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6.3.10

Ben Dougan hits India. From Ben's Blog

FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2010


Birthday, and last day off before I start shooting for the Bollywood film again!

It's my birthday! 20th birthday and the start was special. Headed down to the Gateway of India this morning to watch the sunrise, what a way to celebrate! Hmmmm... What to do today? Was seriously hawked and gawked at today trying to find a hotel to stay in. If you are looking for a hostel/ hotel in Mumbai, Colaba is where most tourists 'hang out' and Salvation Army is a good place to stay. Anyway, 20 is going to be a good year... A lot will happen... Anyways I'm heading out of Mumbai next week I've decided. It's quite expensive (incredibly cheap compared to UK) but I am on such a tight budget. Also I want to get out of this amazing, incredible, breath-taking, but unbelievably crowded city. But I will return later on in my trip I think. I'm headed down to Trivandrum in Kerala by train and gonna go for sleeper class, I think ticket is around 500Rs which is 7.20 (approx) for a 20 hour train journey. How much would a 20 hour train journey cost in the UK? London from where I live Lancaster is around 50 pounds if you book on the train and it take 3 hours to get there, so say that rate for a 20 hour journey in the UK would be around 300-350 pounds! But you can't get a train for 20 hours in the UK - thank God...
Thanks for reading and I'll be blogging again in a week or so. Just started and trying to get my head around this blogspot.
Thanks again x

India Trip - Mumbai

Dear Readers,
This is my first blog for my travels whilst 'on the road', and basically I've set it up to help other people who intend to travel and want to gain a bit of knowledge where to go, for family and friends to keep up with me on my travels and for the person where adventure and ambition is in there heart. This is for you. Firstly, where to start... I feel that travelling, adventuring and helping less privileged people than myself has always been within me. I recall my mum and dad saying that as soon as I could walk, I was off and there was no stopping me. I'm 19, 20 tomorrow, and I'm in the first proper trip of my life, discovering India, Cambodia, Thailand, Maylaysia and Singapore. I started my travels really going to Cape Town in South Africa to volunteer in a children's orphanage called Masigcine, in a township named Mfuleni, in October 2009. I was in Cape Town for a month. The experiences I got from there were invaluable, and I will never forget the place, the kids and the people. From this I wanted to see more of the places that are totally different to that of the UK. I thought, India... And here I am. In a youth hostel composing my blog. It's an unbelievable incredible place. Crowded, dirty, crazy roads and poverty, lot's of it. But I love it. I've only been here 4 days so I can't really say I love it yet, but right now, at this moment, I love it. Carrying my bag into the hostel I was instantly approached by a Bollywood extra scout and found myself on the first day working on a Bollywood film set, in a CIA or MI5 type-room, pushing tollies and carrying evidence boxes around all day. By midday I was offered a job til this coming Tuesday, which I immediately took. It's paid work, 500Rs per day, but the hours are long 7.45am - 11 pm and even though you don't do much it is pretty tiring, but on the plus side the food in fucking good. The people who do extra work also are in the boat so everyone gets along well. An extra, who is from Mumbai said "In India, if you are working hard, they will make you work harder..." and that seems to be the working ethic here. Also, I want to become an Actor, actually now I suppose I am an Actor, so this experience is fantastic for me. I auditioned at all the top Drama Schools in the UK last year. I did well, but was fortunately unsuccessful. I say fortunately beacuse if I would've got in, I would not have had the expereinces to call upon and inject into roles from even the experiences and sights I have now. Anyways time is running out on computer so need to wrap up.
Thanks for reading and anything e-mail me. I'll be blogging again soon.
Ben x

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