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Written 31st July - Day 44 of my Tour - Welcome to India!
Hello!
So I have just boarded my flight from Mumbai to Delhi. I am sat next to the window on row 25, with a woman behind who keeps burping and the skinniest old man I have ever seen. He is still managing to take up nearly half my seat!!
I have spent the last two days in Mumbai, also known as Bombay. I arrived after exactly 24 hours of travelling, 2 flights, a long wait in a taxi queue, a hunt for 1 specific taxi in about 100, another hunt for the apartment and I finally arrived. I managed to pull off my first piece of 'I'm a backpacker, I kind of know you, so can I stop at your place'. A friend from choir in England works in Bangalore for Ernst and Young, he contacted the Mumbai office and Marco, from Switzerland, kindly said I could stay in his apartment. The apartment is in the heart of the city in the area Lower Parrel and called Rahajia Atlantis. Block A, floor 13, apartment 1302, spare room. I can't believe this, 3 more burps!! EWW!!
When I arrived I had only managed to have around 5 hours sleep in two days, my plan for the day was to sleep, do washing and then see some of Mumbai. Marco and his girlfriend, are you ready for this… Fanny went to work so I was on my own for the day. I cannot believe I actually found 'Fanny', check out Drunk much Tom 1,2,3 on You Tube and you will get this. Anyway, I put my washing in and then had a few hours sleep. After a few hours sorting things out I decided to go and check out a local shopping centre called Phoenix Mills. This was similar to the Trafford Centre just in a few high rise blocks! I bought some new clothes, had lunch and then got my hair cut. I refused to eat in the, Manchester United Café! Disgusting! After a walk in a Monsoon on the way home I ended up soaked. Stupid me forgot to take my umbrella. In the evening I ended up living the high life. This summarises the evening. Me, 1 accountant from Switzerland, 1 accountant from Germany and Fanny went to the Four Seasons Hotel for evening meal. It cost me 40 quid for a Chicken Korma, rice and 2 beers! Bring me the Pav any day!
So my main day in Mumbai began with yet more Monsoons! It was chucking it down! Marco and Fanny wimped out on showing me around the city because of the weather so I discussed a route with them and then set off. I headed to the Haji Ali sea temple first which is as the name suggests is a temple in the sea accessed by a pathway at sea level. Unfortunately, and just my luck, tide was in so the path from land to the temple was covered. I jumped back in a cab and then headed to the Jain Temple. Apparently the nicest temple in Mumbai, I thought it was a bit tacky to be honest. It was an experience to see people praying and doing all sorts in front of the idols. After a while I moved on to the Hanging gardens. On the way I spotted my first travel post box! I ummd and arred about climbing on the top of it but decided it would be too difficult explaining to an Indian police man that I do regularly climb on post boxes for a laugh! The hanging gardens I presume are very nice, all I saw though was one little area from under a shelter. The rain was so bad I even videoed it! After 10 mins of waiting I gave up and set off. By the way, I now had my brolly. I crossed over the road and entered a park overlooking Marine Drive, well on a good day it does! I spoke to some locals and explained how to capture a jumping picture, after a few attempts we got one. I was now soaked! Around the corner from the viewpoint was 'The boot'. Built for children to enjoy and play in the massive boot was a great place for me to shelter. I ignored the under 12 only sign and camped out until the rain calmed down. So after about 2 hours travelling around Mumbai I had been to 1 temple I couldn't get to, 1 I thought was tacky and got wet through looking at a view I couldn't see. It was time to move on, I took a taxi, black and yellow shed on wheels costing on average about 50p a time. I drove down Marine Drive to Nariman point where the weather cleared a little bit and gave me a nice view of the sea front. From here I jumped into another cab to, 'St John the Evangelist Church.' Otherwise known as the 'Afgan Church' it was built by the British to remember all British and Indian soldiers who died during the first Afgan war. I couldn't believe how similar it looked to Deane Church, my church at home. After a few mins and a chat to the warden who had worked there for 24 years, I caught another cab to the Gateway to India. This was really cool and I even braved a BWFC flag photo. The problem with my flag is that it says, 'COME ON YOU WHITES', in an area where more often than not I'm the only white person, I get some very funny looks when I get it out! Just next to the Gateway to India is the Taj Mahal Palace, a very posh hotel. I decided that this would be a safe place to eat so I tucked into a gourmet burger and chips, a ₤13.50 gourmet burger and chips! After this I was just about dry, the only place left on my list for the day was Dhobi Ghat Laundry. This is basically hundreds of massive concrete tubs filled with water, along with a load of clothes and 1 man in each tub beating the hell out of them. I watched for a while, now completely soaked again, before braving a walk down from the bridge I was looking over it all from into the laundry itself. I made it about 100 yards before realising it probably wasn't a good idea and headed back to the bridge. I hopped in another cab home and arrived back having had a great day, been totally soaked to my boxers (twice) and seen most of Mumbai. After drying off Marco, Fanny and I went out for dinner to an international buffet style restaurant which was very good. The plan for after was to head to a friend of Fanny's house warming party however…. Rain, rain and more rain decided to fall. It got to the point where cars were driving single file down the road because each side of the road was flooded. People were stranded on the pavement and parked bikes were in danger of being dragged away! After deciding we needed to head home, much to my relief, we finally found a taxi. I'm not going to lie; it was a shed on wheels with more water coming though the roof than in the Duchess, Mitch! Next thing we know, flat tyre. Well one on safari surrounded by wild animals that could potentially eat me and now one in the middle of a packed Mumbai road, late at night in monsoon season, where I could potentially drown! (Just realised that last sentence was maybe a bit extreme) After a great effort by the driver to change the wheel we gave up on him and got into another one. An eventful end to a crazy few days in a crazy city! My time in Mumbai ended with a taxi to the airport and a flight sat in front of the phantom burper… I'm not going to lie, (This might appear a lot in the next few blogs. I have just had my first few days with my 'India groups' consisting of two people from Wales so the Gavin and Stacey references have been at large!) but… that woman was just down right rude! She burped in my ear all the flight for no reason. Not even an un-subtle head shake stopped her!
I have just arrived in Jaisalmer after a few days in Delhi which I will start to write about tonight. It's bloody hot and I'm just about to head out for tea… Indian again I think J
By for now
Tom x
- comments
Christine Nelson Sorry, that was meant to be 5 stars! Shame about the weather, glad you had somewhere to stay. I had no idea eating out was so expensive there!
Jules Absolutely hilarious Tom!!!!!
Martyn S Mumbai sounds a blast. Remind me never to go there!