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Published: April 6th 2011
Hi Everyone and welcome to the India Blogs of Anne and Mike,
On Tuesday the 29th of March, we set out from Cairns early in the morning, bound for Mumbai. We flew to Brisbane first and were delighted to see that Nick Vujicic was on our flight to Singapore. I resisted the urge to race up and say hello and instead doubled back to the bookshop to buy his book. I had not heard of Nick until a fortnight ago when Adam Hills interviewed him on “Gordon Street Tonight.”Nick was born without any limbs and is an inspirational person. Later in the flight I said “Hi” to him and found out that he was on a multi-country speaking tour. He offered me a hug and a chat. What a lovely guy.
Arrival in Mumbai occurred at the ungodly hour of 2.30am on Wednesday morning, though in India I don’t think any hour can possibly be ungodly...I’ve read that there are 300 000 deities here! We set out later to investigate Mumbai... hot, stall lined footpaths, loads of traffic, taxis, busses, cars beeping, metallic sugarcane juicers clinking in hypnotic rhythms, the occasional huge trench being dug out by men with
jackhammers alongside men with barefeet in loincloths holding poles to clear the debris, flowerstalls and foodcarts selling curries, coconuts and various grain looking snacks in sacks on their counters...and that was in the first five minutes! Later in the day India played Pakistan in the World Cup Semi and we, along with millions of Indians happily watched them win.
Thursday was a big day. We visited The Gateway to India, built on the Mumbai Bay, by the British in 1924 as a tribute to King George the 5th. They didn’t know then, that some 24 years later the Brits would be parading out of there after @ 350 years of rule in India... the period known as the British Raj had come to a close and India had claimed its independence. We crossed the bay by boat to visit “Elephant Island”, for a look at an ancient Hindu stone temple carved out of a sandstone cliff-face. Carvings of Lord Shiva along with other Hindu Gods watched silently from the borders as an official security guard charged us 200 Rupees ($4) for a tour, only to be shushed away by a scowling government guide whose services turned out to
be free with our entry ticket. No wonder that guy was sweating bullets and putting the many impressive carved columns between us and the other guides and speaking in the Hindiest of English! I was learning about India quickly! On our return to the mainland we visited the very swanky Taj Mahal Hotel and sipped tea in the Sea Lounge. Possibly the most salubrious restaurant I’ve ever been in....a stark contrast to the frenetic activities on the streets below.
Later that evening, on our walk to the local Chowpatti Beach area, we dropped in to the huge Victoria Train Station at peak-hour. It was heaving with a mass of humanity . I noticed here, how beautiful the women are in their saris. Even at peak-hour, they sail through the crowd like brightly coloured yachts, somehow above everything and part of it at the same time. We got lost looking for the beach and entered some very poor streets with little kids playing on the broken narrow roads. The open faced buildings seemed to hold hundreds of households. This detour gave us a truer picture of India. Everyone here looked busy just getting by. By contrast, the beach, when
we got there at sunset, was beautiful... a big ball of orange shimmering low on the horizon in the heat haze, framing romantic couples sitting on the seaface and young families having fun. It looked like an ad for India! I slept for about 14 hours that night and the next day we contented ourselves with a slower, mindless pace by seeing a Bollywood movie in Hindi and having an easy day.
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Tracey
non-member comment
Great idea
to have a travel blog - even better than the group email. Looks like you're having an amazing time! Looking forward to the next instalment.