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Published: February 10th 2010
Day 1 (Technically, Still 04/02/10)
After having difficulty finding a compromise between a cool and loud room or a quiet and hot, humid room we probably got about 3 hours or so of sleep each before being slowly woken by the Bob Marley - legend album from next door. We both agreed it was just the wake up we wanted. We decided we liked the room and paid for another night, Donned a t-shirt and some jeans and headed out, we thought that seeing as its India’s cool season jeans would be just fine, a decision we’d regret heavily in about 3 hours or so.
Delight Guest house was close to the gateway of India so we headed off to there, through the unnamed streets, shops cluttered with multiple levels of sign posting, all of which looked decayed towards Mumbai Harbour. The gateway is a huge basalt arch created to commemorate the 1911 visit of king George V although it wasn’t finished until 1924, what I like most about the arch is the fact that it was ironically used as the place from where the last British regiment in India left in 1948.
As we made our way
to the harbour-side pavement we were probably asked by 7 different people whether we wanted “big balloon?” The street sellers then proceeded to demonstrate the beauty and magnificence of such a big balloon by slapping it hard, producing an impressive low bellow, some vendors even squeaked the balloon at us with cheeky grins which we couldn’t help but laugh at. The gateway itself is marvellous and you can imagine just how inspiring the arch must’ve been for returning merchants and sailors.
It’s strange but in Mumbai there’s a strange mix of sunlight and pollution that creates a light fog which lingers where ever you are, severely inhibiting long-range sight, Boats in the near distance seemed whitewashed and some the perfect distance away were merely mystic silhouettes against a grey backdrop. Anyway, we consulted our map after being harassed by one guy (we didn’t really know how to deal with the really persistent friendly ones yet) and headed off to chowpatty beach which was 3-4km walk and we wanted to explore this mental new city. After attempting to use our sense of direction we failed and ended up walking a long way down colaba causeway which is a market which
has some shanty towns on it towards the peninsula. It’s safe to say that the beggars, scammers, touts and taxis knew where the ‘rich foreigners’ are and as such getting harassed was common to say the least.
The market sells books, silks, cloths, watches, bangles, bracelets, rings, perfumes, wallets, cigarettes, zippos, cds, films, games, fruit, other foods, you name it. Every stall sees you as walking cash and people are asking you if you want all these different things, even getting offered hash at 10am was surprising. 2 men in orange robes attempted to put something in our hands which we avoided, I stopped to look at a fake copy of Shantaram by Gregory Roberts (awesome book from what I’ve heard) and these 2 persistent guys turned out to be doing a religious act on us due to an Indian religious festival called ‘Tati’ or something similar and before he started, wary of a scam I asked if it was free - he said “of course is free sir”. What could go wrong? He started by giving me some sugar lumps which he said to eat as they were good luck, I smelt one, tasted it and realised it
was pure sugar and munched them down as he placed a marigold on my eyelid and started praying, after this he gave me the marigold and said I should put it in my pocket as it was good luck once again, “I’m gonna be lucky today” I thought and they then wrapped red and yellow string around our wrists then smiled at us, shook the basket they were holding and said “donation sir? You give Donation? You must donate.”
Sigh, why couldn’t I have just remembered the first sentence that Luke sent me in a message about India - “DON’T TRUST ANYONE IN INDIA”. It certainly would’ve stopped us getting into that pickle. We started muttering that we don’t have money, we wouldn’t donate etc, With them getting more persistent and seemingly offended these 2 Indian women approach us and proceed to have a full blown - fluent English - go at us, and their words were “Don’t give them money, I can’t believe you people fall for this and encourage them to continue, Don’t give money to anyone unless they have no arms or legs” A sentence which I’ve called upon a few times in heart wrenching situations
since.
A vow not to fall for something so stupid was agreed. We felt like crown idiots, and we were. We realised we were not heading into the direction of Marine Drive and chowpatty beach due to an increasing number of slum-like settlements down side alleys (You’d think that big city’s would have road signs or names at crossings or large intersections but you’d be wrong) so we headed back to the hostel, only to consult the map and head off in the correct direction this time. Crossing roads in Mumbai is dangerous but easy if you’re observant. Traffic obeys lights at rush hour because that’s the only time it’s seen as being necessity, so in a weird way it’s actually easier to cross the roads at rush hour because there’s clear waves of traffic to avoid rather than acting like frogger and going one lane at a time.
