landing. He was OK when we finally got down but there were some scary moments there. He was sitting only two rows in front of me, but that was still close enough. Then, as we were late to arrive in Delhi, rather than disembark our flight and head to another gate in the terminal to catch our connection, we actually walked off the first plane, onto the tarmac and onto a bus which drove us 100 metres directly to the second plane.

One of the great aspects of flying is the ability to get a birds-eye view of the world. The sheer size of Delhi and its thick pollution haze is just amazing. Also similarly as extraordinary is the density of the Indian population between Delhi and Chandigarh, in the way that at all times there are multiple towns and cities within view. The animal species that are/were unique to the country, e.g. tigers and elephants, have never had a chance to survive in large numbers given the coverage of the civilisation here over the land.

Dare I say that Chandigarh airport might just be the most rundown terminal that the Australian players have ever seen foot in, if not the most rundown building. It really is third world and surprising for a city that is otherwise as relatively structurally impressive as Chandigarh.

Tonight we managed to find Singh’s Chicken, another venue attended by Gus Worland, and a short walk from our hotel, for a late night feed. With sensational cuisine like this at cracking prices (again and again) it’s no surprise that the tightish Industrie jeans I’d bought only a couple of weeks before I left Oz are starting to become a real squeeze on the waist.

It was hard to say goodbye from the boys from Bunbury & their mate Lyon on Monday night, although I might catch up with Lyon at the upcoming Brisbane test in a month or so. Hoping that the next time we have a frothy together won’t be too far away as we shared plenty on this trip. And maybe a Bob Neil national anthem or two.