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Published: March 14th 2010
When I met my friend Caroline at the Mumbai airport she was bombarded with all the usual sounds, sights and smells associated with arriving in India. The cab from the airport weaved through traffic at near suicidial speeds. Fires burned on the streets where people slept. And the air was filled with the sounds of car horns, the smells of smoke, oil and incense. Everything went as was to be expected.
As we spent that first day exploring Mumbai I was struck by how expensive and Western everything was. Not since I left New York had I paid so much for basic staples, nor had I seen so many people living lifestyles that mirrored those of Western professionals. We spent the day in Colaba, the economic center of India, surrounded by Indian professionals, Western visitors, and the desperately poor who sat on the street corners begging. As evening fell we were both happy to head to the train station to board a night train to Goa, India's beach state and a world away from the urban chaos of Mumbai.
We had to make a stop at a travel agency en route to the station to pick up the train
tickets I had purchased the day before. At the travel agency we were told that the tickets, which I had thought were guaranteed, had never been formally confirmed and that the train was full. Frustrated, we got a refund and headed to another travel agency only to be told there would be no way to leave town that night. At this point I decided that our best bet would be to head to the train station itself and see if we could talk to anyone who could let us on the train. After spending nearly an hour trying to navigate our way through the world's busiest train station (side note: Slumdog Millionaire was filmed here) we were finally told by a top manager that the only way we could leave that night was to buy a standing room ticket - not a great option for a 12 hour overnight ride. Finally we were approached by a tout who promised to get us tickets for the first train out in the morning. Not knowing what else to do we followed him back to the agency where I had bought the first tickets the day before. At this point it was well
after midnight and Caroline hadn't had a full night sleep in 3 days. Exhausted, we bought tickets on a morning train and went to a nearby hotel to sleep for a couple hours.
Mumbai was a fascinating city in many ways, but it would also be a difficult city to live in. It was the first place in India where I saw the exceedingly rich and desperately poor co-existing in very close quarters. Flashy new skyscrapers back up onto sprawling slums, and Indian professionals dine in swank restaurants where the bill can come to more than the dishwasher's monthly salary. Heading out of Mumbai by train the landscape changes dramatically as skyscrapers give way to new satellite cities, which give way to farms and huts without electricity or running water. I enjoyed the day I spent there, but am also glad that there is much more of India to explore and visit. I am currently staying at Arambol Beach in the state of Goa. We will be heading out tomorrow.
Stay tuned.
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