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Hi all.
Well, I arrived in Mumbai mid morning on the 9th Nov - and I can safely say that this place is mad as a box of frogs. I've only been here 4 days & it feels like 4 months!
We got in a cab to take us to the hotel, he stopped after about 2 minutes & put us in his mates cab who, we figured out couldn't read his native language, or ours when we discovered he had no idea where he was going & was trying to read the card with the address on upside down!! Still we got there in the end.
On the way a guy got out his car & wacked a street kid over the head for trying to sell his passengers books in a traffic jam to which all the indian drivers started tooting like crazy - they didn't like it.
I couldn't help thinking if that had happened in the UK that he would have probably got his head kicked in.
Mumbai is pretty amazing, one minute your walking past a stinking shanty town & 2 steps later your walking past a palace like abode.
The divide between real povery & extreme wealth is a paving stone sometimes, its quite sad until you get used to it actually.
It generally stinks & there are guys with sticks on the end of most of the streets with hotels on to beat away the 'untouchables' - who can get pretty pushy given the chance (go on, ask me how I know)
We stayed there for 2 days then flew to Ahmedabad to get a bus to Udaipor.
The flight was fine & what happend next made me think flying was the best option.
We decided it would be far quicker to hire a car with a driver to get us the rest of the way. Now, they drive like lunatics here in cars, jeeps, tuc tuc's, bikes etc etc & its a free for all - the only things that save them are their horns, they hoot the whole time - even at the cows that walk up & down the road or occasionally have a kip in the middle of the road.
Anyway about half way there our driver tried some stupid move and had to brake suddenly to avoid a cow (they are sacred you see) at which point a massive military truck smashed into the back of us - we were ok luckily & got away with sore necks instead of anything more serious, they just f***ed off! there is nothing you can do apparently, they are untouchable here & can do what they want & we thought better of getting out to scream at a bunch of guys with guns anyway.
The driver was very upset, he earns 3500 Rupees a month which is about 40 quid & thought he was going to lose his job. The problem is that NONE of them actually know how to drive, they just know how to go forward and stop (kind of) so there is very little point in getting really pissed off about it although I did very quietly & politely point out that we were lucky to be alive and if it happened again & we lived, I would lose my temper & a sacred cow would be the least of his problems.
Udaipour is quite something, amazing scenery and lovely people. When we arrived Jen nearly lost it with the hotel guy who was trying to negotiate with two people that had been travelling all day, had been in a near serious accident and were covered in glass from the rear wndow smashing. Once that was sorted we got de-glassed & went for a wander.
The food is flippin great, dinner costs about 95 ruppes, which is just over a quid.
The scenery is mind blowing & tomorrow we are going for a cooking lesson with an Indian woman called Shashi in her house who is very well known in these parts for her cuisine.
Right i'm off, this keyboard doesnt work peoperly (....nothing does here! its great! everythings f***ed!) & is starting to annoy me.
Look after yourselves,
Pat.
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