People begging is difficult to get used too, Disfigured people hobble up to you with a hand open saying “change, coins” as do lots of young boys and girls, and old ladies. It’s also difficult looking at a child begging in the street who may well be a runaway
and in the background see a stunning Ferrari blast its stunning engine drawing jealous looks from everywhere. Contrast is huge. Another example although not exactly the same principle is the fact that the congested, dangerous and polluted streets of Mumbai are filled and often covered by stunning exotic foliage, a wide array of birds (over 400 species within the Greater Mumbai area which is 1/3 of the India total).
We hit marine drive and enjoyed a very strange absence of honking, barking or shouting for a very long 10 seconds as we sat on the wall/ pavement overlooking Back Bay which is maybe 2km wide, in-between 2 peninsulas, When we got bored we missioned it to the other one, Via a nice cafe near chowpatty beach where we enjoyed a deserved Kingfisher. The sun was scorching down, the jeans were hot and my legs were now chafing, not fun - but we soldiered on determined to find something of tourist interest with aircon. We headed to a large intersection just north of chowpatty with many points of interest on the map and seemingly didn’t see a single one as we slowly headed left at the intersection after taking a
long hard look around and seeing absolutely nothing although we’re sure we were in the right place. Bizarre. But regardless of our failing tourist spot finding we did find a deserted park that looked to be undergoing some renovation. We sat on some cool marble chairs beneath a coconut tree inhabited by yellow striped chipmunks and enjoyed the sea breeze then headed off via a fun looking sea side walk... we both reached the top of the ramp to the walkway, and stopped. We looked at each other, said ‘oh’ turned around and headed off as we would’ve been walking into a shanty town. Not a good idea we agreed and we headed off for another 30 minutes or so before we got a taxi back to colaba from the jain temple on the western peninsula during rush hour for what we thought was a bargain (100rs / £1.25). We know now we could’ve probably got that for 70 or so, maybe less if we pushed hard. The taxi dropped us at the top of colaba causeway near cafe mondegar and we strolled to McDonalds, got a big Maharaja Mac meal which is like chicken tikka in some buns (very
nice actually). We were en route back to Delight when we saw a couple of Swedish girls talking to an Indian guy who looked up when he saw us and said “hey guys you wanna be in bollywood? We pay you 500 rupees for the day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, lots of water, It’s good fun, you’ll meet some people and you’ll enjoy yourself, you even get paid 500 rupees and we fee.....”
“We’ll do it” I said as soon as I saw his name was Imran Jiles, a name Luke gave me so I knew he was genuine. Organised to meet at McDonalds at 8:30 prepared for a 13 hour day where we get paid less than 1 hour of Alex Fraser’s precious and apparently invaluable voice on the phone.
We then, after quickly changing into flip flops and shorts, got a taxi ride to Marine Drive determined to see the sun set at a place they call the queens necklace. We missed sunset but we did the whole walk along marine drive to chow patty beach again, Befriending a little boy who kept pestering Simon with cute little innocent questions for 5 minutes or so before thrusting maps
at as and gesturing for us to give him money or food. It annoys me that he wants us to buy his kindness but it also annoys me that even if I did give money to him, It may make us both feel better in the short run but there’s going to be no tangible difference in his Quality of life.
We were determined to find a couple of foreigners but marine drive was mostly just young Indian couples chatting and laughing.
Chow patty beach had no travellers to our disappointment as we wanted to try our conversation starter “do you know where in Mumbai we can get a Guinness?” We got some kulfi (A Firmer substance than sorbet but a taste similar to Ice cream) at a place recommended by lonely planet and got a taxi back and conked out fully.
I couldn’t believe where I was or that I’d only been there for a day that evening, I realised I kinda like the chaos of the city though.
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anonymous
non-member comment
Had me literally laughing out loud ;-) How was your stomach after the kulfi?? Sounds lke a bad idea - probably contained tap water....???