crazy

I think i touched on this subject last time but mumbai is crazy. Here is a little bit of what ive noticed in the 3 days ive spent in the city so far. Number 1, for sure would be the poverty. I woke up my first morning and walked out of my hotel to be greated by a whole family sleeping on the side walk in front of me. This was around 7 am and granted it was a holiday (so i assume they slept in?) but over the next hour as i walked through one of the most fascinating cities ive been in i was dodging people sleeping on the sidewalks or cleaning themselves in puddles. Pretty crazy shit considering im staying in probably the nicest district of south mumbai. Another thing that you notice pretty immediatly is that mumbai is hot as hell at anypoint in the day and it probably only dips down to around 30 overnight. Simply put i have a new love affair with Air conditioning. The size of mumbai is crazy too. I took a walk on the sea wall last night (like vancouvers) and man the skyscraper landscape is just nuts. The wall was probably 20 miles long and it started at one side of the downtown core and a wrapped around to the other and was in the shadows of massive buildings the whole way. Another thing is that this city is just one huge contradiction to itself. You have slums beside the Bombay stock exchange (indias wall street), Sky scrappers going up beside buildings that are 20 storeys of tarp and erosion, garbage littering beautiful parks, gardens and streets all over the city and finally the poorest people hanging out (or crawling around) in the richest districts. The mentality of people here is also something to take note of, more less everyone in some way is trying to get ahead and they will do just about anything they can to do it. Its hard to explain in words but so imagine the people of mumbai are like a more agressive version of people from new jersey. Horrible, atleast thats how ive experienced the streets. The architecture in the city (atleast in the nice areas) is fabulous, a mixture of tradional hindu or islamic inspired buildings and statues, victorian style museums and government buildings (from the colonial period) and modern buildings being built everywhere. Also being in this city is like being in hollywood (or atleast i think) except its bollywood, theres fancy cars and nice stores and gossip rags all over the place and everyone talks about actors constantly.

Personally mumbai has been a "trip" of an experience. Atleast like i said before ive never experienced anything like it. After shrugging off the poverty and dealing with the heat, you begin to realize the city is like everywhere else. It has its good sides and bad sides, there just more abrupt. The noise is something im not sure il every get used to. Dealing with people has been the most interesting/challenging experience. There just for the most part soo poor, and they look at you like "becuase your white and north american" your rich. Which i guess is true, but when it comes to negotiating a fair price for anything without a price tag on it, there are some real challenges to getting a decent price. Ive been ripped off pretty well about five times, atleast thats what ive realized. The best one was at the train station, buying my ticket to goa. I walked up to the foreigner purchase terminal and had what i thought was a very kind hearted and helpful conversation with a older lady probably in her 50s. I wont get into details but she charged me 200rs extra for my ticket and then proceeded to take another 200rs that i had in my passport when i showed it to her. Touts are another experience in themself. There people that are your "freind" and try and "help" you. Pretty well you can't be freindly at all, or ask them for any help without having to give them any money just to go away. I now just walk and ignore, i don't make eye contact and in some cases pretend i don't speak english well. Other than those things ive learned a ton in this city. I visited the museum of both natural and national history and the audio guided tours and displays were amazing and extremely educational. Im really starting to realize how much of the culture is influenced by religion. Over all ive felt suprising pretty safe in mumbai and rather than a run in with one very unfreindly (aswell as possibly drunk) taxi driver my experience here has been great. Met some cool people, hung out in some really interesting pubs and sheesha bars and saw some pretty amazing shit.
Right now im in goa in a little hippie/indian vacationer resort town in the north called Arambol. Im staying on the beach in my own beach hut for around 19 bucks a night and it is absolute paradise. Lots of euros and world travellers around and the beach/ocean are amazing.
Il tell you about the train ride down next time and describe goa more after hanging out here a few more days. I'l also try and post some photos of mumbai but im in some little shack of a cafe and the computers are like 10yrs old so it might not work.