Days 24 -26
We have arrived in Mumbai safe and well and we are liking it a lot! The streets are clean, our hotel is in a great area, its relatively hassle free and most importantly there is no rain and although its hot, not so bad that we cant walk around.
As we left Darjeeling on Sunday morning the rain still came down, now well into its fifth day. We were also hearing that Sikkim was having the exact same weather so we were glad that we had made the decision to leave the mountains and fly to Mumbai. I would also like to comment on Marmot jackets (I must get the exact type). Now I spent a fair bit of cash on that jacket, which as anyone will know is a big deal for me :-) but I didn't mind because I thought that it would work ok. To be fair in Ireland i never had a problem, but when faced with the Monsoon in India it reached product failure - it leaks! The back of the hood leaks water down the back of your neck and is extremely annoying. So my advise is only buy Marmot rain jackets if your are jumping in and out of light rain for short periods otherwise buy a poncho!
We were worried about reaching Siliguiri airport in time, with different potential interruptions, but in the end none transpired and we were at the airport 4 hours in advance. While we were checking in we saw Indian labour v. Western technology and processes in a nutshell. There is a huge labour force in India and while that should mean that a lot of things get done it doesn't always work out like that. Instead what happens is that there is someone for every single job or maybe two or three! For example if you go into a restaurant there might be 7 or 8 waiters standing around in a deserted restaurant and they will stand over your table until you are done a little annoying and disconcerting. In any case as we were checking in at the airport there was no less than 5 helpers for the checkin clerk. The other 5 guys were luggage handlers, two of whom put our bags on the scale (which wasn't working!). Once the clerk checked us in a guy on the other side of the scale took our bags off and there was 2 other guys waiting to be handed our luggage and they took off with our bags off to luggage land. In the west this whole process is handled by the check in clerk and a series of conveyors but in India labour is cheap!
Our flights were pleasant although seriously lacking in knee room, I would enjoy seeing my brother getting into a GoAir seat! We transferred in Delhi airport which delighted in telling us it was the World's second best airport! In fairness it was nice although I would suggest that they should give free Wi-Fi and they could be up to No.1. After our second flight and a snooze for myself we were soon in Mumbai and after a taxi to our hotel we were soon sound asleep.
Mumbai is the city of dreams, home to the world's biggest film industry Bollywood and people flock here from across India with dreams of stardom. As a result Mumbai is the largest city by population in India (and fourth in the world) with 20.5 million calling it home within the metropolitan area. Most of these people however end up living in the many slums and Mumbai is home to Asia's biggest slum Dharavi. Originally a small fishing village Mumbai or Bombay as it was then known was taken over the East India company in 1665. Although because it was separated by the rest of British India in Bengal is never really flourished until the East India Company managed to take territory that could link it to Bengal in the early 19th century. Bombay as it was then known then took off as the major port for India, it was the closest to Europe and with the railways starting to link India, Bombay was the premier location to trade with on the subcontinent. The British built numerous civic buildings and churches in various unique architectural styles usually combining Indian with European styles. In 2000 Bombay had its name changed to Mumbai, but even this wasn't enough to stop sectarian tensions boiling over on a number of occasions. These rampages leave 100s or 1000s dead when they erupt although none received as much coverage as the attacks by terrorist groups on the trains and of course the most famous of all in 2008 when sea borne terrorists took over the Taj hotel and shot anything that moved leaving 173 people dead.
The terrorists were all killed bar one who is awaiting execution and security has been seriously tightened around the city, which was evident from our stroll along the waterfront to the Gateway to India. The Gateway was built in 1924 to commemorate the visit of George V visit. Its built in the Indo-Sarcenic style and this along with its location at the head of Mumbai sticking in the Arabian Sea gives it a very grand stature. We were surprised at the reduced requests for photos at the arch from Indian tourists and we decided we would do a sight seeing tour all the way to our next location, the train station. And how impressed we were with Mumbai, the streets are clean, there are clear footpaths to walk on, no tuktuks and most importantly virtually no gawkers or hawkers. The walk took us past some fine looking colonial era buildings all the way to our destination, Mumbai Central train station known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminius formerly known as Victoria Terminus.
Undoubtedly the legacy of the British period in modern India is the railways and Victoria Terminus must be the crowning glory of the network. As a railway station it is ridiculous, looking more like a college, it actually reminded me of my University, Queens in Belfast, however there is much more to it than Queen's Lanyon building. Although it was designed by English architect Frederick William Stevens in the same Victorian neo-gothic style as Queen's it seems to also have the traditional Indian styles of Mughal and Hindu thrown in as well as a bit of European Baroque for good measure. The result is amazing but crazy, its fantasy really.
Our actually purpose of visiting the train station was to try and get our tickets and after another visit today we finally have them all to Aurangabad and then to Goa. Following our excursion to the train station we headed to the cinema to catch a Bollywood film. While waiting to get into the theatre my wife actually got pointed out for littering by the security guard at the cinema! Surely a first in the history of this country, but it was all the more funny by the fact there were no bins and she had only left an empty water bottle on a table. The guard lead my wife behind the food stand where there was a random plastic bag and told her that was where she was to throw her rubbish. Clearly obvious for any member of the public who wished to deposit rubbish. I laughed out loud at this but it drew no reaction from the guard, it all made perfect sense to him!
The film itself was a comedy, about the love between a deaf and dumb man and a mentally disabled woman. No film company in the west could ever get away with it but apart from a few cringe worthy politically incorrect scenes (which the audience thought were hilarious!) it wasn't too bad and we quite enjoyed it. It was also set in Darjeeling so alot of rain seemed to feature. It was also quite easy to follow despite the fact that it was almost entirely in Hindi.
