The plane trip was terrible. One thing I never did as a child was stay up all night. My friends would tease me about it as though I was missing out on something truly wonderful. I'm now kind of proud to say that I haven't done an all nighter. The plane trip tried its hardest to break my achievement by keeping me awake for 48 hours. However I am not going to count this in as we travelled through so many time zones that it wasn't really a whole night. It was more like 3 nights without day. Confusing.
It was all over and we arrived at Mumbai airport safe and sound, feeling tragically tired. You can actually see slums from the runway, you don't even need to get off the plane.
The hotel was wonderful with no flushing toilet and no hot water. It was also 'conveniently' placed next to the Khar railway station. The sound of 3rd world trains braking mingled with amplified prayer chanting does miracles to ones jet-lagged and sorry head. Anyway, the first night passed rather uneventfully, which I would argue is a good thing.
The next day we set out to do real exploring.The photos you see in guide books and on the internet do not do justice to the true grit of Mumbai. There is something filling every square centimetre. Rubbish, useless signs in other languages (Hindi, Marathi, Urdu & Indian english), people, dogs, cats, crows(different markings to australian crows you'll be glad to know father), debris from buildings, bright cloth, plastic, plastic, plastic and cars/motorbikes/auto rickshaws/bicycles. Everywhere. At about 9 in the morning we went down onto the street outside the wonder-tastic hotel to find what would have to have been about three thousand people just milling about in the square. You had to push to get through them all. And there really wasn't anything special happening. The Beatles were not resurrected, drawing crowds of thousands. Mahatma Ghandi was not sauntering around amongst his people. Nothing was happening, yet a few thousand people had decided to just hang out together in the square. Crazy.
We had to get a cab because the trains are so bad during peak. We went to the crawford market where we got hounded to buy shit for about an hour (which is all that is possible to stand). Then we went to the main train station where we bought tickets to Nasik. We got ripped off trying to buy train tickets, which was all good fun and games. Then some good man named Bali approached us and offered to show us around the city. This would normally seem like a nasty way to rip us off except that he actually made the initial rip-man give us some money back. Not half bad.
We accepted his offer and went on a little tour of the city. First stop was some temple, not really all that. Next was the hanging gardens. Pretty colonial and in the rich part of town. There is a laughing club that congregates at the gardens every morning to laugh. Supposed to relieve stress and shit, something everyone needs in Mumbai . Then we went to the house where Ghandi stayed in Mumbai. Now its a museum/library dedicated to the fellow. Pretty amazing life he had. The museum itself was disappointing, lacking in information but it was nice to just hang out there. Nice and clean and all that.Then we cruised down to the laundromat for the city. A huge shanty town built around a giant collection of small pools. People would base the wet clothes against rocks until they were clean. The clothes were then hung up to dry; string tied between rooves acting as support.
Then I wanted to go down to Colaba and see Leopalds (best bar thing around) and the gateway to India (jetty). Fortunately, we were too tired to do anything more so we bailed back to our hotel which was an extremely good idea seeing as a bunch of extremists went downtown to Colaba and shot and blew and stabed a whole lot of tourists into the grave. Not very nice at all and just a wee bit too close for home for my liking.
We went to the hotel, did some relaxing. Listened to some beats. Read some Conrad. Had a shower. Oh yes, that reminds me, everything stinks. Even the water out of the taps smells like feaces. Totally unappealing but you get used to it pretty quickly. Today we got up and took the train too Nasik. Much nicer town than Mumbai, less people trying to rip you off and much more friendly people. We found a hotel with a room for 624 rp (about $20), about 1500rp cheaper than the dump in Mumbai. Not half bad either, although the beds leave something to be desired. We'll see how they pan out.
Still alive and kicking.Nicholas&Katey
View from our window. Take note of plasic fields and train platforms.
The Loundromat of Mumbai.
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