On the Other Side of the Fence

 

Day 26

- Arrive in Mumbai around 1 pm.

- Check into Hotel, shower, head out to explore.

- Ate the best thali I have ever had.....ever. How much to partake in this astounding meal, attended by both waiters and servers (yes, apparently there is a  difference, which I found out when a waiter came by for me to repeat my request to him after I had asked a server for something), in this white-table-cloth level establishment.....a mere $5, or 300 rupees. Oh how I love the purchasing power of the all-mighty american green back in other countries.

- Venture back out into the city for a self guided architecture viewing walk, complements of my Lonely Planet travel guide. Make a new friend, who initially just wants to talk and practice his english, but later wants to buy me chia and take me to a "government travel agent" to hear about the railway pass in India, because he's just trying to "help me out, because he "believes in building up good karma." Yeah, right. Every time I have been told someone just wants to "help me out" for the "good karma," they just want me to buy something. I allow him to buy me chia, because I might as well get something out of this, and tell him I can tell he's just trying to get me to buy something and that there is no way in hell there would be a government travel agency this far off the tourist-beaten path. He can't even look me in the face at this point and bounces. Yay for free chia!

- Continue my architecture walk, and meet yet another young man.......let's  see what this guy tries to get me to do. Only time will tell! We chat, we chat, I continue my architecture tour and he even helps me navigate. He's not trying to impress me like the Goa scammers, in fact he is quite humble about his circumstances. He didn't ask me for money, or for me to invest my time in anything. He didn't even try to take me to any shops or anything. In fact, he asked me what I wanted to do or see, suggested some places to just hang out and chill for the evening, and even intentionally didn't bring me around his friends, just in case they might try to pull something on me. He legit just wanted to hang out. I told him that I trusted him because he hadn't tried to sell me anything, take me to any shops, or enter into barely legal business ventures with me. It became our running joke that our next stop would be his uncles shop, and that after that we can talk about how I can help him transport valuables to the US. It was nice to make a legitimate friend who was around my age and who I could relate to and joke with. I've met a lot of Indians, and I've spent a decent amount of time with some of them, but I'd say this guy was my first legit Indian friend.

- Part ways with Rahul, see Bollywood movie in iconic theatre (after all, Bollywood movies are produced here), and head to bed.

 

Day 27: 

- Wake up bright and early, quick breakfast, head to harbor to catch ferry to Elephante Island. 

- Depart on hour long ferry ride to the island, check out some cave temples, head back to the mainland.

- Eat a burger that didn't really taste like a burger (I suspect they might have used bull instead of cow), drink a couple of beers, and relax.

- Finish the architecture walk, as I wasn't able to finish the day before due to the sun setting, and head back to hotel for a quick mini-nap.

- Meet up with Rahul again, drink some India country liquor (it doesn't have a name, I asked), and roam around Mumbai. This indian country liquor is basically moonshine. It's made illegally in rural India, it's sold illegally, but no one enforces it, it's cheap, and it made from whatever the distillers can get their hands on. The batch we had was made from oranges, and it was delicious. We mixed it with water, didn't taste like much on the front end, and had a nice fruity after taste.

- Get some famous ice cream, and head to bed.

 

 

Day 28: 

- Wake up, head over to train station to buy foreign tourist quota train ticket to Jalgaon. These things are awesome, even though it was the first time I took advantage of it. They set aside a handful of tickets for people with tourist visas, which is great because everyone takes the trains in India, and often times long distance trains are fully booked weeks ahead. You just have to actually go to the train station in person to buy one, and you can only get them at select train stations. 

- Acquire a random guide for 100 rupees/hour to take me to "washing laundry" and the slums. Washing laundry is a quick stop off one of Mumbai's local transit trains. It's an area filled with little cement cubicles where people wash laundry. A little makeshift town is built up around it where the migrate farmers live who do all the washing. They rent the stalls for just a couple of rupees per day and are hired by laundry companies to wash the laundry they get from their clients. It's quite the site. All these cement cubicles filled with water and surrounded by shacks, migrate workers smacking laundry against the water to break loose dirt and build-up, miles of laundry hung up to dry on the roofs.....it's pretty cool. Next we saw Mumbai's slum, which is apparently the biggest in the world. I wasn't sure how I felt about take a tour through it, but I was curious, so I did. I'm glad it was just me and the guide strolling around, rather than a group of white people being shown around like as if it's an entertainment attraction. The slum walk was interesting, and I'll elaborate more on that later.

- I part ways with the guide, and head up to the Global Pagoda, a golden-domed Buddhist stupa out on an island, which houses relics of Buddha, and is a major place for meditation. They even have 10-day meditation work shops.

