My mum always told me if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. That doesn't really work on a blog so here's the truth of Indore, at least our experience of it.
Indore isn't on the normal tourist trail and for us it was a stop that got us nearer to where we needed to be - to make a 24 hour journey into two smaller overnight ones instead (and it happened to have a Palace to visit). From the moment we stepped off the bus we didn't really feel welcome. By this point we had gotten used to being stared at but it felt like here everyone had to have a look. We had also gotten used to the spitting but we'd never had to jump out the way so often. All in all it wasn't a great start.
Then we arrived at the hotel, there we were also made to unwelcome. We had booked in advance and told them we would be arriving early, this had apparently been ignored as they were surprised to see us. They immediately charged us for the early check-in, the price was high but we were told abruptly we could pay it or leave. Then we were shown to our room, the first one shown hadn't been cleaned at all and the second wasn't much better. To be honest, we're not normally overly fussy and will get on with it, but as the hotel was more expensive than we usually went for and we were charged for early check-in we just weren't having it.
Then commenced the almost hour long game with the porter of "is this sheet dirty?" Looking back, we must of seemed the hotel guests from hell, i'm not proud of it but with the price we had to pay we at least wanted clean bed sheets. We eventually found sheets that were clean enough and after a sleep deprived night decided to go for a nap.
As the weather was bad and I wasn't feeling great Ben went out to wander alone that afternoon. His first stop was the Rajwala Palace, built in 1766 it was home to Holkars of the Maratha Empire who had the building commissioned. The palace is one of the oldest structures in Indore and features various architectural styles, Mughal, Maratha and french. All that information has come straight from the internet as when Ben arrived (after an hour-long squelch through the drizzle) the Palace was unfortunately shut for renovations.
He next headed somewhere that was more up his alley; Chappan Dukan, Indore's own street food market. Chappan Dukan in hindi means 56 shops as when it opened it had, you guessed it 56 shops. Open from 6am to 10pm the market is famous for cheap and delicious street food and three of Indore's most renowned sweet vendors have premises here. In the VJ Chaat Walla - after some confusion on how the ordering system works - Ben enjoyed a coconut and chickpea ball which was deep fried and served with chutney. This set him back a whole 20 Rs and went down a treat. He also visited Johnny hotdog for a veg hot-dog that was actually a burger and then along to one of these famous sweet shops. I feel personally that he might have got overcharged at the last place, when he arrived back at the hotel with 800Rs of sweets i was not amused! Although nice, Indian sweets just aren't my thing.
While Ben was being adventurous at one of India's most famous street food markets, my weak stomach and banging headache wanted something more familiar. Enter India's version of the Big Mac the Veg Maharaja Mac. Similar only to the English version in that the pictures look nothing like the end product. Later upon looking out the bathroom window i discovered that the pounding wasn't only in my head but was being supplemented by the banging of drums. From what we could gather, it was graduation in this university city and that means bands of students roaming the streets, banging loud drums while throwing paint powder at each other. It looked like fun, but wasn't what i needed to help the headache go away!
The next day our bus wasn't until 9.30pm, and with having to leave the hotel at 10am we had some time to kill. After some very aggressive staring outside the hotel (imagine 30cm from our faces while someone walked past) we decided to go and watch a film to waste some time. We picked the only film that was in English and wow was it bad. 10/10 would not recommend watching "Ready or not", a film where nothing really makes sense and half the characters self-combusted at the end. Well, i wouldn't recommend it unless you're in Indore and need to have a break from the atmosphere. We really should have clocked on to the popularity of the film earlier, we shared the cinema with only one other person. Well him and two others that popped in for ten minutes to sit in the front seats and have a loud conversation before leaving again.
The cinema is inside the Treasure Island Mall, a rather upmarket shopping centre that had many designer shops and a M&S. We couldn't have looked more out of place, with our scruffy comfortable travelling clothes and huge backpacks on... that got searched by security on the way in. However, right outside the cinema on the top floor wasn't well kept at all, the area in the middle looked like a bomb had gone off. No lights worked, food stalls left abandoned, ceiling tiles littered the floor along with what seemed like hundreds of Dominos pizza boxes. This didn't stop people using the area. While we walked past many people sat casually in the mess adding to it with pizza boxes of their own. Thankfully the cinema had a bag desk, so we could as least shed our luggage while "enjoying" the film. All films start with the Indian national anthem and have a 15 intermission in the middle, but apart from that the cinema is exactly like the ones back home.
After a few more hours of finding cafes to sit in we headed to the bus and our next destination, Aurangabad.
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