We landed in Mumbai at 6.20am this morning and I knew we would be in for a culture shock but my gosh have we had a swift learning curve! The time difference is strange but not as bad as I thought! The plane service from Jet Airway was excellent, and the food and drink all included! It was quite cold, and WW3 nearly started over baggage in the over head locker! The Indian people do not hold back! And they seemed to have no idea on personal space haha! We sat on the same row as a man named Timothy from the USA who is a GP who has specialised as yoga as medicine! How cool! He gave us his card and I shall def be checking that out.
We got out the airport after the security finally understood we had no hotel and was just staying for the day! (How hard is that to get!)
We wanted to get a Taxi into Mumbai and after getting some rupees from an ATM, a friendly chap approached and offered to help. Hindsight is a beautiful thing. We STUPIDLY followed him to his car where his manager was, and we put our backpacks in the boot and got in. Now, something seemed odd they were both in the car. He offered to take us round Mumbai for the day on a trip for 11000 rupees! We only had 5000 on us as tourist info said that was the max we would need. Far too much. So after a bit of a spat, we got out and realise they have locked our backpacks in the boot. Horror! He said he would do it for 5000 rupees and by this time, we were totally freaked out and wanted to run back to the airport as the two men were getting more and more frantic, thrusting their fingers in our faces. We got our precious cargo and retreated to Starbucks where we thanked our lucky stars and started again. The kind people at Starbucks told us to get an Ola or Uber cab.
After 40 min calming down, we got an Ola cab to the holiday inn (that is now Novotel) which Emlyn’s Mum recommend as a safe haven on Juhu beach. This ola cab was so eye opening…slums, old ladies picking through heaps of rubbish & skinny dogs trying to scavenge all they could, babies crawling on the pavement in the squalor, under makeshift tents with their dusty and rag covered mothers. I was dumb-founded and humbled, trying not to cry.
We got to the Novotel, all gated, with austere looking security guards. We blagged our way to chill by their beautiful pool for a few hours on the promise we would buy drinks and lunch. I lay staring at the sea and sky and smog wondering what the rest of the day would bring… listening to beautiful birds & observing a giant luminescent flying beetle, what I thought may be an eagle, and dragonflies mating over the pool. I drifted off and leon and I slept for a few unmarked hours, recuperating.
Learnings so far:
*the poor in U.K. are NOT poor like in India…
*U.K. Citizens (me included) are so wrapped in cotton wool and we don’t know what we have got! We are so protected it makes for quite a vulnerable feeling when out of that zone.
*Don’t take things for granted
*Don’t be cocky, be humble and very careful
*Arrange prices before you get in to taxis
*Extra legroom means people stand in it and lean on your TV (welcome to the start of Indian journey!)
*drivers ‘hoot a lot’ and don’t stick to lanes, & pedestrians wander out like have a death wish.
