Day 1 - 19 Jan - Mumbai

19 jan 2008

So Mumbai....
REALLY gotta stop reading blogs of stupid people cos Mumbai has been pretty ok! a few touts, a few beggars, some interesting smells to say the least but not really the hellhole described by some (ok so they WERE dutch twitchers so what did i expect..). arrived at some ungodly hour last night, bout 4am by the time we got to sleep in our clean tho somewhat cockroach prone room. den was pretty efficient at killing the buggers. saw the biggest rat ever.
anyways mished out this morning to gateway of India which was nice to see the sea and local hangout but somewhat not as impressive as i imagine cos of the scaffolding,.. had a look around colaba, all this colonial architecture which is pretty cool and somehow even cooler since its all rundown, Heaps of trees which is super for the shade...tho not tooooo hot pretty bearable. Found ourselves wandering a it of neighborhood market thing, all very local veges and buyers. dried fish anyone? but such nice people without any agendas...kids waving and one grandma proudly showed us her beautiful lil granddaughter. NO idea what she said but she seemed pleased with the noises we made.
stopped and got a bite at some local place....wasn't quite ready for a full 0n curry (first meal of the day people!) so had a naan with butter and a chai tea thing...which was weird but really nice. everyone drinks it here instead of coffee. damn lot of sugar in it and milk that tasted whole or powder. anyways was good and see myself having lots more of that. mm so much for the diet...
and the naan was heavenly.
we headed back along colaba and found the infamous leopolds cafe! (anyone read shantaram??) so will have to go back there and have a drink.
walked back along the promenade and got asked to have a photo with a bunch of youngish guys. being the cynics that we are thought it was some sort of scam but turns out they were on holiday from a small village and never saw white people...either that or a photo of my white legs will be making the rounds in some pervy village, but they seemed nice!
went to the oval maidan and watched some cricket in the shade which was pretty fun. a few guys playing seriously for clubs all decked out in their whites and lots of locals having games...all VERY serious tho! they're SOOO into it here, always a good line to say we're new zealanders cos they just rattle off players and umpires,..
(which obviously to me, being the cricket fanatic that i am, is a great conversation starter...)

heading out to chowpatty beach tonight where all the locals hang out in the evenings and you can get some great food. and then to gateway of India where a big festival on...apparently the best Australian hiphop group is playing.
Australian hiphop???