There were many ‘wallas’ (people who sell things or provide some sort of service. You have the chai wallas, rickshaw wallas etc, etc) on the train selling all sorts from chai to weird greenery that we couldn’t work out what it was for. As with most trains we have been on during the day, at each stop there are an influx of more wallas for the time that you are at the station. These guys would either be going up and down the carriage or selling their items from the platform and through the windows of the train. It all seemed much more exciting on this type of carriage compared to the sleeper class due to the layout. It was just like being on a big bus really, but way more fun.
Nasik itself is kind of on the way to Mumbai from Ellora and it just so happens that it is also home to the country’s leading wine makers. Oh, and it has some areas of special religious significance, just for a change. Every 12 years Nasik hosts the biggest religious gathering on earth called the Kumbh Mela and the next one is due in 2019 just in case you’re interested. It is said in the Ramayana, Lord Rama and his wife Sita were exiled here and it’s where Lakshmana hacked off Ravana’s sisters nasik (nose) thus giving the city its’ name.
We were keen to get along to the vineyard, but we also had some other bits that we needed to do along with taking in the temples and the holy Godavari River shenanigans (the Godavari River is one of India’s holiest). We asked the hotel to provide us with a rickshaw for the day which they responded with a silly price, so we made our own way out to get a rickshaw. Low and behold one of the drivers that was outside the hotel followed us round the corner and we negotiated a way more reasonable price with him for the itinerary we had planned. After a painless visit to the train ticket booking office (for our tickets to Goa via Mumbai), we sped off out into wine country. Apparently the climate is very similar to Bordeux in this particular area, and that is obviously why they grow good grapes here.
We arrived at the vineyard (not before the rickshaw driver stopped at completely the wrong place of course) and headed up to the bar to get our tour and tasting sorted out. The tour didn’t last too long (no great shakes there), so it wasn’t long before we were working our way through 6 of the wines on offer at the vineyard and, we have to say, they were pretty damn good!
We felt a little hungry and tipsy after the tasting so we decided to have a proper glass each along with, wait for it: Olives and a selection of cheeses!! This was such a great little treat. We were served the little lot and enjoyed every bit of it.
A bit wobbly and quite happy, we wandered back to the waiting Rickshaw. He wasn’t too happy with us and started bleating on about the time we had spent tasting the wine and that others only take one hour to do what we did, which was impossible. Along with him taking us to the wrong place before, our suspicion of him never having taken tourists there before was pretty much now complete. Typical. Anyway, after a short exchange we decided to ignore him as we talked (quickly so he wouldn’t understand us) about how we were going to argue it out with him when it came to payment (as you know the demand for more money is inevitable). He was still grumbling when we got back into the city and stopped outside one of the temples in the area. This temple was a little strange as you literally had to crawl on your hands and knees to get through tiny little tunnels to get to a couple of rooms housing effigies of one God or another. After checking out a couple more temples of a slightly different nature we decided to part company with our rickshaw walla when he drove us through a market which looked interesting. We gave him the amount we had agreed to pay him at the beginning of the day, ignored his wining about wanting more money and stepped out onto the busy street. We were in the middle of a local market that was vibrant in every way. Wanding past a Chai walla we decided to get a cup.
We were the subject of instant attention (as per usual) and it wasn’t long before were drinking chai surrounded by a number of men!
It was all in good spirits and everyone was very smiley and friendly.
The market was big enough to spend an hour wandering around just looking at all the stalls.
This place had a great feel to it and we were the only tourists around. If you go somewhere very touristy, you can get constantly hassled for your business by someone or another.
If you go somewhere that is not a tourist spot in the slightest it seems that you can end up having a much more pleasant experience taking in the surroundings, taking photos of people and stalls and smiling and communicating with the people around you.
We found this to be a very authentic Indian experience and wished each market we ended up in was like this. Everyone we came into contact with enjoyed it as much as we did if not more!
We wandered back to where we thought the hotel was. After a while mind you, we realised that we couldn’t find our hotel and didn’t know where it was either! The hotel was a great place, it wasn’t in the lonely planet, and the food and staff there were good. The lad that served us our food was probably the politest fella you could deal with and he even refused a tip at first! Anyway, we couldn’t find the hotel and struggled to remember what it was called, so we jumped into an auto as the driver seemed to know where we wanted to go. It was no real surprise that we ended up at the wrong place. With recruited help of a passerby and by means of comical sign and sound language it dawned on the driver where we needed to be and with lots of head waggling he drove us to where we needed to be, which incidentally was well away from where we thought we should have been!! We were well off target! On arrival I over paid the driver (gave him what he asked for) and we both looked at each other with a wry smile as I handed over the money. He drove off happy as Larry and, as we were happy to be at the hotel, I thought it was all worth the mammoth amount of 30 rupees for the giggle it provided.
We had a great meal served in our room and got a relatively early night as we were due to catch the train to Mumbai the following day......
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