Bollywood and Big Balloons!

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16 hour bus turned into 19 hour bus in Bombays morning traffic! It was pretty painful but at least we were here! First impressions of the city were that it was huge, construction everywhere, huge apartment blocks some relatively swanky and some not, around every construction site you were find the slums where all the workers and families would live. That way they would always be on site to work crazy hours.. Amazingly we found out a whopping 55% of one of, if not the, most populous cities in the world live in the slums. We found our hotel in Colaba - South Mumbai (India Guest House) and our room can only be described as a plywood box. The guest house is one floor in a multi floor building and theyve just squeezed a bunch of little rooms in by nailing plywood everywhere so none of the rooms have ceilings, we all share the same one. It's like living in a cubicle - hilarious! It costed us 450R - one of the most expensive so far but such is Mumbai it was the best we could get. After a bit of a rest and a chance to get the bus out of our mind we made a beeline for McDonalds, sad I know but we worked up a killer craving on the bus. No beef but the chicken maharaja mac hit the spot. First impressions out on Mumbai's streets was that it was nice, and much easier to handle than Delhi. There were actual pavements, wide roads, taxis instead of rickshaws (kind of a shame!) and beautiful grand colonial buildings everywhere. We had the feeling we were going to like Mumbai and headed down to the famous 'Gateway to India' monument built by the British to welcome, and I quote; 'Their Imperial Majesties George V and Queen Mary'. It was involved in some refurbishment which was a shame but next door the huge 'Taj Palace Hotel' was more impressive. Wouldnt look out of place on brighton beach either! The harbour was filthy but we'd made it too the sea! Men came up every few minutes or so saying 'big balloon!?' and carrying ridiculously big balloons. Me and Katie were in hysterics that of all the things they could sell to travellers they settled on this. In our whole time in Bombay there was a big balloon seller no more than a few steps away!

After an afternoon sleep inflicted by a lack on the bus, we decided to go for a walk through town to Marine Drive - a huge curving road along the sea front and surrounding 'back bay'. On the way there walking we came to the conclusion that yes, we did really like Mumbai and people who'd warned us off were clearly wrong. The buildings were all beautiful and the streets amazingly tropically green. After getting a bit lost and getting directed we found Marine Drive. It was really nice with all the skyscrapers lit up at night and reflecting on the bay and the 'queens necklace' of streetlights all the way round the bay was wicked. We sat and appreciated for a while feeling very far from Rajasthan and the India we'd grown to know! We walked back feeling happy to be in Mumbai and had a good sleep.

Next day in the morning we got enlisted at the hotel to be extras in a Bollywood film for the whole day tommorow. We'd be fed and watered with all transport provided and get paid 500R (about 8 pounds) but hey, we wouldve done it for free! Feeling very pleased with ourselves we went to one of Mumbai's swanky coffee houses and had the only good coffee I've had since leaving home, although I did manage to spill most of mine and get a replacement! We headed to the art deco regal cinema at the end of Colaba Causeway and bought some tickets to see a Bollywood Film called Mithya that afternoon. Mithya was a strange film. Man sees gangster shootout, Man goes to police, Gangsters capture him realise he looks like man in other gang. Kill man in other gang and put this guy in as replacement. Man gets amnesia and believes he is this guy. They find out, kick his arse, he falls in love with ganster dons trophy bride and they both get caught and killed. So much for all singing all dancing and happy endings! Interesting though and surprisingly easy to follow seeing as we dont speak a word of Hindi. Strangely the national anthem was played before the film and everyone stood!? Afterwards we decided to head back to marine drive as it was daytime and walk to the end to go to Chowpatty Beach - Yes Mumbai has a beach! Marine Drive looked really cool again and it was only now that we appreciated the crumbling art deco apartment blocks - was it Miami or Bombay? After the long walk all the way round in the humidity we got to Chowpatty beach . Nice chill out spot although completely unswimmable due to filthy water! It had a backdrop of skyscrapers, most urban beach I've ever been to. We watched sunset and headed back with the plan to go our drinking for the first real time in India - It's acceptable here! There was only one place on our minds - Leopolds Bar (Read Shantaram!). Had a really good night swapping stories and jokes with some hilarious Kiwi's who happened to be staying at the same hotel too. We planned on not making it much of a late one due to early Bollywood start but the Kingfisher flowed and we had a really good night. Was amazing to see Indian teenagers smoking and drinking, even the girls. Wouldnt get that anywhere else in India at all!

