Nothing could prepare us for the reality of Mumbai (formally Bombay). We had heard the worst stories, imagined the craziest things, experienced other KNOWN crazy cities like Napoli, Manilla, Bangkok ----> All these pale in comparison to the noise, traffic, smells, dirt of Bombay.
We landed last night. The scene at the airport was okay, there were alot of taci drivers waiting for people, but since we had a pickup from our hostel - it was realatively easy and non fuss for us. PHEW.
That is where the ease stops. From there it was the honking, the lights,the cars driving 5 cars across where there is only 3 lanes. Ingoring lights, people crossing, bikes, tuk-tuks. It was a mess I can't even express. I almost couldn't breathe the air was so thick.
Our room was so dirty I nearly cried. Lucky the sheets where at least clean. The fridge looked like something abandoned 50 years ago - which the hostel also looked like!!.
It was an adventure just to go to the ATM machine. There was people laying on the streets, cows roaming free anywhere, the streets seemed like garbage dumps.
Indeed our first reaction was that we wanted to leave. I know I couldn't eat and I could barely go to the bathroom
BUT that was YESTERDAY. Today is another story. Today we talked to the people more. Stood with them like sardines on the train. Rode the bus with them. Ate lunch with locals. As each minute turned today - we began to feel differently about this crazy place.
The people are helpful, curious and very friendly. So often we had people come out of nowhere to help us, to make sure we got off at the right station or bus stop or have enough to eat. They babied us, suggested places for us to go. Alternatives for us when things didn't work out.
The food was delicious. We thought we would haev a hard time being vegetarian - but the meals we took were so delicious that for now we are not noticing. We did eat from the street vendors - BUT more like the established cleaners street vendors. So far so good with the Delhi Belly! We ate Doshi, Masala, Rice, all in some potato base curry thing. It was so yummy. One meal we ate for 20 ruppees (for both of us). While our more 'nice' meal was 55 ruppees for both. Note: it is 68rpe = 1Eur.
It was at this point that while we were stuffing our faces that we realized we might just love it here - well in the end.
Plus lets face it, we of course took the cheapest place we could find on the internet. Should we expect more? Although in comparison to the rest of asia it is really expensive at 1000 ruppees (14 euros) a night which would have bought us nearly a penthouse like suite in Thailand.
In any case Mumbai is an overpopulated city of about 20,000,000 people. Here Bollywood is big, prices are high and things are crazy. However that is only one part of India - which shockingly enough we are starting to like.
WEll tonight we move on right away to head North. We got a sleeper train for 432rpe each. This is NOT the NICE air-co private cabin train. Basically in the cabin can be up to 10 people. hahaha we figure we try this out and see... maybe next time we won't want this but for now we want to try to do it a bit local style. Indeed there was some curious faces when we borded the local trains and buses.
Well India certainly seems a challenge so far - but with a big smile we continue forward to see whats around that corner.
Ciao for now!
