It seems beeping replaces indicating on the roads- one long beep for 'I'M ABOUT TO CRASH INTO YOU', three short beeps for turning from a junction onto a main road, and then one short beep just for the hell of it, just to say 'hey! I'm on the road!'. None of the drivers seem to be concerned about the poor cyclists and auto-rickshaws on the road- it takes brave men to ride those in this madness! There seemed to be huge parties on the worker's trucks, with 50 people at least on each one- some standing, some sitting, some holding onto the sides for dear life!! Occasionally you'd hear bursts of Hindi-style music from the streets, making you feel that you'd somehow stepped into a Bollywood movie.
The taxi driver seemed to only know how to navigate his way out of the airport. Even when we shows him a map and kept saying 'University of Mumbai', he kept looking at us blankly and saying 'Colaba?' On the upside, we got our first taste of the Indian head wiggle I've heard so much about when he stopped and asked for directions!
Anyway, he finally decided to drop us off in a random place, not telling us where we were. It was time to fend for ourselves. After about 45 mins we found the hotel we were looking for- it was full. Damn. Feeling a little vulnerable now, with our backpacks screaming out 'I'M A TOURIST, COME AND MUG ME!', we tried a place down the road called the Traveller's Inn. A really lovely place, but they were full for the night. Double damn. But the v helpful reception guy recommended a place called 'Hotel Popular Palace' for one night. As I'll reveal later, this place was certainly no palace.
On a lighter note, we had our first AMAZING Indian lunch at Ambhav's- we went back to the same place for dinner because we loved it so much! For a mere 1 pound 50 we had a 'lunch thali'- a selection of curries with chapatti's and roti's. Unbelievably quick service- no sooner had our orders left our lips than the food was in front of us! Fast food at its best. I thought I'd try my old Indian favourite, good old 'Korma' for dinner- it was a little more spicy than at home!
We then headed to Colaba, and the Gateway to India- a huge colonial stucture built to commemorate the arrival of George V to India, apparently. It was quite the Indian tourist hotspot, with lots of photo-taking- no, not of the Gateway, but of the newest blue eyed, blonde haired sensation in town, Patrick Martz! I was equally as fascinated by the surrounding Indians as they seemed to be of us 'goras' (the Hindi word for whites)- the array of colourful sari's around us, bright pink, yellow, turquoise blue, was truly beautiful.
To feel a little anonymous again, we headed to Leopold's, the tourist bar we'd heard so much about in the book 'Shantaram'. It was smaller and more cramped than I'd imagined, but more than made up for it in character! And that was just the cheeky waiter, who when we ordered a pitcher of beed (which was more like a pillar of beer), said 'Why not another one! I finish 2 of those a night!'
All in all, a hazy but exciting day- we didn't get accosted/stared at/groped as much as we thought. The food and beer definitely helped us through though! Despite the craziness, I really get a good vibe from Mumbai and am so excited to be here- it definitely has its own 'rhythm' that everybody seems to know- but its fun trying to work it out for ourselves!
Will write a summary of how our next 3 days here went pretty soon- I'll try and be more concise next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment