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Published: February 2nd 2008
Hello friends. I miss you.
I am alive and, well, a little stressed. Ok quite stressed, but I'm trying to stay chirpy. The last 12 hours has been something of a bombardment.
Got off the plane on time at noon today, and had my first glimpse of real-life India as I stepped out of the station. First thing is, so many people... Everywhere! Managed to get a prepay taxi to escape the throng but it didn't really change. Mumbai's streets are so busy, I don't think we really have a licence to use the word choc a bloc over in UK when you see how tightly packed the traffic gets on the streets over here. Amazingly it still moves along.
One thing you can't fail to notice is how every driver on the road has one hand permanently glued to his horn. It's beep beep beep every half a second, really quite unsettling at first as you get the impression that everyone's super pissed off, when in fact they're just all super impatient.
You'd think it would lose its relative power since everybody's doing it- my driver got 'the horn' quite a few times during our journey.
Checked into hotel OK.
Decided to explore for a bit, and ventured out of the hotel. This is probably where the real stress kicked in. Its bad enough when you're in a car and there's a honk party going down, when you're a pedestrian your're getting a sharp klaxon down your eardrum at every wrong step (or even for walking at the side of a road!).
My destination was the india tourism office which was, knowing my luck, on the other side of a main downtown road. Bear in mind there are no zebra crossings, friendly little green men and the like over here, crossing the road was a traumatic experience and one that was ultimately unnecessary when I realised the tourism office is CLOSED ON SUNDAY.
Had to cross to road again to get back. Rattling.
Next thing to mention is the smell. Oh the smell. Mumbai has a distinct odour, a grotty effluvium which can only be a mixture of cheap fuel emission (smells very different to London) and city sewage. One can only imagine what its like in the hot season. I've made a point to move on swiftly.
Haven't tuned into the Indian style at all yet. Buying everything face value as am in no mood to haggle, just purchased some brown bananas, a rather deviant variety of tropicana and some mango biscuits. In all honesty i grabbed the first things I saw.
Anyway. I'm very sorry for what was inteded as a upbeat oh-well turned stressed out bloody-hell, I have yet to find my feet. Want to get out of the city VERY BADLY.
Found some very bad news on my return to the hotel though when I realised I have been taking the wrong dose of malaria tablets, i.e. only half as much as I should have been! shitshitshittyness. Means I cant move on to Goa any time soon as it is a malaria blackspot. I have to get out!! My lungs! My ears! My rupees!
Hugs n stuff
x
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Benneston
non-member comment
First!!!1
Double first!!!