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Published: March 15th 2011
The Taxi Ride from the Airport to the Hotel My flight landed at 2:30am, so I figured I'd have relatively smooth sailing through traffic for the taxi ride to downtown from the airport. I just didn't realize how smooth. Of the twelve red traffic lights we hit on the way into town, we stopped for precisely NONE of them. I don't think we even slowed down for any of them. In fact, the only time we stopped the whole way (a trip of ~30 mis) was at a green turn arrow because the two cars in front of us were stopped blocking both lanes while having a chat!
The First Day (Mumbai) I normally book my first night's hotel when I'm flying into some place just so I have somewhere to go when I land, but I decided to wing it this time because it was difficult to book any of the cheap hotels online (and by cheap I'm talking $10 or less). So, as I thought might happen, all of the hotels were full when I arrived at 4am, so I spent my first four hours in Mumbai hanging out on a street corner with two Swedes I met
India Week One (101)
Mahalaxmi Dhobi Gat - Place of Clothes Washingat the airport and a bunch of taxi drivers who were just sleeping out on the sidewalk for the night. It was kind of surreal, especially because all the guys sleeping on the street / benches were in slacks and nice button down shirts!
After finally managing to check into a place at 9am, I set out to have an easy day wandering the town for as long as I could to try to beat some of the jet lag. And my plans were going well until I decided to make a quick run up to the Dharavi slums. Now I didn't really know what to expect when I decided to go, but no matter what thoughts I might have had, they certainly would have been wrong. When I got there, I ducked into the first dark alley I saw entering the slum (it's own walled off area), and I was AMAZED to find that it was really quite clean. And all of the people were giggling and happy to see me. The more surprising part happened when I stepped out of the slum. Three college kids at the first shop I passed dragged me in for some chai
- their treat (watch for this theme). After chatting with them for about 15 minutes, they decided to take me on an impromptu tour of the slum. We spent maybe 90 minutes walking all over the place and they introduced me to just about everyone we passed. I mean I must have met 100+ plus people who were aunts, uncles, cousins, sister's boyfriends, best friend's nephews, etc. It definitely was not something I was expecting, and it really gave me a surprising image of the Indian slums. Sure, I know there are probably some really awful parts, but there are also some places where kids are going to college! It really was just like a small, self-contained city tucked inside a bigger metropolis.
The Second Day (Mumbai) Taking pictures with strangers began again in earnest. I thought it would be different here given the history with Britain, but not so. I took maybe 30+ pictures with random Indians I ran across. Heck, I even had a couple hand me their 6-month-old daughter so they could take a picture of us together!
The Third and Fourth Days (Ellora Caves near Aurangabad) Today I learned that, historically speaking, older Indian
civilizations were just as crazy as the Chinese, Egyptians, Inca, etc. in their feats of extravagant building. At the Ellora caves I saw one of the most amazing things I've seen in my entire life - a HUGE temple, plaza, and gate all carved from the side of a mountain. The whole place - including statues and other ornamental carvings - is made of a single stone. Seriously, that is just nuts. Unfortunately, my pictures don't do it justice, but you'll just have to take a look at them to get a feel for what I'm talking about.
Day Five (Ahmadabad) See previous blog post.
Day Six (Ahmadabad) - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Market We'll just call this market day. I forgot to have breakfast, so by the time lunch rolled around I was starving. I decided to pop into a fruit and vegetable market to grab some oranges to tide me over. As I started walking through the market, it was kind of a repeat of day five in that everyone wanted me to take pictures. However, there was one big difference this time - everyone wanted me to either try their
produce or to share some chai with them. After two hours of bouncing from stall to stall, I emerged from the market totally stuffed! They'd managed to make me take 2 tomatoes, two oranges, 1 lemon, two popcicles, 2 cups of chai, 1 cup of coffee, a handful of peanuts, and a handful of another type of nut. And that's just the food that I accepted. I probably turned down three times again that amount. Indian hospitality / kindness is just phenomenal. Now I just wish I could figure out how to get them to accept some of the things I offer in return. Maybe it'll happen when I learn the head waggle.
Weird Things of Note so Far: - I had a snack of cut up pineapple & papaya sprinkled with black pepper. I'll say it tasted pretty interesting.
- I've been asked if I'm Japanese (3 different times) and Chinese. The funniest part is that the people asking seem really surprised / disappointed that I'm actually American instead.
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Evan
non-member comment
Name your sweets
I think I see some barfi...maybe rasgulla? No chikki, jalebi, or kheer?