After reliving my taxi experience from the airport to my hotel in my head last night, its a wonder how i am actually able to write this today. I said in my last blog i was unable to verbalise the experience, i am still not sure if i can but here we go. So I stepped off the plane, through immigration, customs and picked up my bag, that was a breeze, took all of 15mins. Next was finding a taxi but more importantly i was gagging for a smoke, so I followed the hordes of people who i was sure were heading for the taxi rank, which of course they were, i didn't get in line straight away but looked for any locals that maybe smoking, i didn't want to spark up were i shouldn't and get fined or banged up within the 1st 5mins of arrival. I looked outside it was peeing down, it was muggy and miserable, however this was more than a little deceiving, as i stepped out of the terminal doors to what i can only imagine what a back draft of a fire would feel like, the humidity hit me instantly, it was like walking into a steam room, only i was fully clothed and carrying a 23KG back pack. Now i will admit, i am a bit of sweater but no word of a lie within 2-3mins sweat was pouring from my brow, i just wanted to get into a taxi and see those 2 little letters on the dash 'AC', of course i didn't do this, being a hardcore smoker (i can hear my mum and dad tutting, sorry!) i needed my fix, it had been almost 14 hours, i needed that nicotine intake, so i found smokers corner made the most of the 'fresh air' and then made a be-line for the taxi queue. I agreed a price with the driver of which i had read up on, and we were off, i asked how far and he replied in very broken English 12K, i was thinking great maybe 20mins, 30 max with traffic. Oh no, no, no.. we left the airport i tried make conversation with the driver but his English was as good as my Hindu, and to add at this point he had the worst BO ever, OK its hot and humid but come on, quite ironic that nearly every advertising board i saw was advertising 'Sure for men, it wont let you down' now either it had seriously let my driver down or he just hadn't seen the 1000's of billboards dotted around Mumbai. So we sat in silence for the whole journey. This turned out not to be bad thing, as it made me take in my surroundings, i knew i was in for poverty and a culture shock, i have seen this in other countries however nothing compared to this. Poverty jumped out at me from every direction, it was so much that i was unable to take it all in, there were people everywhere, hundreds, thousands, every corner, sat outside every shop, buildings, bus stops, crossing the roads playing chicken with the traffic. The side of the roads had 1ft deep muddy water, rubbish and dirt floating in it, the pavement, or lack of was broken and and turned to mud every few hundred meters, men, women, families with small children slept on the side of the road, small children ran around naked. cows, sheep and dogs waded through the muddy water searching for anything edible to eat, these were just a few examples of what i saw, but in all this woe and poverty everyone seem content, they went about their business doing what they were doing, it was their way life, they had no other choice, they seemed to have accepted that this is what their life will be like. Now please i have been in Mumbai only 2 days, not even that so i am only commenting on what i have seen and read, I don't hate what i have seen, i am not waiting to get 'out of town' it is what it is, yes it is shocking in places and saddening, but its not my city i don't live here, i just respect my surroundings the country i am in and embrace the experience. when people see this sort of poverty the first thing they usually say is, it makes yo think how lucky you are, i am going to be a sheep and say exactly the same, you really do have be thankful for what you have, where you live, how clean it is. We have imbeciles in England rioting for no reason killing people and here in India there are families living on the side of the roads, i think perspective springs to mind.
Now i started off by saying 'i wonder how i am actually able to write this blog', well my fellow friends its all related to the traffic and highway code they use here India. Rule 1. Beep your horn, lots and lots, Rule 2. Beep your horn, lots and lots. Rule 3. Ignore traffic signals, Rule 4, ignore other drivers, Rule 5, Gain 100 points for every pedestrian you nearly kill. Seriously, how no one killed us and how we didn't kill some one else i will never know. At one point a mixer truck came so close to hitting us side on that i could actually see the guts of the thousands of flies splattered on the trucks grill, as i was so sure it was going to hit us, i slid across the back seat to the other side, at this point my non English speaking driver laughed loudly looked back at me and said 'welcome to India', he was right this was India, so after i took my heart from my mouth I also started laughing, from then on in, it was just what it was.
