Yesterday was a nice day. First we Went to this burger king, not the international chain, someone here registered the name before them. Let me tell you that was the best burger I ate in my life. It costs 40RS/7Kn/0.9euro. It contains meet stake 2 cm thick (I am not exaggerating)
really soft and with really great sauces. If they went global burger king(the real one) and McD s wouldn't stand a chance. At that place we meet a couple of aiesecers and our host Vicky introduced as AI EC (Aiesec International evaluation committee). When we came to the meeting people were hanging around us interested where we are from, but sa soon as the EB guys spread the word that we are AI everyone started to avoid us. You think this is too much. Their LCP wanted to go a step further so he presented us to 60 AIESEC Pune members as distinguished guests , AI directors Sam and John (our indian nicknames). So we got up and Mirko did a nice AI speech. Since they have about 70% new members, their recruitment was a month ago, now there are about 40 people who think we are AI. They didn't even clear things in the end, only a few people who actually had the courage to talk to us learned the truth. Also people here are totally taken by the game ZOOM which apparently doesn't exist in Asia Pacific region, so we will implement our good case (drinking) practice in their LC.

So , we bought the bus tickets and went to Pune. A city200 km away from Mumbai. There we met the AIESEC people we hang out at the conference. They really took good care of us, we are currently staying at Vickys house, he is VP in Aiesec Pune. We will be attending their LC meeting today.The city is really nice, no people sleeping on the streets, very few beggars, and no one is traying to sell stuff to us in the street. In Mumbai, the drum selling guy followed us for like half hour, in the end we bought a nice drum that costs 20 euros in the store, for 3 euro. The price we told him was actually a joke, but apparently here that is a normal price for something and he agreed in the end after trying to increase it for half hour. We also checked out some stores, and apparently you can get a nice taylor made suit for a good price. The cheap suits are like 50 euro, but for 100 you can get the fanciest suits, made of really quality fabrics. We are going to check out some of them today and probably order one.
What else to tell you, it rains at least twice a day, but when the sun comes out it gets hot really fast.

We contacted the Aiesec Mumbai crew and hang out with them yesterday, they are really nice, and we will be hanging out with them today as well. In the evening we went to see their AIESEC office, and guess what, as soon as you step out of the office, there is a pool there. They have a poolside office at the health center, they also have a small gym 30 m away. I am sure miro and the bodybuilding team would be really happy with an office like that. We invited them to have breakfast with us at the crappy place where we eat(we are probably the first europeans to set foot in that place) because they have the best food, but the indian people said they dont eat at places like that, because they have weak stomacks and could make them sick. Everyone was warning me about diareaa and stuff, and now it apperas we are much more resiliant than the locals. Let me just tell you all the scary stories you heared about India are simply bullshit, when I come back I will tell you what India is really like, and let me tell you it is a really nice country. The only problem with malaria is the anti-malaria tablets which make you sick like hell and I am not taking them anymore. Now is early morning, and we have people to see and places to visit. Check in later for an update.
Also a little map, showing aour past(red line) and future(blue line) travels
P.S. Thanks shefica for the promotion on AIESEC .net

So to catch up my blog with the actuall time. We are in Mumbai now for three days, on the first day in the evening we went to the supposedly the in club in town called Velocity, we arrived there at around 00.30 hours, paid 800 for the entrance 17 euro, a large amount in India, but you get lots of free drinks included in the price. When we got in there were maybe 20 people there, so we thought, the people will probably come a little later, it is still early, so came 1.00 am and they turned on the lights, we found out that all the clubs in Mumbai close at 1.00, can you belive this shit, we payed an average Indian monthly salery for a half hour and some drinks.
We spend the whole second day souvenier shopping and didnt buy a single souvenier, Lonely planet suggested this as a good spot to buy souveniers because they have fixed price, the problem is that we know they cost about 1/3 of that if you haggle in Delhi or Agra. This price can only be good for Asian people or old Americans becouse when they see them the street merchants severly overcharge. In the evening we went to that see food restaurant I mentione in my previous large India report.
Our plans for today are to find the AIESEC Mumbai people, and check out their office, I have heared they have a swimming pool, i think we should immplement that in Croatia :)

Hey people, thanks for the comments. And now for some India photos taken by our resident photographer Mirko.

It is a hard life for Mirko the Riksa driver.

INDIA IN THE MORNING

The great Mumbai

So you didnt know there are actuall buildings in India? This photos should set things straight.

