Monday 18-10-2010

On Monday morning we packed our backpacks for Nightbus to Goa. We had a nice "western" breakfast in Sadguru eating pizza and veggie burger. Atleast kinda...
The Pizza was about 7" wide but over 2" thick, veggie burger was awesome, but the salad was piled over the paddy (not in between, a bit of challenge to eat as fingerfood). After this greasy snack we paid our hotel and took a taxi to Mumbai Central Station.

In the city center we went to see the "beach" area, aka ½km of trash and boats on 50m wide strip of sand. No swimmers or sun worshippers here, but ok views to skyscrapers around city's shoreline.
The Diwali celebrations were going on around the city, we saw a couple of drum groups marching in streets and also mobile DJ-trucks going through busy streets with few hundred ravers going crazy around them.
After spending the day walking aimlessly around the city we ate some more (Thali & Chinese) and went to bus stop wait for the bus. Our luxurious bus arrived about 20 minutes too late and there was englishmen sitting in our beds. No problem once again, the Indian conductor/hustler/spare driver gave us another beds, on last row of the bus, directly above the engine. A real treat...

Diwali streetpartyy

Also it started to thunder just at the same time as our bus left so in the end we were really lucky to catch it (we were originally thinking of taking a bus ½h later but luckily we took the earlier one, sitting extra ½h in curb of busy street without shelter would have been shit in a storm...)

The bus journey was nice and shaky, there was no toilet in the bus and unfortunately Mariska felt herself a bit seasick after couple of hours. Luckily there was 2 toilet stops in our 14½ hour (officially 12 hour) trip.

Friday 15-10-2010

On Friday morning we finally decided to go to visit the center of Mumbai. We prepared ourselves for this experience by visiting again the cheap "pure veg" restaurant with 7 different pots of veggie treats (for 60 cents). After filling our bellies we went to the railwaystation.

 Thali

In the Chembur station we were welcomed by begging children. They were especially irritating when we were queing up for the ticket counter and paying for the tickets. Good news was that retour tickets to centraal station costed 20 cents.

When we got to the train we realized that it was not a straight connection to the Central Station. Also jumping in and out of the trains appeared to be a challenge, the train barely stops at the station and hundreds of people try to rush in and out of the train.

Mumbai Central Station

After succesfully arriving to the central station with two train changes we started to look for Bus companies. We finally managed to find them on a sidestreet near the station and booked tickets for a nightbus to Goa. Paying the tickets appeared to be the difficulty this time around. We only had 1300 rupees with us and the luxury sleeper tickets costed 1700, so we needed to visit an ATM. Luckily there was bank around the corner and also one other ATM. So first we tried the "other" ATM, but it did not accept our Dutch Visa electron. No problem, to the bank.
In the bank a guard with mustache and machine gun greeted us. Both of their ATM´s were "out of order" for the day. Fine, we walked back to the bus-stand and explained the situation. They gave us tickets with a footnote that we need to pay up the rest on Monday.

So we were ready to go back to our local suburb Chembur. This proved out to be a nice adventure. We asked directions from a security guy in the Central station. He gave us probably really good and exact instructions in thick hindi english. So we got the right train and left. On our first train exchange station we were already a little unsure to which tracks we should walk, so we went to ask directions from another security guardess. She told us to go to track five, no problem. We went there but after three stops the train had arrived to it´s final destination, a nice slum suburb. At this point we realised that there is an Indian way of naming tracks, tracks to go west and to east have the same numbers, you just need to know which direction to go.

Well we did not give up this easily, instead we took a train back to station where we went wrong in a luggage cart filled with people (Yes, the whole train was completely full, the whole trip I was more hanging from the overhead handles then actually standing, as floor was filled with various luggage.)
For the last train change we sneaked into a more comfy first class and enjoyed stable foothold while arriving to Chembur.

In the evening we went to another veggie restaurant "Sadguru", where we had some nice veggie food. I really loved it but unfortunately Mariska did not know that when she ordered ´masala´  it  means in Indian spicy.

Arriving to Mumbai, India

The last 2 hours in the plane were above sea. I really noticed heavy winds and turbulance and wondered what would be a better place to crash with a plane water or land... I guess you will anyway die both ways. Meanwhile Jaakko was trying to be nicely asleep. When we flew above Mumbai I was surpriced and shocked at the same time; the beauty of mountains and forrest and then suddenly on the outskirts of the city huge slums. All the same small huts made of cardboard and scrapmetal.

We arrived at Mumbai Airport around 9 o'clock in the morning. Our luggage was already dropped off the plane and was waiting for us next to the conveyrbelt. In search of an ATM we found out that the only one at the airport was not working. So we had to go change some euro's for rupees at a row of competing desks with men screaming for our attention. After that we walked outside into the heat as if walking into a hot oven. We took a taxi to Chembur. The ride was impressive; traffic seems to have no rules in here. So depending on the drivingskills of your driver (and the size of your vehicle) we made it through dense, crowded streets. While begging children sticked their hands through the windows for "small coins" or "chocolate", we tried to stay cool hoping we wouldn't  drive them over or get hit ourselves. The driver seemed to not know the address we showed to him, so he parked the car and had to ask around when we arrived in Chembur. In the end the ride took an hour in stead of 20 minutes due to the chaotic streets full of people and traffic.

The room we reserved in Hotel Pearl was ok. The man who brought us to the fourth floor was armed with multiple airfresheners. He sprayed into the room while turning on the fan to make it feel fresh. Later I understood why, when the lemonsmells faded it made way for the stench of trash from outside. We walked around the hotel for a while to check out the neighbourhood. I got a little uncomfortable with everybody staring at us, especially men as they are the majority in the street. I feel like one of the only women that is not hiding the shape of my body in a wide dress with scarfs around it. I'm not sure yet if the people are offended by us white westerners or that they might just be interested in something that they don't see daily. The streets are crowded, the air is humid and every now and then the smell of the air changes into something nice like incense or then again into something disgusting like shit. The animals we have seen untill now are stray dogs, dead rats, cows on the sidewalk and tropical birds in the trees that we see from our hotelroom.

For the rest of the day we slept and at night we ate at a nice restaurant. The menu was pleasantly surprising for us, as most of it was vegetarian. We chose something we didn't know and it was great food. I later found out that the 'tofu' I had was actually a kind of cheese called paneer. The staff kept coming to our table to fill our plates again and finished the meal with a cup of water with lemon in it. I asked what I had to do with it because I was afraid to just drink it. Luckily I didn't because it was to wash your hand in. When we left we got a mouthfreshener; a rolled up leave with Indian spices inside of it. Again we had a funny moment doubting to swallow it or spit it out. We both swallowed it, to act a little polite I guess, but I really regretted it. When it gets dark the streets become nightmarket and the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed. In the hotel we ordered 2 big Indian beers and drank them in bed while reading what to do and where to go next.