Mumbai in the moonlight

Thursday PM

It’s a little hard to know where to begin. I feel like I’ve been gone for weeks.
I’m in downtown New Delhi having arrived here this morning by train from Mumbai (Bombay). This whole experience has been a dizzying one to say the least. It’s 6:30 in the evening and I’m in an internet café…more Americans and Europeans here than I’ve seen all day.

Every thing went flawlessly until I hit Mumbai. Amtrak was early!!??!! Imagine that. My plane took off early, arrived in Amsterdam early and arrived in Mumbai early. After getting through customs it was 1:30 and no place to possibly hangout till morning. I got a pre paid taxi (meaning I wouldn’t get taken for a “ride”) and found a motel near Victoria Terminus Station.

The taxi ride…well what a ride…through 15 miles of slums; a city wide awake; lanes don’t exist; what few traffic signals we encountered were ignored. To say the driving here is wild just doesn’t begin to describe…At one point when approaching a red light, my driver didn’t even let off the gas, just lay on the horn. If anyone has watched the youtube video on crossing the street in India, well, that’s the way it works a lot of the time. No doubt in my mind at this point, the most dangerous thing one can do in India is cross the road or ride in a vehicle. Speeds aren’t too high, so maybe its not as bad as it seems.

After what I witnessed on my ride from the airport, I didn’t soon get to sleep despite only a few hours in the past 24. Never really felt jet lag but kind of disoriented as to time.

I don’t really know what to say about the 8 million people living in the slums of Mumbai. I suppose “seasoned travelers” will think I’m quite soft, innocent, uninitiated? There’s nothing to say. I won’t describe it. I feel like a witness to something I shouldn’t have been permitted to see…like seeing your grand parents naked. How could you describe that to someone? I didn’t take any pictures…for the same reason. What’s there is no more or no less horrible than I imagined. But if you saw a dinosaur skeleton, would you know what a dinosaur looked like? I’ve certainly read about slums and seen pictures of slums but… So, I suppose I need to harden myself and hold back the tears that have come to my eyes from time to time over the past couple days.

There are lots of people here who are good at trying to separate a person from their money. Every time I lose a few dollars I tell myself “that won’t happen again”…I tell myself that every time. But all in all losing $30-$40 isn’t so terrible… lots worse could happen. I chalk it up to experience and as long as it doesn’t happen too many more times I guess it’s not that bad.

After the most recent experienced of being separated from a little money-a $13.00, $2.00 taxi ride I got a reprieve at the local YMCA. Just a place to sit down, rest and be able to think helped a lot. I contacted my Indiana neighbor,Veer's, sister, Prita. She and her husband met me at the YMCA, which had no rooms available anyway, and took me out to lunch at a sumptuous restaurant…the contrast with the previous 24 hours couldn’t be more stark. After an outstanding meal we located a motel that could actually be called pretty nice. When I mentioned $24.00 luxury hotels, I wasn’t kidding. Motels are available for as little as, say, $6.00 and paying the extra 15 or 20 bucks can buy a lot. However, I can’t afford $25 hotel rooms for 30 days and am perfectly willing to sleep cheap.

After dinner I walked around Delhi trying to get oriented and take in the sights. While slums here are extensive, I have seen the parts of the city that are much less gritty…all in all, a much, much less heart rending experience than Mumbai.

I plan to hang out here tomorrow and check out the city some more, find a rail pass the next day and head north.

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