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Published: November 4th 2008
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Diwali - The Festival of Lights - is one of the biggest celebrations in India, (on a scale similar to that of Christmas). Every single window in this 'worlds-most-crowded' city is adorned with glowing lanterns. Strings of fairy lights drape over entire apartments and trees crawl to life winking coloured light bulbs against the night sky.
The locals ignite a never ending array of crackers, sparklers and rainbows of skyward shooting rockets for nigh on a week. By the end of the festival you'd be happy to bypass cracker-night for the rest of your life. Cheeky kids barrel down quiet side streets, emerging ahead of deafening explosions and sparkling showers of fire. There's anarchy on the streets, no one's in charge, but smiles radiate from the glowing shadows all around. Diwali is crazytown!
Since we arrived on Diwali eve, Sarah kindly suggested we stay in her palatial 5-star hotel home to ease the coordination of the festivities. Of course we gratefully accepted, marveling endlessly at the extent of pure luxury that is her 'house' in Mumbai. Once again, Indian hospitality and generosity blew us away. The hotel general manager allowed us to stay as Sarah's guests free of charge.
We were offered an extravagant buffet breakfast with a grinning chef who cooked up his specialty, Masala Dosa, for Dave each morning, making a show of concern and presenting him with a brand new one if Dave hadn't started on it before it got 'cold', (a matter of minutes). Even the benefits of nightly free happy hour with delicious delicacies in the rooftop bar were extended to us without question. Unbelievable. This would never happen in a similar hotel back home. We will be forever thankful to the ITC Grand Central Hotel staff and Sarah too, for sharing her home.
The majority of Diwali's main day was spent in beauty salons and walk-in wardrobes, planning outfits for the girls to shine at the party that evening. Sujata, a colleague of Sarah's, kindly let Pen and Sar loose on her extensive and stunning sari collection. (More Indian generosity). Sarah, being Sarah, couldn't budge from blue and Pen chose a deep red and gold number. Adorned in flowing chiffon saris, matching jewels and bindis, they hit the party in true Indian style.
Midway through a Bollywood dance under the stars, after the huge Indian buffet and traditional guzzling of Diwali
sweets, (and an open bar), we broke for a private fireworks show downstairs. Fizzing sparklers, shock-inducing crackers and rockets narrowly missing a few open windows in the apartments above were set off by anyone who dared to grab a flame. We were in awe of the danger overshadowing the entire scene. (The Indian people seemed unaware, but we now understand why fireworks are banned in Australia!)
The following morning, as Sarah trudged off to begin her day at the office, we readied ourselves to relinquish our 5-star treatment and head to budget backpacker land. Sar's concierge had kindly booked us a cheaper hotel down in the tourist district of Colaba. Pen was still fighting a case of some mystery bug she'd picked up previously and was struggling to do the basics with any form of enthusiasm. A quick taxi ride later, we arrived to our new home for the next 4 nights. Unfortunately, all did not go according to plan. We were escorted to a tiny mould-infested, windowless cell with a friendly roach on the bed. The filthy bathroom was positioned a convenient 50 metres hike away through the hotel entry lobby. And the damn owner wanted to charge
us an arm and a leg for the privilege. We'd heard Mumbai was expensive, but we really had no idea. You literally have to shell out hundreds of dollars a night just to sleep in a basic hotel room with clean sheets and an internal bathroom. Being near the end of our trip, we clearly didn't have the funds to live at an acceptable standard in Mumbai.
With Pen still feeling under the weather, the thought of spending any amount of time in this depressing dump saw her burst into tears. We were reluctant to inconvenience Sarah any further, but with a waiting car outside ready to ferry us back to her hotel and a doctor's opinion first thing in the morning, it was an offer too good to refuse. We slammed down a hearty Western dinner at the infamous Leopold's as our nerves were rattled by the incessant explosion of super-loud crackers out the window, then drove back up town to The Grand Central haven. A day later we were up at 3am, outta there, heading to the airport on a 3-days-early flight to Bangkok.
Goodbye Mumbai ... hello CHEAP Thailand!
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Rosanne
non-member comment
India...
Penny, You poor thing...Hope you get better! Safe Travels to you both! Rosanne