first impressions of Mumbai

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landed in Mumbai on Jan 16 at 1:20am. Note that all international flights landing in and departing from India happen between midnight and 6am. This is so that the flight will land in/depart from the other airport at a normal human hour. Most other airports don’t have people working during these ungodly hours but in India, lots of people will work these hours which is why Mumbai airport was teeming with life when I landed.
Got a map of Mumbai on the first day so learned the areas quickly. Stayed in Goregoan, roamed in Andheri East and Powai, got a rabies shot at the Hiranandani hospital for $14.50 Cdn. Moved to Mahim near the Matunga Road Railway Station. Roamed Bandra and the Churchgate, VT downtown areas. Took a lot of auto-rickshaws, some taxis, walked a lot everywhere, used mainly the train. I love love love the fact that every train has a ladies coach. Been out late at night, seems pretty safe.
Unlike Mauritius where everything was pretty much the same everywhere, you move 2 minutes here and everything can be completely different: you go from posh to slum to anything in between every couple minutes. There’s a complete mix of everything everywhere, in the people, the cars, the buildings, the animals, life. Take your pick. There’s constant moving in Mumbai. Traffic is bad everywhere at all times of the day so it’s like you’re constantly trying to get somewhere but there’s so much preventing you from doing it quickly so you’re always pushing to move, to move ahead, this constant pushing, pushing. Every time I leave the house, I get ready for lots of pushing and dealing with a million things at the same time. There’s no such thing as a relaxing stroll on any street. You gotta be watching out constantly for traffic, people, animals, construction everywhere, holes in the ground, just lots and lots of stuff in the way.
Everything seems so chaotic but somehow functions on every level. It’s really a miracle of life going on. I absolutely love it here and could easily live in India. Will definitely look into finding work. Will travel everywhere and see where in India I want to live. Maybe after my volunteer work, maybe after my travels, will see what comes up. In any case I could definitely live here for some time and not get bored. Better start learning Hindi…

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