Early start for Bollywood day was painful and we headed to the meet point on the Causeway to be carted off through Bombay with a bus load of other westerners to the studios about an hour north in the city. They didnt look great from the outside and we were waiting around for an hour or so before we were all called on to get changed. They put the guys in suits, mine was ridiculously shiny and blue - couldve been in an 80s nightclub or Miami Vice, But thats how westerners dress everyone knows that, and the girls were in cocktail dresses and trouser suits. We were lead on set which was of a courtroom style room with 'Toronto' Logo's up everywhere. We were in a film called 'Lucky Charm'. A romantic comedy set in.. Toronto. The scene was a tribunal for 2 companies competing for an architectual contract or something - thrilling stuff. We sat for ages as tiny little fragments were shot and cameras set up and taken down. It was a long day of sitting around but I was sat with some really nice people who made for good conversation! There was a famous Bollywood heart throb staring and he had to have the biggest ego ever having a man whos sole job was to hold his mirror while he primped... We all found it hilarious! Think theres a possibility that we could have made it into a few shots so everyone look out for it haha. Not quite all singing all dancing but a wicked experience and something to say we've done! At about 10.30pm we finally got carted back to Colaba absolutely knackered!

We woke to our final Mumbai day and decided to get all the key sight seeing done, so after a breakfast in Leopolds we headed to the gateway monument to catch a boat to nearby Elephanta Island where some amazing cave carvings would be found! The boat out onto the harbour was interesting, Mumbai clearly had a huge port and naval base it was very industrial! It was very strange to see a huge luxury yacht with the backdrop of slums, India's crazy contrasts are amplified tenfold in Mumbai! Finally after an hour or so in the baking hot on the boat we made it to the small tropical Island which looked very out of place in the now heavily polluted and industrial harbour! It was so hot that we were completely drained and the walk up the hill to the caves was a real struggle! However the carvings were stunning, of Shiva and other deities and clearly hundreds if not thousands of years old. (We were too tired to do our history research). On the way back we got attacked by more evil monkeys but we found out to ward them off you just need to pick up a big rock and brandish it menacingly! We headed back on the boat and refuelled at McDonalds, terrible I know, and walked through the busy rush hour streets to see the magnificent Victoria Terminus Station, the jewel in the crown of the old British Raj. It really was the most stunning building, let alone station. Huge soaring gothic towers and amazing detail. We ventured inside and saw the madness of Mumbai's surburban rail network at rush hour! All the trains are doorless and completely open with just a pole in the open doorways. People had mastered the art of running through the crowds jumping onto the moving train by swining themselves in on the pole! We were loosing daylight but thought we might just still have time to get a taxi north to Haji Ali's Mosque. We got there a little after dark which was a shame but it was quite impressive. Its out in the sea connected by a walkway only walkable at low tide. Like some weird marble ship. The people at this end of Mumbai clearly didnt see that many tourists as we were sticking out like sore thumbs and getting all sorts of attention! So we hastily grabbed a taxi back to our hotel in Colaba and chilled out in the cardboard box for a little bit. We went online to check on Rob's flight - all ontime - and found it mental that we'd be seeing him in a few hours after one month as just the two of us! We went to Leopold's and toasted a great month before heading back to the cardboard box to lie down and wait for our taxi at 2am.

The drive to the international airport was really quick, around 40 mins, but then again the streets were fairly empty, like a different city! We were happy to drive along marine drive and say our goodbyes! The airport looked fairly nice and much less hectic than Delhi but was ungoing construction work so the arrivals lounge was the pavement outside the airport. Luckily it was nice and warm still. Rob's plane landed ontime and maybe 50 minutes later he came wandering out and we rushed over. It was so strange but great to see him! We gave Rob the terrible news that we werent going back to the hotel as by now it was 4am and we'd just go wait it out until 2pm for our flight to Goa! So we grabbed a taxi (which needed a pushstart) to the Domestic Airport which was amazing - so modern and new! Maybe the wait wouldnt be so bad, so we settled in a nice modern coffee bar and got a little bit of sleep before being awoken by the staff who wouldnt let us sleep... so that night consisted of about an hour of sleep and a lot more hours of airport. Finally it was 12pm and we checked into our Spice Jet flight and headed for Goa!
Keep In Touch sorry this ones taken a while. Goa blog in a few days or something!

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Photos

Marine Drive
Miami? Marine Drive Bombay

Chowpatty Beach
Skyscraper backdrop

Comments

[Dad]

As yes the memories come flooding back!
Lots of very familiar sights in these pictures. Strangely this blog entry even evokes the smell of Mumbai -- how did you do that?! Enjoy Goa! It's going to be a bit different :)