Thursday, November 30, 2006

Mumbai-bye! I'm Goa-ing to the Beach!


We were warned about Mumbai.

"It's expensive"
"It's hot"
"accommodation is crappy at best"
"It's expensive"
"It's expensive"
"Bragelina and Johnny Depp are in town!"

But how can you pass up going to Mumbai, Bombay if you will...? So we put on our just-get-through-it Indian attitudes that have worked so well in the past months, and walked out of Victoria Terminus and demanded a cabbie take us to a hotel. But of course not only is Mumbai expensive, but all the normal rules in India apply. Randoms on the street will attach themselves to you and demand commission from the shops/hotels you want, and all the hotels will arbitrarily increase their prices by 50% from any published prices. Why? Because they can. Not in the mood to deal with this crap - Justice and I yelled, screamed, kicked and hit anyone who attempted to come near us, and found a hotel on a leafy street near Colaba. We were paying more than double anything we had ever paid for a hotel room in India/Nepal before, but it came with quite a few delights:

a) A pigeon who lived in our bathroom and came in and out at his pleasure
b) Green and white mold on the walls that fell all over you and your stuff when the fan was on
c) A toilet that would not flush
d) A hot-water shower that did NOT send hot water through the pipes, but did send electrical currents through the metal to you while you were standing on the perpetually wet floor.
e) Random crashing into our barely locked door at odd hours of the night

Oddly enough, this was considered a good deal in Mumbai - so we stuck it out for 3 nights.

Mumbai greatly improved though after our first day. Living up to its world-class reputation, its a stunning city created by colonialism and enhanced by the tropical climate. The streets are orderly with cars and no cows, people are well dressed on their cell phones going places, and there are sidewalks with tree lined boulevards! We were staying in Southern Mumbai, a block away from the Gateway to India, built by the British, now controlled by the giant baloon sellers and hawkers who give the promenade some life. We spent our days wandering the cheap-stuff stall lined streets buying silk scarves, 3 pairs of sunglasses (not taking any chances anymore!), bangles, books, Bollywood DVDs and soundtracks... and enjoying drinks at the old time bar Leopolds where any expat/traveler whose worth their worldly attitude, drinks their Kingfishers. We took a ferry out to Elephanta Island, a disappointing World Heritage sight of some old Hindu caves. It was poorly set up and poorly displayed, typical of most Indian Cultural Crap - so we spent our time watching in amazement as Euro tourists bought crappy necklaces for 15X the price we paid for them, and chatting to an Aussie who told us all about how great our next stop in Goa is going to be...YES!

We wandered all around Mumbai, watching the new 007 at the old Regal theatre, and going back to watch a SWEET new bollywood movie DHOOM:II, hitting up Fashion street, the old colonial fort area, watching cricket games in the park, and cruising Chowpatty beach. Chowpatty beach is pretty interesting as its like a Camps Bay or Kitsilano, but dirty and pervy. You can't swim in there without getting the plague, or sit on the beach without getting gawked at. Regardless there are awesome street food stalls and we enjoyed a couple incredible Masala papads and dosas while being talked to by an old Indian guy (you don't have conversations here, you get talked at). Some iced coffee, gelato later (Mumbai is AWESOME) we wandered around the beach and got offered to star...ok be an extra in...a Bollywood movie. Although its a dream of mine to just participate in one dance number, we had to decline as our bus to Goa was leaving that night. Sad but true - my Bollywood aspirations will have to wait for the next trip...Although on the bright side I am staring in at least 349 cell-phone camera movies filmed by pervy men.

So that's how Jusfa did Mumbai. It's a city that brings you from feeling assy - classy in just one day. Unfort. Bragelina actually took off to Vietnam for the weekend, leaving it up to us to take the brunt of the paparazzi, and we didn't see Johnny at any of the Masala Dosa stands! But now it's off to Goa now to do nothing for 2 weeks. NOTHING.
Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?