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Published: March 27th 2007
Mumbai skyline
The usually smog-drenched Mumbai skyline gave us a glimpse of fleeting tranquiity.
Sion and Niki Namaste everyone! How are you all? We are missing you!
Where do we start? It's been a hectic first few days in India. Mumbai is a city of extremes, children beg and sleep on the street a few streets away from the excessive luxury of the Taj; you'll encounter the most offensive sights and smell, lepers begging, shit, trash and spit cover the streets, and then be astonished by places of serene beauty and people who are warm and friendly. Overall, it seems the longer you spend here the easier it becomes to recognise the wonder of India and ignore the repulsive, which is constantly assaulting you at every turn. (We've tried to show you the nicer side of Mumbai in our photos.)
The best part of Mumbai has been the food and the gorgeous people (esp. the kids). My favourite place has been Walkeshwar, a quaint little town on the Arabian seafront, with a man-made lake for a town square. It is possibly the only place in Mumbai you can escape the incessant honking of horns, which is driving me crazy (and the cause of my ear infection, I'm sure.) I am dying for a long hot
The Taj Mahal Hotel
The Taj. Built in 1903 by JN Tata after he was refused entry to one of the European hotels on account of being a 'native'. bath in complete and utter silence where the closest person is 100 kms away, and a mute. You really have to relinquish any claims on personal space walking though the streets of Mumbai, with 12 million people, there really isn't the space for two more Aussie backpackers.
However, amidst all the insane chaos of the city, people just seem to get by without too many hassles. Despite the horrendous poverty, congestion and pollution, the people of Mumbai have an incredible ability to move forward past all the obstacles, without killing each other, or gettng crushed by speeding taxis. If we can survive this, I'm sure the rest of India will be a breeze.....optimistic last words as we embark on a nine hour train ride to the 'City of Dust', Ahmedabad.
Hi all, Sion here. I've tried leaving most of the writing in this first blog up to Niki 'cos i figured it would be better to have a first timers view for our first entry on the continent, but i'm still gonna have a rant all the same.
Mumbai is pretty much how i remembered it, maybe a little cleaner, but not much. The Gateway is still
The Gateway to India
Mumbai's central tourist attraction, built in 1924, and the site where the British navy officially departed India following Independence. pretty grand and majestic, still surrounded by hash dealers and beggars, Chowpatty Beach is beautiful at night, Gandhi's house is full of atmosphere, and the rooms are fucking expensive. 800 rupees a night, but i guess that's pretty much what we were expecting, i think we're paying extra for the family of pigeons living in our air-conditioner. Elephanta Island was nice, i'm still a little nervous about travelling by boat, it didn't help that they were the very same ferries that we went over on almost 14 years ago, but we made it, which was a bonus. Sorry Ang, i didn't manage to have a fit in front of Shiva, i was hoping to keep the tradition going, but i did manage to get into a fight with the police over taking photos. Aparently photography is allowed, and yes, you are allowed to use a flash, but if you happen to be taking photos with an analog SLR, and you don't own a flash, you're not allowed to perch said camera atop a plastic tripod, and i can't for the life of me figure out why. After a prolonged argument abut the merits and disadvantages of having to pay 25
Still Smilin'
Despite India's abysmal performance in the world cup and their failure to make the Super 8's, thousands of Indian boys gather on Mumbai's cricket maidens (fields) to have a bat. These boys consider Ricky Ponting a God amongst men. times more than Indian citizens have to to get in, and not being allowed to take a single slow exposure photograph, i meekly gave up and returned to the caves, realising that if i lay flat on the ground, i could use my bag as a tripod, or a unipod i guess. It was only on the ferry back that i realised that all i had to do was slip the guard ten rupees and i could have danced naked in front of all three of Shivas heads and they wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Oh well, it was only a photo.
Niki and I are both sticking to our vego guns, we even splurged on a $5 a piece meal in an upmarket restuarant, and the waiter couldn't seem to understand why we weren't ordering meat dishes, i can already feel my body disintegrating uder the weight of all this green food. OUr flight over here was excellent, it's the first time i've ever flown international with a TV in the seat in front of you, its great, you get your own little remote, you can choose what and when you wanna watch, or you can even play
Gandhi's Room
His bedroom in Mani Bhavan, where the Mohatma stayed whilst he was in Mumbai tetris, and all under the peaceful glaze of a variety of free G+T's, wines, and scotch. I didn't sleep much, i was too busy drinking, but the nine hours seemed to go rather quickly.
It's off to Ahemdabad tonight on another nine hour journey, second class sleeper, no air-con, should be fun. See you all in Amdavad.
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Dad/Kevin
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Sick with envy
I see the pics of the food and I just wanna be there!