Apart from drinking nasty overpriced larger out of a very strange contraption in the famous Leopold's bar and a fantastic Chinese lunch this afternoon the only thing of note we have done is to visit the Prince of Wales Museum. An enjoyable enough museum, nothing really groundbreaking apart from a very detailed and delicate ivory box and a stuffed White Tiger, but apparently you can see a live one in the Delhi Zoo.
Tomorrow we are off very early in the morning to
Aurangabad to see the Elora and Ajanta Caves and from there to finally relax (we hope!) on the famous beaches of Goa.
I searched the internet yesterday to try and get the hurling final results. The hurling final is actually on the 30th, but I was shocked to learn about the death of Ulster and Ireland rugby player Nevin Spence. He was a promising back and only 22 years old. He died in an awful tragedy along with his father and brother in an accident, where they were all overcome by slurry fumes on their farm in Hillsborough County Down. As a farmer's son I know that there are many dangers on a farm but these silent deadly fumes lurking in slurry tanks are one of the scariest. My heart goes out to the remaining family members. May they Rest In Peace.
We have arrived in Mumbai safe and well and we are liking it a lot! The streets are clean, our hotel is in a great area, its relatively hassle free and most importantly there is no rain and although its hot, not so bad that we cant walk around.
As we left Darjeeling on Sunday morning the rain still came down, now well into its fifth day. We were also hearing that Sikkim was having the exact same weather so we were glad that we had made the decision to leave the mountains and fly to Mumbai. I would also like to comment on Marmot jackets (I must get the exact type). Now I spent a fair bit of cash on that jacket, which as anyone will know is a big deal for me :-) but I didn't mind because I thought that it would work ok. To be fair in Ireland i never had a problem, but when faced with the Monsoon in India it reached product failure - it leaks! The back of the hood leaks water down the back of your neck and is extremely annoying. So my advise is only buy Marmot rain jackets if your are jumping in and out of light rain for short periods otherwise buy a poncho!
We were worried about reaching Siliguiri airport in time, with different potential interruptions, but in the end none transpired and we were at the airport 4 hours in advance. While we were checking in we saw Indian labour v. Western technology and processes in a nutshell. There is a huge labour force in India and while that should mean that a lot of things get done it doesn't always work out like that. Instead what happens is that there is someone for every single job or maybe two or three! For example if you go into a restaurant there might be 7 or 8 waiters standing around in a deserted restaurant and they will stand over your table until you are done a little annoying and disconcerting. In any case as we were checking in at the airport there was no less than 5 helpers for the checkin clerk. The other 5 guys were luggage handlers, two of whom put our bags on the scale (which wasn't working!). Once the clerk checked us in a guy on the other side of the scale took our bags off and there was 2 other guys waiting to be handed our luggage and they took off with our bags off to luggage land. In the west this whole process is handled by the check in clerk and a series of conveyors but in India labour is cheap!
Our flights were pleasant although seriously lacking in knee room, I would enjoy seeing my brother getting into a GoAir seat! We transferred in Delhi airport which delighted in telling us it was the World's second best airport! In fairness it was nice although I would suggest that they should give free Wi-Fi and they could be up to No.1. After our second flight and a snooze for myself we were soon in Mumbai and after a taxi to our hotel we were soon sound asleep.
Mumbai is the city of dreams, home to the world's biggest film industry Bollywood and people flock here from across India with dreams of stardom. As a result Mumbai is the largest city by population in India (and fourth in the world) with 20.5 million calling it home within the metropolitan area. Most of these people however end up living in the many slums and Mumbai is home to Asia's biggest slum Dharavi. Originally a small fishing village Mumbai or Bombay as it was then known was taken over the East India company in 1665. Although because it was separated by the rest of British India in Bengal is never really flourished until the East India Company managed to take territory that could link it to Bengal in the early 19th century. Bombay as it was then known then took off as the major port for India, it was the closest to Europe and with the railways starting to link India, Bombay was the premier location to trade with on the subcontinent. The British built numerous civic buildings and churches in various unique architectural styles usually combining Indian with European styles. In 2000 Bombay had its name changed to Mumbai, but even this wasn't enough to stop sectarian tensions boiling over on a number of occasions. These rampages leave 100s or 1000s dead when they erupt although none received as much coverage as the attacks by terrorist groups on the trains and of course the most famous of all in 2008 when sea borne terrorists took over the Taj hotel and shot anything that moved leaving 173 people dead.
The film itself was a comedy, about the love between a deaf and dumb man and a mentally disabled woman. No film company in the west could ever get away with it but apart from a few cringe worthy politically incorrect scenes (which the audience thought were hilarious!) it wasn't too bad and we quite enjoyed it. It was also set in Darjeeling so alot of rain seemed to feature. It was also quite easy to follow despite the fact that it was almost entirely in Hindi.
Apart from drinking nasty overpriced larger out of a very strange contraption in the famous Leopold's bar and a fantastic Chinese lunch this afternoon the only thing of note we have done is to visit the Prince of Wales Museum. An enjoyable enough museum, nothing really groundbreaking apart from a very detailed and delicate ivory box and a stuffed White Tiger, but apparently you can see a live one in the Delhi Zoo.
I searched the internet yesterday to try and get the hurling final results. The hurling final is actually on the 30th, but I was shocked to learn about the death of Ulster and Ireland rugby player Nevin Spence. He was a promising back and only 22 years old. He died in an awful tragedy along with his father and brother in an accident, where they were all overcome by slurry fumes on their farm in Hillsborough County Down. As a farmer's son I know that there are many dangers on a farm but these silent deadly fumes lurking in slurry tanks are one of the scariest. My heart goes out to the remaining family members. May they Rest In Peace.
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