Mumbai in a nutshell… well, a very large walnut.

Namaste!

We have arrived safe and well in Mumbai. It is hot, dusty and crazy! Beeping horns, cows walking down the road and many people that want to have a chat. Scammers are everywhere but the Indian folk seem up for a laugh – as long as you look out for yourself!

The first day was a real experience, quite duanting but exciting all the same. At the airport we came out of the terminal and a `porter` took our luggage. We were looking for the pre-paid taxis, and upon asking the bloke said `yes yes yes taxi yes ok.` 
-BEWARE- These men are NOT pre-paid taxis, they are scammers who will jolt you 20 quid, which we have learnt the hard way (even after advice on how to avoid this scam but I will say no more on that one….) The pre-paid taxis are down a level, get the lift down, and a taxi to Colaba/ Fort should be 500 rupees.The drive to Fort is quite good, through all the different districts and past many sight seeing attractions. The drive takes about 30 minutes – TWO HOURS, which it took us! 

The traffic is bloody mental, I say! There are cars going in every direction, bycicles wobbling through near death gaps between buses and scooter drivers that literally don`t give a shit about getting in your way! Everyone is beeping at eachother, `i beep at you to get out my way, you beep at me to say shut up im first…

 To a westerner all the beeping may seem extreme, but there is so much traffic on the roads that you would never reach your destination within good time without a honk or two! The honking also comes in handy for a pedestrian… so keep your ears open whilst crossing the road, walking through a market or even on the pavement sometimes! The honk is a signal to say `get the fuck out of my way!` (the use of profanity is nessecary in this case).

FOOD

The food is bloody amazing i tell you! I am a pescetarian (fish eater only) but have decided to eat vegetarian in Mumbai, fish will be consumed daan saaf! When ordering, I just pick anything on the vegetarian section of the menu… fingers crossed and hope for the best ! But all the food is bloody good so no need to worry mate! 

I have eaten some amazing paneer masala type curry, vegetarian jaipur, black daal and biryani. Being a gluten free-tard i cannot eat any naan, chapati or anything like this to eat my food with BUT I can eat uppams (not sure if that is spelt correctly) which are weird rice flour sponge pancake creepy things, ignoring their weird appearance they not bad actually. At breakfast, I can eat a dosa – a chickpea flour pancake/crepe with idli and marsala – yum! However, I have seen many different things on menus described as masala, so not sure what it actually is/means yet. 

The street food is really good around the markets near Masjid station. I have eaten some amazing chilli and veg pakoras – so morish!!!!!!!!!!!

SHOPPING TIME, NOW TIME! 

If you are coming to Mumbai, definitely take a cab or the train from victoria to Masjid station to go to the Bendhi Bazaar and Chor Bazaar (say it `bendi badjhar` so the taxi driver understands). A taxi costs roughly 100 rupees on the meter and the train 5 rupees. At the `badjhar` you will find lots of beautiful fabrics, clothes, shoes, jewellery and spices. Be careful not to trip over the prize goats!

 There are many Muslim folk around this area, so ladies be sure to wear a long sleeved shirt and long pants as you need to be respectful, and avoid being grabbed and ogled at by the fellas! 

To look less like an Indi-newbie I have decided it is a good opportunity to buy myself a dress, much to my boyfriends excitement (NAHT!). I got a cotton dress with brocade on the neck and hem for 350 rupees – about 4 quid. I could have bartered him down, but not used to being a good haggler out here yet!

I am usually a good bargainer at bootfairs and the fabric shops in shepherds bush, so decided to try the hard bargain. On a street stall near our hotel, they are selling trousers (I have been wearing the same pair for 5 days and it`s about time I change) and I decide to go in for the kill. 2 pairs of cotton pyjama type trousers and 3 dresses for 500 rupees (about 6 quid). No pair of trousers should cost more than 150, and dresses no more than 250 (depending on the quality and style).

Getting about and being a tourist:

If you are staying in Fort/Colaba DO NOT get a taxi to the Gateway of India, Marine Parade, Victoria train station, Prince of Wales Museum or anything around there, everything is in walking distance and it is fun to get lost finding your way back home! Do not look lost as you might get hassle. Also, avoid carrying a tourist book or map in your hand, use it whilst sitting down for some chai at a restaurant or cafe.

SCAMMERS

I would have to say that it is hard to trust anyone, but I will find it easier as the trip goes on. Some how we made some Indian friends, a bloke selling some maps who ended up taking us to the best local restaurant for food, then a bar, then a travel agents. His friend came along and he spoke good English, so we could all laugh and joke. However, the travel agents claim to be run by the government (if anyone says they are officials, they are not!) and were very pushy with a tour of southern india that they wanted me to buy:  678 quid for a 11 day tour… I DONT THINK SO! They got a bit angry when we said we would come back tomorrow, so we decided we just wanted the train. 

 So, we booked a train to Goa with them, for the actual price of the train we think – about 2500 rupees for 2 beds in 2nd class A/C sleeper compartment. However, they have explained they will drop the tickets to our hotel twice now, no show… Hopefully they come tonight! Fingers crossed!

Gladly, we didn`t waste any money on some crappy tour, but good advice is as follows:
Be careful, always think things through, sleep on it, talk it over in private, speak to other travellers ( Leopolds Cafe in Colaba is good for meeting people). Always haggle with them, get a few prices from different people and never rush into buying something you aren`t sure you want. Do not sign into anything you will later regret.

 We want to go-with-the-flow on our trip, no bloody tours  thank-you-please!!!! That said, we will probably hire a taxi in Kerala to see the hill stations and spice plantations etc! Watch out for the post about that.

Beggars
There are many beggars on the streets, a man with a wooden leg sleeps on the pavement using his leg as a pillow, a little boy and girl try to get some money running between cars at the traffic lights, a woman breast feeding her very tiny baby asking for some rupees. It is all very sad, but advice is not to give any money and especially not children as it encourages begging. 

We took a trip to Dobi Ghat – the worlds best open air laundry apparently! There are 10,000 people that come to have their washing done here every day. 5,000 people work and live there. Well, what can I say… the place is really big, full of colours and different smells and the people are very different to the ones you see walking around Colaba/ Fort. I took my DSLR camera there, felt a bit uneasy but everything went OK!

As we went to walk down the steps to the washing people, a tiny lady in the most colourful sari approached us, trying to sell us a handmade bag, she proceeded to give us information about the washers, her English was very good so I decided to buy a bag from her because she was really extraordinary! 

In the thick of the `washing machines` an old bloke with a gammy arm came up to us and asked if we wanted to see the washers, so he took us on an unofficial tour. Showed us all the washers, dryers, hotel laundry, new clothes laundry, sari laundry, and the list goes on… He took us onto the roof of someones house, where we could see all of the washers and past this strange slum /washing village onto the big sky scrapers of the city. Very surreal.

He showed us the almost comical sized drying machines- powered by gas. A boy asked to have his photo with me, to which I agreed… Although it was quite amusing to see that he has no money but a better Samsung phone than myself! Something not quite right there!

At the end of the tour the old man took us for some chai tea, then tried to ask for a large amount of money for our tour! So we gave him 100 rupees and he was satisfied. You can haggle with anything in India, but be careful where you are and what situation you are in. 

Next stop: GOA!