Apologies for the lack of entries but I was waiting until I was in better spirits. Either my stomach hates India or India hates my stomach. I'm feeling better as I write this but a week of barely eating (and losing most of what I did eat through either end) has left me a little weak. Thankfully the doctor I saw here in Udaipur actually did the bloodwork he said he was going to do and everything turned out normal. Bastard tourist doctor in Hampi just charged me the cash for tests without bothering to look at them, ahh India.
After the expensive closet I was staying at in Mumbai (600 rs., about $15 or so) I decided to try out an equally expensive but far more comfortable room in Udaipur where I am now. That made the first few days great and me much more comfortable after I got sick. I've even been able to steal limited wifi from a shop next door so chatting with Jess and browsing the interweb have helped pass the time.
Anyways, I left off last time saying I planned to head from Gokarna up towards Mumbai through Goa. Well, I ended up staying in Gokarna a couple days longer and since no convenient trains were available through Goa I just did the long haul on a semi-deluxe sleeper bus. Now India's buses have several grades, most of which are nonsense and far from deluxe. Semi-deluxe sleeper meant your average American bus seat that reclined a little. A few days later when leaving Mumbai I was on a deluxe sleeper which is a full bed compartment where you can lie down. It could actually be a nice way to travel if it wasn't for all the holes in India's highways and the fact that honking in the middle of the night is considered common courtesy here and not an annoyance. There's nothing like the feeling of drifting to sleep only to hear a semi blaring its horn as it passes. I suffered through though and have found audio books on my ipod to be a godsend.
Mumbai as a city was much nicer and much less of a hassle than I thought it would be. Like a lot of Indian cities there was a tourist district where most of the accomodation foreigners use is. In Mumbai this is all in Colaba at the southern tip of the city, it's also the area talked about most in Shantaram. There was one main drag that was filled with vendors, people trying to offer you a "blessing" for cash and plenty of offers for illicit narcotics. Outside of that immediate area though Colaba was really nice with peaceful, shady streets filled with old colonial archetecture. It actually reminded me a lot of the Georgetown area of Washington, DC.
So I went to Mumbai to see what a big, modern Indian city would be like. It had a lot of international big city conveniences (shops you can actually walk into...*gasp*) and a variety of Starbucks clones. As an aside, I already miss the local 12 rupee coffees in South India. And Mumbai was also the last city I was able to find masala dosas in. Probably won't be able to find any more unless I head into a South Indian area of Delhi or another big city :( Still, the city isn't without plenty of quirky picture oppurtunities.
When coming to Mumbai the little I knew about the city mainly came out of the novel Shantaram. It's a good read. Anyways, one of the main characters is a slum-dweller named Prabaker who guides the main character around for a little while and becomes his friend, etc. etc. I met a similiar tout-ish chap while exhaustedly looking for a room and agreed to have him show me around the next day so I could see some of the city. It was about 50% a waste of time and money but the guy needed a nice meal and was able to offer some insights I would never have thought of.
One of the first things having a tour-guide helped me realize was that Colaba was the main center of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. I was staying about 2 blocks from the Taj Hotel that suffered the worst of them but Leopold's Cafe (another big part of the book and now an insanely overpriced and packed tourist restaurant) still has bullet holes in its front walls. Needless to say, security is a much more pervasive element in that part of Mumbai and there are plenty of police and private guards. I have no doubts India will see more terrorist attacks in the coming decade but if they're looking for soft targets then this district of Mumbai isn't one of them.
The day we went sight-seeing we started off by getting a local bus that wasn't too crowded and actually pretty pleasant. We went through a few markets, they were big but weren't anything to write about. The fruit and vegetable market looked like a big farmer's market back home and the other sections were actually streets of shops all selling similiar wares rather than an open bazaar atmosphere. I've never fully understood it but many cities in developing countries seem to clump similiar industries all together in the same place, whether it be a few blocks all selling silks or a long street with nothing but mechanics or print shops on it. The Thieves Bazaar had sounded the most interesting by far when I read about it. In my head I was picturing narrow alleys filled with one-eyed vendors and their ill-gotten wares. Pickpockets trying to nab my wallet while someone tries to sell me a "brand new" digital camera with some poor tourist's pictures still on the memory card. Yeah, okay, I definitely romanticized it way too much in my head. In reality it was just a bunch of curio shops selling fake antiques and souvenirs. I still like the version I have in my head better.
After wandering around the market streets with my guide getting lost (like I said, partly a waste of time seeing as I'm really good at getting lost on my own) we got cheap biryani for lunch and headed to the bus to get to the dhobi ghats where they do the washing. This is when I saw what Mumbai's bus system really looks like. I've lost most of my compunctions about shoving people to get into public transport but Indians are so much better on it. My guide had just gotten a foothold on the stairs and was holding onto the side of the bus when he saw me and got off, losing a flip-flop in the process. I felt bad that the dude was barefoot for the rest of the afternoon and decided cab rides were much easier than squeezing myself into a bus.
Next stop was the dhobi ghats where the city's laundry gets done. I didn't go down into them due to time limitations but they're definitely one of the more memorable things I saw in Mumbai. The amount of stuff that gets done by hand in India always amazes me.
This next photo is of the Haji Ali mosque, another famous spot mentioned in Shantaram. It's well touristed but quite interesting, at high tide the walkway apparently gets submerged and the mosque is isolated from the mainland. The buildings themselves weren't too amazing but the atmosphere was worth it.
