Mumbai

Hello

Returned. And the strangest thing is that I feel like I returned home. So traveling to Mumbai was a holiday and now I returned home and it feels much safer and easier here. And this is Jaipur, I never thought it would could feel like home. Returning to Finland must feel like returning to.. don't even know.

In any case, Mumbai felt like heaven on ear... on India. It's from another universe. At times we felt like we weren't in India!

There's two quite Western bars (cafe Leopold and Mondegar) in the 'tourist' area Colaba which serve even bacon (pig!) and some lamb steaks. It was really relieving to just sit there, see some other Westerners, eat some Western food and have a few beers. And the Colaba area was quite interesting in general also, lots of different stuff.

Our couchsurfing hosts and Tani. Really nice guys.

First night we spent at one couchsurfing guy's place (www.couchsurfing.org for those who don't know the concept) but that was almost an hour's drive off from Colaba. So on Saturday we took a taxi to Colaba and found a nice little crappy guesthouse for the rest of the nights (3). 600 rupees per night in total so not too bad.

Guesthouse's bathroom. Not for the touchy ones.

Anyway, I'm not quite sure what to tell about Mumbai. It's a lot more civilized place than Jaipur and of course they have the Bollywood studios there. We even went to see one Bollywood movie there called Red Alert but unfortunately(?) it sucked (partially because we didn't understand anything, but doubt it was any good anyway). The night life in the city was totally different than in Jaipur, meaning that it.. existed. Bars had to close at 1am there also but some bars had bribed the police so they could show the football finals.


Beautiful beaches of Mumbai.

On Saturday I ate some really spicy food in a restaurant. I didn't really like it, but it costed 250 rupees so I didn't want to just throw it away and I forced it down my throat. The following night I paid the price: bathroom became a familiar place. Whole Sunday was partially ruined for me due to this, but on Monday I was again feeling quite ok. So, this trip's first stomach problem! Hurray!

Slum area of Mumbai called Dharavi. You should read about the area, either google or try http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/dharavi-mumbai-slum/jacobson-text . I found a book which told about the life in there but someone just bought it in front of my nose so had to buy something else :/

One interesting thing in Mumbai is the train system. Our couchsurfing host told us quite directly not to use it. Usually tourists just go to the platform, take a few pictures and not dare to try it. And we shouldn't either. In the end we ended up using it three times and it was an interesting experience :) I will attach some pictures with explanations.

In a local train. A lot more people came in before it was 'full'

Now the train is starting to be full. Note that the train is actually moving already. And, no, the trains' doors were never closed.

In Mumbai I bought the first books about India. I became really interested in all the social and economical situation here and hopefully I have some time to read. I think in future blog entries I will be covering some areas of the Indian culture and problems after reading a few books about the subjects. Let's see what happens.

P.S. I just found out that I'm going to an Indian wedding today. Someone from the office downstairs has a wedding in his family.