Mumbai Madness

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We have left Alleppey after traveling around the Indian Backwaters on a thatched house boat. We spent our time floating down the small rivers watching the basic way of life on the river banks. I got to steer the house boat across the largest lake in the Indian state of Kerala. The Indian Backwaters are extremely peaceful and beautiful in contrast to the rest of India.

Unfortunately because of the trouble in Tibet and the elections in Nepal we have been told by the British Embassy not to go into the countries since the entire region has become dangerously unstable. This has caused us major headaches in re-organizing our trip into China since we can not pass overland invalidating out visas.

In addition to our Nepal/Tibet problems, since arriving in Mumbai we have been hit by more transport madness. It’s the Indian holidays and millions of people have taken to the railways booking up almost every seat on every train in every direction. We have been trapped in Mumbai for the last 5 days trying desperately to get back up to Delhi for a flight out of India and into China.

Luckily we were given a few small bits of information by various people that special tickets exist for foreign tourists to get around India during the Indian Holidays. It took 3 days running around the city of Mumbai piecing snippets of information together until we found the magical ticket office known as office 52.

Once there we managed to buy a train ticket to Varanasi and then on to Delhi. We have also booked a flight out of Delhi and into Hong Kong. It takes so much time to arrange the most basic things in India. I can’t see this country becoming the booming economy everyone is predicting. If it does it needs some drastic changes... A start would be a little bit of organization, while educating people not to piss and shit in the streets!

Today we have just returned after wondering around the largest market in Mumbai called CRAWFORDS market! Of course I had to visit it! In typical Indian style it was just chaos with people everywhere. There was little hygiene with dogs, cats, chickens and parrots available for dinner! I watched in amazement while they weighed and subsequently boiled a chicken alive. It wasn’t a very nice sight!

I can’t believe we have survived in India for almost 6 weeks. This country changes you. It makes you into an arsehole. When I first arrived I was very polite with the Indians, but you soon learn that the only way to get around is to push, shove and make you presence known loud and clear. But you have to do this with a big smile on your face. It’s a crazy place with a bizarre way of life - I think I have fallen in love with the madness of it all!

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Photos

House Boat
A House Boat on the Indian Backwaters

Ticket Office 52
It took a long time to locate. Can you see how annoyed Glyn looks!

Crawfords Market
Would you eat it?