Time For Something New...

I left Egypt with a feeling of accomplishment, contentment, and relief. India conjured up swirly visions of a color, and fabric, and good food on every corner. We arrived at Mumbai airport a little timid (there are a lot of people travelling with facemasks these days) and were funnelled into a small hallway where people were being questioned about H1N1 symptoms. We later found out we had also walked past a thermal scanner that checked our temperature for a fever. This was both frightening and reassurring at the same time. We found our bags and were soon pleasantly surprised to sign after sign guiding us to help "Help stop touts and other illegal activity" and "make sure to get a prepaid taxi!" What a fantastic idea! Although it didn't stop the guy waiting just outside from grabbing our bags and putting them in the trunk (for a fee of course.) I think I've now just accepted that upon arrival in a new country, you will always be slightly vulnerable until you realize just how things work.

The un-airconditioned (this will come up again later to haunt me) cab ride was slightly cheaper, and I figured we could just have the windows down. We're on a budget right? Immediately dishevelled, shoeless, women with babies are at our windows begging, hungry, sincere. This was hard. Although their place of work was probably high-earning territory being just outside the airport gate. So were they sincere? I'll never know. Whatever the case, just beyond the airport are the same slums you've seen in that very recent and popular movie. This was even harder. Next, we got to the narrow, traffic-jammed streets of central Mumbai. We were stuck. Not moving. Tata trucks all around us. Lots of honking. Minimal breathing. No airconditioning. What a mistake. For another 30 rupees we could have avoided so many smells. So here we are sitting in thick, stinky traffic...windows wide open, like a beacon for people trying to get money from us. Note for next time: Get the airconditioning.

We finally got to Colaba, the popular touristy part of town. This was a bit more comfortable. We were near to the Gateway of India, and Taj Hotel, and the streets were lined with stalls selling everything imaginable. We settled into our overpriced hotel (everything is much more expensive in Mumbai than the rest of India), and took a deep breath of humid, hot air. Somehow I forgot the lesson we learned not only an hour ago and we tried one night without airconditioning. And when I say tried...we lasted only a few hours.

Over the next few days we explored many restaurants. It was incredibly exciting to see "veg restaurant" and "pure veg restaurants" EVERYWHERE! I will never go hungry in this country. One of our new discoveries is Thali. This is a large metal tray with small cups of various curries, rice, raita, and usually a dessert of rice pudding or galub jamun (basically warm timbuts in syrup). The Thali also comes with papadum bread or naan. Recently though, we've decided that if we each order Thali, there is far too much food to go around...and we were hoping to come home fitter, not fatter. But I'd better save some food talk for next blog.

By far, the coolest thing we saw in Mumbai was Elephanta Island. Now, there are no elephants on the island, it was named that because of a giant basalt sculpture of an elephant which was eventually moved (after being accidentally dropped into the sea) to the Victoria Museum in Mumbai. What's left on the island is tons of tropical trees, masses of monkeys, and some amazing ancient caves and temples. In each cave there are intricately carved sculptures of Shiva, Nataraja, and Ardhanarishvara. I will have to post a picture (that is not ours) for now as we havn't uploaded these pictures yet. But I have to say, Ben's pictures are far better than any I could find!