mumbai is probably more in the news these days than any other indian city...first because of bollywood, and 2nd because of 26 november...we arrived in mumbai the morning of 22 jan...there are no rickshaws in central mumbai, which means we had to take a taxi from the train station...the first offer we got was for 270 rupees...we got it down to 80...(though the other taxi drivers weren't too pleased with our driver)...mumbai has some of the most expensive accomodation in india...we paid more there than anywhere else!!!
the daily average income in mumbai is three times the national average...yet more than half the city lives in slums...some of you have probably heard of slumdog millionaire, the movie that has won several awards...much of it was filmed in mumbai, a couple of the child actors in the movie still live in the slums...our first day there, layna and i walked through a very small area of slums...surprisingly, it was one of the friendliest places we've been...the streets are small, and everything is crowded, but the people were really friendly, and eager to talk...the movie opened in india quite a bit later than in the states...(it had already won several golden globes before opening in india)...we went to see it opening night...though it has it's share of complainers, we enjoyed the movie...i wonder if we enjoyed it more because we are currently in the middle of everything it shows?
at the end of the day, ben arrived in mumbai...he's another american, 31yrs old...i know some of you think i've done a lot of traveling...but compared to ben, i've never left my couch...his travelogue gets 5000 hits a month!!! anywho, this is his first time in india, so we introduced him a bit...he just had surgery on his acl a couple months ago, and has only been mobile for 2-3 weeks...he wanted to strengthen the muscles, and reverse some of the atrophy...so we walked...a lot...he said that in the past he's always been the one to want to walk more, but that we put him to shame...hee hee...most of our days in mumbai we walked at least 15K, sometimes as much as 20K...mumbai was our first warm city, so we went from being cold much of the time to sweating much of the time...
asia's busiest train station is in mumbai...it used to be called victoria terminus, and now has a long indian name...people still call it victoria terminus, or vt for short...it's shown several times in slumdog millionaire...we saw the oldest english building in mumbai as well, a church...there are a lot of memorials in the church, and it was interesting to see the differences...some described entire careers, some said how the person died, and some seemed to place more emphasis on who built the memorial...there are lots of colonial style buildings all over mumbai...it's easy to imagine the british there...very very easy...
one of the british influences in mumbai are three different maidans...(think big empty field)...the oval maidan is probably the most well known...the only organized activity allowed on the maidan is cricket...there were LOTS of different games going on...with bowlers coming from every which direction, and balls flying everywhere, it was amazing people weren't being knocked down left and right...the last time we walked through this maidan was republic day, one of only three national holidays...(yup, the entire country only celebrates three holidays together...each state has plenty of it's own holidays and festivals though, and they're awesome)...republic day was very very very security conscious over the whole country...because of additional terrorist threats and a foiled terrorist plot in delhi just the day before, delhi was practically on lockdown, and there was a lot more security in general...during the republic day parade in delhi, the airport wasn't allowing flights in or out...because of what happened in mumbai in november, there was also a lot of additional security...
one activity that ben has become involved in during all of his travels is hashing...it's a running club, much of the time with a drinking problem...it's international, with different kennels in every city and country imaginable...anywho, ben found a hash for us to run, or so we thought...after arriving at the proper place, we realized we were 2.5 yrs late...the owner of the house had even passed away!! note to the mumbai hash club: update your website!!!!!!!! instead of going back to our hotel, we went to the biggest laundry area i've ever seen in my life...HUGE...they do laundry in india by beating the dirt out of your clothes...they slam it against stone again and again and again, in between soakings...it's rather impressive...nearly all the laundry done in the city is done in this one area...i wonder how it doesnt get all confused and returned to the wrong people...
that afternoon we took the ferry out to elephanta island...the guidebook talked about caves with buddhist carvings, and i thought they sounded interesting...as this was only ben's second day in india, and he's got the world's most sensitive stomach (after all his traveling you'd think it wouldn't be that way anymore...when he was in turkey he lost 25lbs in one month!!) he had to run back to the hotel, so he ended up on a different ferry...hee hee...the caves didn't end up being all that great...we liked the ferry ride better than the caves!!
our last day in mumbai we walked to chowpatty beach...it's a reasonable beach, but the water is NOT CLEAN...toxic maybe?...so people just stand around a bit, but don't go in the water much...after the beach we continued walking, all the way to malabar hill, which is supposed to be the ritzy area of town...it's definitely nicer than other areas, but maybe we missed the best spots, because it didn't seem that fabulous...layna and i have developed a love for curd, and when we saw buffalo curd advertised, we couldn't resist...we devoured a half kilo of the stuff, in record time...i don't think ben was very impressed...he loved his lassi though...
in keeping with habits layna and i have developed, we stuck to local places to eat...we rarely eat in places mentioned in the guidebook...we've found that places crowded with locals offer better (and cheaper) food...YUM!!!
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