I have to be up at 5.30am tomorrow to catch a 6.30am train to GOA, however I did have a wonder around this evening and if i have ever felt like a black sheep, today was it, i didn't see, not 1 other westerner in the whole 2-3 hours i was wondering around, not that i was bothered, but you can imagine i was certainly seemed to be the center of attention on the streets of Mumbai for a couple of hours. Walking around the smell of the city also became More apparent, it was (one for my mate Rich) 'pungent, kinda stings the nostrils, and not in a good way' ;o). I found a nice little India restaurant, probably posh for India. i went for something called 'Fish shashlik' on asking what this was he said fresh fish (i didn't catch which fish he said it was) with veg, rice and sauce, perfect i thought. 10mins later the 'mound' appeared, OMG was that really all mine. Since leaving the restaurant i have renamed my 'Fish Shashlik' to 'fish mess' just like the 'eton mess' but less sweet and not as nice to look at. The reason, the 'mound' consisted of Rice, green beans, cauliflower, peas, sweetcorn, fish and fries, topped of with what they called traditional Indian sauce or to me and you gravy!! hahaha.. this concoction of food was just literally piled up on my plate with the fish sat on top, don't get me wrong it was all nice and the fish was lovely ( i do love fish) but i didn't even finish half of it! Anyway as i parted with around 700 rupees and got up to leave the table i glanced at the next table, 4 youngish local guys around my age, they were also tucking into a 'Fish mess'.. between the 4 of them!!!!!! Keep well all.
Now i started off by saying 'i wonder how i am actually able to write this blog', well my fellow friends its all related to the traffic and highway code they use here India. Rule 1. Beep your horn, lots and lots, Rule 2. Beep your horn, lots and lots. Rule 3. Ignore traffic signals, Rule 4, ignore other drivers, Rule 5, Gain 100 points for every pedestrian you nearly kill. Seriously, how no one killed us and how we didn't kill some one else i will never know. At one point a mixer truck came so close to hitting us side on that i could actually see the guts of the thousands of flies splattered on the trucks grill, as i was so sure it was going to hit us, i slid across the back seat to the other side, at this point my non English speaking driver laughed loudly looked back at me and said 'welcome to India', he was right this was India, so after i took my heart from my mouth I also started laughing, from then on in, it was just what it was.
I have to be up at 5.30am tomorrow to catch a 6.30am train to GOA, however I did have a wonder around this evening and if i have ever felt like a black sheep, today was it, i didn't see, not 1 other westerner in the whole 2-3 hours i was wondering around, not that i was bothered, but you can imagine i was certainly seemed to be the center of attention on the streets of Mumbai for a couple of hours. Walking around the smell of the city also became More apparent, it was (one for my mate Rich) 'pungent, kinda stings the nostrils, and not in a good way' ;o). I found a nice little India restaurant, probably posh for India. i went for something called 'Fish shashlik' on asking what this was he said fresh fish (i didn't catch which fish he said it was) with veg, rice and sauce, perfect i thought. 10mins later the 'mound' appeared, OMG was that really all mine. Since leaving the restaurant i have renamed my 'Fish Shashlik' to 'fish mess' just like the 'eton mess' but less sweet and not as nice to look at. The reason, the 'mound' consisted of Rice, green beans, cauliflower, peas, sweetcorn, fish and fries, topped of with what they called traditional Indian sauce or to me and you gravy!! hahaha.. this concoction of food was just literally piled up on my plate with the fish sat on top, don't get me wrong it was all nice and the fish was lovely ( i do love fish) but i didn't even finish half of it! Anyway as i parted with around 700 rupees and got up to leave the table i glanced at the next table, 4 youngish local guys around my age, they were also tucking into a 'Fish mess'.. between the 4 of them!!!!!! Keep well all.
No comments:
Post a Comment