- Local train back into the city. Btw, the local trains here always leave the doors open. Thus people line up in the doorway, hanging their heads and half their bodies out door, presumably to catch some breeze, as it's incredibly humid in Mumbai, as well as to enjoy the beautiful view of the endless train lines. I of course, was also among the row of men hanging half their body out of the doorway on my return trip home. The sun had set at this point, and the red and green train signals scattered across the darkness of the the unlit train lines was quite hypnotizing. I just couldn't help but to think that something like this, something so wonderful, would never be allowed in the US. Here, if you hurt yourself while hanging out the door of a train, then it's your own fault for taking the risk. I only read about a time in US history where this was the mentality. Now of days, we get to enjoy parternalistic laws and regulations, which keep us from having such fun. Lame.

- Have more famous ice creme, and enjoy the festival like atmosphere of Mumbai's beach.

- Get lost looking for a restaurant that is no longer open, and pay way too much for a cab to take me back to my hotel.

 

Story-Time and Reflection:

 

Am I back west? Is this Europe? No, far to many indians here. HOW IS IT SO HUMID!! 

 

These were my first thoughts as I began to explore this supposedly Indian city, Mumbai. It has the modern attributes of a western city, victorian architecture everywhere, it has the hustle and bustle of any major western business city, I didn't feel like I was in India, other than when I noticed it was filled with Indians, and they didn't even have rickshaws!!! It was a nice break, having all the creature comforts of the western world readily at my finger-tips. Easy to find beer, good food, GREAT street food, tons of movie theaters, sea views, plenty of things to attractions to check out. The only downside is that some random dude might walk up to you, saying their is something in your ear, and before you know it he already is pulling "ear wax" out of your ear.....but don't worry, he's an ear cleaner, and has all the things one might need to clean out your ear. Bullshit.

 

In general, Mumbai reminded me a lot of Bangalore, except, sorry Bangalore, Mumbai was way cooler. Cooler buildings, cleaner streets, all the same western comforts, and probably more of them. Yes, Mumbai is pretty expensive, but it's worth every penny. Would I come to visit India, just for Mumbai, no....it doesn't feel very Indian here, but it is a great backpacker pit stop for a much needed break.

 

One really surprising and interesting part of my time in Mumbai was my visit to the slums. The Mumbai slum is the biggest in the world. I have never seen Slum Dog Millionaire, but this is where it is based. I didn't originally plan to visit the slums, because I felt like it was kind of unethical to make someones misery my entertainment, but when my guide suggested it as possibility, I couldn't help by to satisfy my curiosity. I'm definitely glad it was just me and my guide walking around rather then me and a group of gawking white people with cameras that cost as much as some of these people live on in a year.....this made me feel more comfortable. 

 

We reach the slums, and begin our walk. I was actually expecting something a lot worse than what I found. The slums are relatively safe, no gang presence, and not a lot of violence or muggings. Most of the people do have jobs, usually right there in the slums, and really, the whole place is like a poorly planned/creatively constructed lower-class blue-collar neighborhood. Some people do very menial labor, like collecting recyclable material else where in Mumbai, and bringing them back to the slums to be recycled into new products. Some people work the shops and stands in the slums, which sell all the same items you would find in the rest of India, ranging from produce and snacks, to cell phones and electronics. Many of the owners, who own cars and dress very well,  of the factories and shops live in the slums to ensure that their business is running smoothly. Their are community leaders/politicians, again who aren't scraping by. And some people, who were born and raised in the slums, who now have white-collar jobs downtown, still stay in the slums, because it's home. 

 

The population doesn't seem outrageously poor, but rather it just seems overcrowded, poorly maintained, dirty, and lacking any sort of proper infrastructure or urban planning. Buildings and shacks seemed to be haphazardly built on top of each other, there is only make-shift plumping, and a sewage systems is non-existant. It's not that the people are jobless, homeless, and hungry, it's that the standard of living is unbelievably terrible. You'd have to bulldoze the entire place and start from scratch to fix it. 

 

In general though, the people seem happy. This is their home, this is their community, and they get by. It's funny, in the downtown area of Mumbai, people use their children as begging tools. Constantly I would feel a little tap on my leg and turn around to find a small child asking for money. Some of these kids can even get pretty aggressive too. But in the slums, the kids were more timid, and often times they just wanted to say hello and receive a wave and smile in return. Again, the slums are not a dangerous place, and there is no business in taking advantage of foreigners here. People here, in general, make an honest living. 

 

I'm glad I went on the slum walk. It was interesting. I discovered something I wasn't anticipating. I was expecting extreme poverty, and sickly people. But the people seemed entirely normal, it was just the condition of where they lived that wasn't up to par. Honestly, I'd feel safer walking around the slums at night by myself than other parts of India I have visited. The slums are a tricky problem. Like I said, things are so built up, that you'd have to bulldoze the entire place to install proper infrastructure, but this place is a community, and to do such a thing would be to relocated and radially alter how and where these people live together. I imagine they wish they had better plumbing and more of the basics, but at the same time I don't think they'd want to tear apart their community for the amount of time it would take to fix things up.