First Impressions of India

What can I say about India? It is very hard to describe to someone who has never been. There are people EVERYWHERE! Mumbai (or The City Formally Known as Bombay) has a population the size of Canada, but is the size of the GTA. Life is just so different. It is 30 degrees in the sun here, so I have had to buy all new clothes. But pants cost 2 dollars, shirts 1 dollar and shoes 3 dollars. At least I am not breaking the bank.

Sadly I did get scammed by first night here. I left Warsaw after a day of running around at 6pm Wednesday to get a train to Hannover arriving at 3am. Then a train to Frankfurt leaving at 5:20am. Upon getting to the airport I was told I wasnt getting on the Air India flight in the morning because it was oversold by 25 people. Luftansa put me on standby, despite there being 36 seats oversold. Unbelivably I made it on, but had to sit in the jump-seat, which is that folding seat the stewardesses sit on for take off and landing. Not the most comfortable 7 hour trip. When my meal came, I was about to take my first bite when a kid threw up right beside me (I was beside the washrooms).

I arrived in Mumbai at 3am and had no clue what to do, where to go or anything. This was friday morning, so I had been traveling for a long time and the brain was not working. A man who claimed to work for the airport offered to set me up in a hotel. He had a badge and seemed legit. Appearances can be deceiving. He took me to a hotel and made me pay 9000 rupees per night. To put that in perspective, the double room I have now is 750 per night and a cup of coffee is about 10r. I realized about half way through I was being ripped off but by then I was far from the airport in a strange city at 4am and I didnt think I could just get out of the car and make my way. So I went along and got ripped off. At least the room was nice and clean and I got a good breakfast included and a bit of sleep. Lesson learned. It cost about 200 dollars, but I have heard of worse and much more dangerous scams.

So I made my way into the city to meet Liz. I sent her an email and set a meeting place, that I was not going to leave no matter what. I ended up waiting on a street in front of a clock tower for about 4 hours. If you want to see India, watching a busy street for 4 hours is a good way to do it. The lack of lanes, the CONSTANT blaring of horns, people running between speeding cards. It was nuts. Finally Liz came and rescued me and I was able to get some food, water and sleep.

Since then I have spent the days doing...well not much. Seeing a bit of the city, wandering around. It is all so fascinating. Eating is a bit tricky. Westerners can't eat the meat because they don't have proper refridgeration. Water must be from a bottle. Fruit must be peeled. There are lots of rules to avoid getting sick. Also, there is rarely bread, more rice. My system is still getting used to the new diet. But I am having a great time. On Tuesday we are headed down to Goa, which has a strong Portugese influence and some nice beaches. I will keep posting as much as I can, but I think pictures will have to wait until I am back in Europe. Take care all!