MENU:
3x butter nan (breadlike thingies)...................3x7Rs(1kn)
1x brain and tomato masala...............................25Rs(3.5kn)
1x egg masala........................................................19Rs(2.5kn)
1x mutton fry........................................................22Rs(3kn)
2x coca-cola.......................................................2x12Rs(1.7kn)
Total......................................................111Rs(16kn)

Ok this post will be a general description of India just to paint the picture of the overall experience.
When you get of any transportation in a city station, plane, train etc. there are a bunch of people there trying to convince you to go to their hotel, go with their taxi, or buy some other tickets from some kind of travel agent from who they recieve commission. India is not a country where you get robbed forcefully, they will rob you with a smile. If you are new in India you will probably think that giving 10-15 euro for a taxi is ok, but in reality it costs about 1-1.5 euro. See the difference? If a taxi or a riksa drives you to a hotel they will charge you more at the hotel and the driver will get a commision. Same goes for buying suveniers. The hotels here are ok for their price. Cheaper hotels have bathroom, tv, and air condition, and of course several roommates(really big bugs). They cost about 20 euro per room. Nice and fancy hotel cost about 33 euro and is really great. In india you can always eat at restaurants, I have been eating such great stuff every day for breakfest, lunch and dinner that i dont know how will I adapt to Croatia.
Some prices: breakfast-delicious egg omlette, toast with buter and jam, and drink(juice or pepsi) all togather 0.8-1.0 euro.
lunch really good Indian or chinnese food(much better than in Croatia) and drink 1.0-1.5 euro

In India we are acctually rich people, me and mirko went to the fancyest restaurant in town, they have incredible sea food, they bring the lobster, or crab still alive for you to pick and everything, and the price was about 17 euro per person. The only problem is that the cealling was really low like 1.7 m so we had to do the limbo trough the entire restaurant.
We are mostly eating that cheap food because it is really good.
Also in India, alcohol is kind of taboo, when people buy it, they usually hide it and carry it home to drink. It is considered mostly for lower class. Also Indians have to have a permit to drink alcohol. When we were on the train to Mumbai this guy mixed water and wisky, it was really funny to see how he hides the bottle behind him and take carefull sips, glancing around if anyone will see him. He dindn t even offer us some, not very nice of him. On the way back with the train we plan to bring a big botle and a few shot glasses and show them how its done.
Some other things, in India they cut out sex scenes out of movies, if youi hug a girl in public you can acctually be arrested it is even forbidden to hold hands. The interesting things is that here all the men here hold hends(thats not illegal), think there are a lot of gay people, even though beeing gay is illegal I saw two cops at the train station, first one guy was massaging ther other guys chest, I was thinking this Indian people take their frienship too far, but then the other guy grabbed his balls I think they were more than good friends.
Tere are many different people in India, there are a lot of good fair people, but you are always suspicious becouse of the bad ones. We met this guy who showed us directtions and didnt try to scam us in any way, acutally he has even been to former Yugoslavia, and said that Delhi is picka materina, after he said that he earned our trust.
And something about aiesec people, they are mostly higher class very nice people simmilar to us, well maybe a little more polite, when it comes to street hagling balkans rule.

Day 3 after the conference
Went on a train from Agra to Delhi, and then to Mumbai(distance 1500 km). We got a ticket to an overnight express, first class for 30 euro 1500 RS. We got 3 free meals and nice service.
Day 4 ATC
We arrived at Mumbai, and realised this is a real city. Delhi is prety much an junkyard, with people bothering you all the time trying to get money or sell you something, roads are made of dirt, and cowshit is all around. Taksies rip you off at every corner. Still very cheap even when they overcharge. Here there are actuall streets, big buildings, civilised people and everything you can imagine, of course this results in higher prices.

Day 2 ATC(after the conference)
We went to see a nice fort, entrance fee indians 20 rupies, foreigners 300. (NOT FAIR)
Got our train tickets that we had to pay 100 rupies extra for bribes, that is the normal tariff, they also have set tariffs for drunk driving, speeding and other things.
Some people went to the IC party and paid 500 rupies to get in, 10 euro, not much in croatia, but here that price is highway robbery, you can eat lunch and dinner for 3 days with that money, at nice restaurants.