And here is the Gateway to India, erected by the British to commemorate the visit of King George V. Lots of security, it's also the place where tourist ferries leave for some other sights. I decided to skip a planned visit to Elephanta island and just walk around more. I found the colonial archetecture in the southern areas of the city (Colaba and the Fort area) to be a welcome shift from the concrete blocks of South Indian cities. Wide, tree-lined streets made for a pleasant walk as I passed posh housing across the street from some slum dwellings near the water. India really is a crazy mix of the old and the new, the rich and the poor. And yes, even Mumbai had a few goats and chickens on the street. They just tie them up in the big cities.
After the expensive closet I was staying at in Mumbai (600 rs., about $15 or so) I decided to try out an equally expensive but far more comfortable room in Udaipur where I am now. That made the first few days great and me much more comfortable after I got sick. I've even been able to steal limited wifi from a shop next door so chatting with Jess and browsing the interweb have helped pass the time.
Anyways, I left off last time saying I planned to head from Gokarna up towards Mumbai through Goa. Well, I ended up staying in Gokarna a couple days longer and since no convenient trains were available through Goa I just did the long haul on a semi-deluxe sleeper bus. Now India's buses have several grades, most of which are nonsense and far from deluxe. Semi-deluxe sleeper meant your average American bus seat that reclined a little. A few days later when leaving Mumbai I was on a deluxe sleeper which is a full bed compartment where you can lie down. It could actually be a nice way to travel if it wasn't for all the holes in India's highways and the fact that honking in the middle of the night is considered common courtesy here and not an annoyance. There's nothing like the feeling of drifting to sleep only to hear a semi blaring its horn as it passes. I suffered through though and have found audio books on my ipod to be a godsend.
Mumbai as a city was much nicer and much less of a hassle than I thought it would be. Like a lot of Indian cities there was a tourist district where most of the accomodation foreigners use is. In Mumbai this is all in Colaba at the southern tip of the city, it's also the area talked about most in Shantaram. There was one main drag that was filled with vendors, people trying to offer you a "blessing" for cash and plenty of offers for illicit narcotics. Outside of that immediate area though Colaba was really nice with peaceful, shady streets filled with old colonial archetecture. It actually reminded me a lot of the Georgetown area of Washington, DC.
So I went to Mumbai to see what a big, modern Indian city would be like. It had a lot of international big city conveniences (shops you can actually walk into...*gasp*) and a variety of Starbucks clones. As an aside, I already miss the local 12 rupee coffees in South India. And Mumbai was also the last city I was able to find masala dosas in. Probably won't be able to find any more unless I head into a South Indian area of Delhi or another big city :( Still, the city isn't without plenty of quirky picture oppurtunities.
When coming to Mumbai the little I knew about the city mainly came out of the novel Shantaram. It's a good read. Anyways, one of the main characters is a slum-dweller named Prabaker who guides the main character around for a little while and becomes his friend, etc. etc. I met a similiar tout-ish chap while exhaustedly looking for a room and agreed to have him show me around the next day so I could see some of the city. It was about 50% a waste of time and money but the guy needed a nice meal and was able to offer some insights I would never have thought of.
One of the first things having a tour-guide helped me realize was that Colaba was the main center of the Mumbai terrorist attacks. I was staying about 2 blocks from the Taj Hotel that suffered the worst of them but Leopold's Cafe (another big part of the book and now an insanely overpriced and packed tourist restaurant) still has bullet holes in its front walls. Needless to say, security is a much more pervasive element in that part of Mumbai and there are plenty of police and private guards. I have no doubts India will see more terrorist attacks in the coming decade but if they're looking for soft targets then this district of Mumbai isn't one of them.
The day we went sight-seeing we started off by getting a local bus that wasn't too crowded and actually pretty pleasant. We went through a few markets, they were big but weren't anything to write about. The fruit and vegetable market looked like a big farmer's market back home and the other sections were actually streets of shops all selling similiar wares rather than an open bazaar atmosphere. I've never fully understood it but many cities in developing countries seem to clump similiar industries all together in the same place, whether it be a few blocks all selling silks or a long street with nothing but mechanics or print shops on it. The Thieves Bazaar had sounded the most interesting by far when I read about it. In my head I was picturing narrow alleys filled with one-eyed vendors and their ill-gotten wares. Pickpockets trying to nab my wallet while someone tries to sell me a "brand new" digital camera with some poor tourist's pictures still on the memory card. Yeah, okay, I definitely romanticized it way too much in my head. In reality it was just a bunch of curio shops selling fake antiques and souvenirs. I still like the version I have in my head better.
After wandering around the market streets with my guide getting lost (like I said, partly a waste of time seeing as I'm really good at getting lost on my own) we got cheap biryani for lunch and headed to the bus to get to the dhobi ghats where they do the washing. This is when I saw what Mumbai's bus system really looks like. I've lost most of my compunctions about shoving people to get into public transport but Indians are so much better on it. My guide had just gotten a foothold on the stairs and was holding onto the side of the bus when he saw me and got off, losing a flip-flop in the process. I felt bad that the dude was barefoot for the rest of the afternoon and decided cab rides were much easier than squeezing myself into a bus.
This next photo is of the Haji Ali mosque, another famous spot mentioned in Shantaram. It's well touristed but quite interesting, at high tide the walkway apparently gets submerged and the mosque is isolated from the mainland. The buildings themselves weren't too amazing but the atmosphere was worth it.
And here is the Gateway to India, erected by the British to commemorate the visit of King George V. Lots of security, it's also the place where tourist ferries leave for some other sights. I decided to skip a planned visit to Elephanta island and just walk around more. I found the colonial archetecture in the southern areas of the city (Colaba and the Fort area) to be a welcome shift from the concrete blocks of South Indian cities. Wide, tree-lined streets made for a pleasant walk as I passed posh housing across the street from some slum dwellings near the water. India really is a crazy mix of the old and the new, the rich and the poor. And yes, even Mumbai had a few goats and chickens on the street. They just tie them up in the big cities.
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