Mahad to Mumbai

Laundry time

We continued North this morning after our complementary breakfast of idlis (spongy, round fermented rice cakes) and sambar (a soupy lentil dish), toast with butter and chai.

Water Buffalo Highway Crossing

We passed another squished dog and another dead roadside cow and it was still just as sad.

Goproed up

We took one wrong turn, or rather a failure to turn, and took a detour through Panvel. It worked out quite well though as the highway we jumped onto took us all the way into the bustling heart of Mumbai. Chris strapped his GoPro to his helmet (such a good look) so we could attempt to capture some of the craziness as it unfolded.

Words will never do Mumbai justice. It is dirty, smelly, rundown, chaotic, loud and bustling with beggars and touts. However, it is simultaneously fascinating, colourful and a mad junction where old meets new and East meets West.

While flyovers meant we avoided the hustle and bustle of the streets below, we were motioned down to the mess on a couple of occasions, for reasons unknown to us, and got to experience the suburbs of Mumbai close up. The road was slippery with oil and traffic competed with heavy hand pulled carts. We creeped past a group of guys who crouched under the flyover, in the dirt smoking and one of the guys' legs caught my eye. It was as if a flesh eating disease had begun eating away at his outer calf leaving a raw, huge open wound on a large portion of the surface of his leg. It made me nauseous as we kept going, knowing the crazy sights of Mumbai would continue to unfold around us.

Family outing

More road side huts

We made our first stop Berkleys, a guesthouse we had seen online. While their immediate place didn't have a rooms a young chap was kind enough to guide me through the streets of Colaba (the suburb we had chosen to stay in) into an old house which apparently houses their extra rooms. We buzzed and, after some time, an old man opened the door and beamed, showing me and my dirty boots into a room. It was a good string point but we thought we could do better. While I ran between hotels getting prices, Chris made friends on the streets who offered him everything from hashish to rooms to buying Big Red. 35000 INR? "Tell him he's dreamin'" I said as we rode off.

On the advice of a friend we visited the Taj President to see just what a fancy room looked like. While they didn't have a room available for viewing, the lobby was pretty darn impressive, as was the security you had to get through to get in.

We ended up back at Garden Hotel in their 2500 INR room. While we would usually consider this ridiculously expensive, considering most rooms were advertised for between 5000 and 25000 INR a night, we were happy.

Next it was shower time. The craziness if the traffic leading into town had left us dirtier than usual so, thankfully, the shower was better than usual. The water was steaming hot and actually came out of the shower head rather than out of a tap that went into a bucket and meant you had to pour it over yourself.

Once clean we both felt a million times more human and headed out to see what Mumbai could throw at us. W grabbed some samosas for our walk and wandered up and down the markets and shops of the main road. The constant sound of salesman chirping "yes ma'am...looking?" was grinding on the nerves already and I was pleased to already have a supply of Ali baba pants and silver anklets

We returned to our guesthouse to begin planning what might fill our next few days in Mumbai and, after enough of that, ventured out for dinner. Food, like accommodation in Mumbai, is more expensive than most places in India we have come across so far. Even the local eateries seem to have jacked up their prices to take advantage of their location in bustling, touristy Colaba. So, while it was a horrible idea in hindsight, we ate at McDonalds for dinner. And, for both of us, this was the strangest overseas Maccas we had ever seen. While you can generally count in a good old Big Mac to grace the menu board in whatever country you find yourself (even if it sometimes is served with rice or corn) that was not the case here. Infact, there was no beef. None at all. Those holy cows have it pretty good.