Day 2 of the conference
Last night I took the malaria pill and woke up with a fever, feeling like shit. We had some sessions and in the evening they had another mixup with the rooms so we had to give back the keys, we got them back at around 12 30 did some drinking, went to the party etc..
(Sorry for the short description, but the conference actually ended 4 days ago, need to catch up)
Day 3
We did projects, got some good ideas. In the evening we opened the TV and saw the headlines on CNBC *****AIESEC MEETS IN AGRA. We did some more drinking with our friends from LC Pune India.
Day 4
Last day of the conference everyone was sad even though no one was actually leaving Agra at least one day. Got a nice speech from Brody (PAI). In the evening we had Indian night, short non alcoholic, party.
After that we were suppose to go to a nice hotel booked by the OC but only some people made it. Me and Mirko ended up in this rathole, called hotel Apollo. They charged us an extremly high price for indian hotels (20 euro) dont laugh thats a lot in india, you can get a nice hotel for half that. And this hotel had drty walls and a bathroom that looked like a public toilet. Also with us in the hotel were the Hong-Kong delegation, they were fed up with India and couldn t wait to leave and never come back. We are not that easily discouraged. We decided to change hotels in the morning.

Day 1 After the conference
We went to the hotel where the other people were staying, got there, did some haggling and got a room much better than the one in which we stayed last night 40 % cheaper. (12euro)
Went to the Taj Mahal and got lucky, insted of paying the entrance fee750 rupies 15 euro, there was a festivall so the entrance was free.
After that we brushed up on our bargaining skills and got the souveniers at 30% original price.
In the evening we did some more drinking with people from AIESEC Pune and some others. They were thrilled with the game *zoom*.

Day 1 of the conference

So we came to the Jaypee hotel --5 stars. The problem was that they didnt have enought rooms so we waited till 10 pm to get settled in. That s when our opwening planery was starting, so AIESEC people were dancing as usuall but in the back 3 senior citizens were sitting and watching curiously what we were doing. First they asked me what is this suposse to be I said international organization, and went dancing, Mirko stayed so they asked him "Is this like something against world order?" Mirko said YES. When we started yelling the official greeting Yo Bitch they freaked out and ran away fearing for their lives:0
UPDATE
Later that same evening, I went to my room and found out I am staying with this guy from Hong-Kong. Of course I immediately offered him rakija which he hesitately tried and almost suffocated, too strong for him. A few minutes later we got another roomate, this guy was from India(nickname-CHOW) and liked our rakija. Yes and just to mentione the day before in Agra we bought 750ml of indian hard wisky called Doctors Choice. Then a bunch of people gathered in my room and we tried doctors choice, belive me this is by far the most disqasting drink i have ever tried, I couldnt get the flavor out of my stomack even after rakija, rum, beer and votka. There was this African guy who actually liked it. Now we call him the DOCTOR. Our so called kamasutra party sucked, and we couldnt get in the IC party (just to mentione we were severly discriminated all the time compared with the IC delegates).

Another update Almost forgot to tell you all, when I came to the conference I was wearing my Cuba shirt, so people would come up to me and ask me if I was a trainee in Cuba. There is no AIESEC in Cuba, so I started telling everyone I was MCP Cuba. Then they automatically concluded Mirko is also from Cuba.

When we got off the plane, we met a few AIESEC-ers, and went to the exchange office to change money. I exchanged 200 euro and got a stack more than 2 cm thick. I never felt so rich.
Started to wave it around And then when I realised all the money is stapeled togather with two really big staples. Luckily I had my swiss army knife, but it still took me like 20 min. to get my money separated. Thenwe went to the hotel by cab. It had air conditioning, but in India they turn the air conditioning all the way so the difference between outside and inside is like 20-25 degrees. It was like 40 outside, but our room AC was set to 15.
We will add photos when Mirko recharge his digital camera.

Here is the update. We couldnt find any computers in Delhi. Also I forgot my camera so dont expect any photos.
The trip
Day 1
Hungary
We came with the train, got a room near the station, eat some bad burger king food, and went to a casino and made20 euro.
Day 2
We went to the plane, had breakfest at the airport where they robbed us blind==5 euros for a small slice of pizza( we were starving).
The airplane was a relic from the world war.
Then we got to the Moscow airport. We were hungry again so we decided to try a thing called Siberian palenka== a russian specialty. It was actually hot woter with chevapchichi. I think they must have had that in gulags in Siberia.
We borded the plane and the captain was totally drunk. He could hardly pronounce the announcement in Russian, but when he switched to English it sounded like the trrrrip willll lasst foor fiveeee hmmm... no .... 4 hoours and hmmmm .... twenttyy fivve minnuttes. He also forgot the distance and it took him 2 tries to get it wright. Later the stuardess said that the trip actually lasts 5 hours and 30 min.
The rest tomorrow! The Times of India!
DM

Hi everyone. It is me Damir starting my own blog. This first part will be dedicated to the trip to India. I will activate this blog every time I go out of my country (Croatia). Hope ya'll like it. Feel free to post some comments just so I know someone is reading.
Also presenting Mirko(right). The only other person crazy enought to go hang out in India for 3 weeks.