Mumbai Reports

I finished my time in Mumbai yesterday and made my way to my next destination.

It was an interesting city, and not in a bad way. I met my friend Aru there, and she took me around to see the sights. Best travel trip for anyone who intends to visit another country on their own: Make friends with someone who lives there already. It saves you so much time and energy, not to mention money.

Highlights of Mumbai include:

Now with 20% less Slumdogs!

Visiting the Chhatrapali Shivaji train station - the King's Cross of the city. The station was designed in Victorian style, and the ticket lobby is grandiose to say the least. The charm does fade slightly when you walk out to the platforms and see all the rubbish on the ground (not to mention crows eating dead rats). But it is a nice place. It's also where the train scene at the end of Slumdog Millionaire takes place.

Along with the train visit, I also got a culture lesson, as we took a train to one of its stops and got off. There are supposedly over a billion people in this country, and I believe over half of them were waiting at the station we got off at. Indian trains don't have doors on them, so besides being horribly dangerous, there's also no crowd control. As we arrive at the station, the smart people jumped off first ( while the train was moving no less!). We waited til the train stopped, and almost didn't make it off. The platform was full of people and the moment the train stopped they ALL swarmed to get in. The force was so strong, in fact, that you had to fight to get off before you either got stuck, pinned to the train as it started moving, or tramppled. I walked away with a few light bruises, nut most people seem to do this everyday without killing themselves. Having experienced it, that baffles my mind!

Playing a game of monopoly at some cafe for 3 hours- it really is the simple things that are the most impressive. I lost badly both times, but that was some of the most fun I had in my entire stay there!

I've missed you choloestrol!

Trying my first Indian McDonalds meal. It's exaggerated when they say the entire menu is vegetarian. It's not, and there are plenty of meat options. Just no beef. I had the maharajah burger - the equivalent to a regular Big Mac, but with chicken instead of beef. It was different but good, and I might try it again before I leave.

Going to the comedy store, basically like Second City in the states, and seeing a comedy show. It was very much a "People from Bengal do this" kind of show but still funny. The Irish MC was the high point for me: just because I understood ALL his jokes lol.

Other sites included: the Gates of India, the big attraction to the city but nothing that special to me. The Taj hotel, the oldest in the city and site of the terrorist attacks a few years ago. The hotel was nice, but reminds me too much of the Rex in HCMC. The Beverly Hills of Mumbai. Mumbai is the movie capital of the country, and also it's business center so this is where most of the rich people live. Just like in Hollywood, too, you can see people standing in front of actors homes and taking pictures. Very funny! Probably the most amazing thing I saw was the home of the richest man in India: a skyscraper! The guy built a 60 floor building at seventy million dollars ( now worth a billion) as his own, personal residence. Wow. You want to feel humbled? Go there.

Speaking of humbling, the divide in this city between rich and poor really is apparent, and you do see begging child in most parts of the city. One thing that surprised me were the slums. We took an auto rickshaw out to one and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, it was still pretty shabby, but I guess the years of living in Vietnam have gotten me used to such things, because to me it didn't look that bad.

I had to get up pretty early on Tuesday to fly out, but Mumbai turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had expected it to be. Overall, what I thought would be a drab 3 days turned out to be what might be a highlight of the trip!












There's been almost no down time at all since i arrived in India - everyday I'm up up before seven and on my way

Day 0 - Sleepless Nights, Big Feet, and A Touch of Meat

Well,after months of planning D-Day is finally here. Yesterday was a mad rush to finish a million errands that should've been taken care of weeks ago...what can I say? I procrastinate.

I had A LOT of clothes that needed buying for this trip, and stupidly forgot that yesterday was the last day of the Chinese New Year - a holiday I spend 500km trying to get rid of. I spent most of my time at a small "resort" in Mui Ne, and stupidly believed that when I got back on Thursday, that I would've missed the brunt of shops closing. Wrong!

All the major stores were still closed yesterday afternoon, so I wasted a good four hours trying to find the clothes i needed at the roadside stalls.

I managed to get TWO shirts that fit and a pair of shoes that feel half a size too small. Lucky for me too, because these are going to be my "trekking shoes" too. At least I got a discount on them.

The rest of yesterday was spent finishing up the other websites work, which took a lot longer than expected. I didn't eat anything until 10ish last night, and then I made the mistake of drinking pepsi = caffeine rush... Yeah, I'm going on three hours of sleep right now

But that's okay! I've made it to the airport, gouty my way through Viets who can't understand why people would ever queue for something when they could jump the line instead, gone through customs and ate at the first Burger King in Vietnam!

That will probably be my last taste of meat for quite a while. It seems like everything Indian I've ever met is a vegetarian so I'm expecting a lot of veggies when I get there. And no Beef. For a month. Me = Sad face.

Yup, in q few more minutes my flight will leave from Saigon, and after a layover in Kuala Lumpur, I'll be arriving late tonight in Mumbai. Can't wait as the 21 Days of India starts today!

Beginnings: A Half Assed Plan and "Mission" Statement

When you think of your holidays, usually the first things that come to mind are relaxing on beaches, sleeping in late, or eating whatever the hell you want to. I can honestly say that whenever the idea of a holiday first pops into my head, these are the things that I think about, never the planning.

Planning has got to be one of the most stressful parts of any vacation. Arranging everything and putting it in it's proper place so that you can have that dream holiday you've been working towards all year...well, it's definitely no picnic.

I'm by nature a procrastinator, so of course it's only in the last few weeks that I've gotten serious about getting things sorted for my trip. Yeah, I'd bought my travel book (Lonely Planet baby!), and put a little thought into what I wanted to see. Here's how my itinerary stands at the moment:

• I have 21 days to explore India, concentrating mostly on the midlands and major tourist attractions
• My trip is starting in Mumbai, moving north into Rajahstanh where I'll visit Jasalimer and Jaipur, then heading to Delhi/Agra for a few days before going South again to Varanasi and then finally flying out through Calcutta.
• My budget is going to be between $2000-3000 USD (<100,000 Rupees), which works out to a little more than $100 a day. It sounds like a lot, but this will include food, transport, and hotels.
• Most places I'll have an average of 2.5 days to visit so I'm planning on doing A LOT of tours to maximise things.

Along with the itinerary, I'm going to try blogging on this trip (hence the new blog), and hopefully share some of what I'm experiencing to anyone who's reading this. I'll also be bringing along my Ipad for blogging (hoping I get a wifi connection somewhere), and a Kindle for guidebooks and misc entertainment.

With only a few weeks left before I go there's still a lot to do and buy before I think I'm going to be ready. Still, one thing I've learned is that whatever you put into something, it will come back doubly to reward/haunt you and I, for one, can't wait for this trip to start!