Bangalore and Bombay
August 22, 2008I haven’t written in a while due to the fact that traveling around India has been very busy and hectic and I have not had a chance to sit down and write or upload to my site. Therefore this will be a very long post as it encompasses 3 weeks worth of traveling.
We flew into Bangalore from Singapore. We arrived at night around 9pm to a really nice and new airport. This feeling of awe left shortly thereafter as we walked outside and into the pandemonium that was to continue for the next 3 weeks.
We boarded a bus that would take us into the city and got off at the central bus station. It was dark, dirty, and smelly. We walked a few blocks through filth and rubbish to find a hotel room, though it was now about 12:30am and the street we were walking on had no lights and loitering shadows lining the streets. It didn’t necessarily feel like the safest place I’ve been this trip…but then some people came out to offer us good, clean hotels at cheap prices. We eventually settled on one and went straight to sleep.
We woke up at 10am or so, a few hours later than our 7:30am alarm wanted us to. We booked a train ticket at the station near our hotel to Bombay. After booking that we decided to find the Air India office to book our return tickets. I had to book a ticket from India to Bangkok so that I could get back to Phuket in time to catch my flight back to America. I got a really good price to fly from Calcutta to Bangkok for only $112. So we spent the afternoon in the Air India office and across the street trying to get an ATM to accept my card. I’ve never had any trouble with ATMs in other countries except for India. I think it has to do with my card being a Mastercard, most of the ATMs in India I’ve seen like VISA. If you try enough of them one will work though. So we got ready to go back to the train station and we checked our ticket…great the date is for tomorrow not tonight. Even though we asked to get our train tonight it was scheduled for the following night. There was a mistake with the date on my watch and what day of the week we thought it was, ect. So we had to cancel our ticket and only get half the money back and then pay to upgrade from sleeper to 3-Tier AC which was about Rs. 1000, about $25. It was a nice ride though, and since it was about 24hrs from Bangalore to Bombay, it was nice to have pillows and blankets to use, even during the day so that I could take a nap.
We finally reached Bombay around 8pm and Zack and I got picked up by our friend from Denison, Shikah Shah. We got to her house though the horrible Bombay traffic and took a well needed shower and got to eat some delicious Indian food. It was rice with red curry and corn, carrots, potatos? It was good though. In interesting thing about Indian families that are fairly well off is that they all have drivers and maids. The maid lived at their place and slept in the kitchen on a thick mat on the floor. It seemed strange to me to have a girl sleeping in the kitchen and to just ask her to get my food or water or do anything for me. That night after eating we went to her friend Rajif’s house. He had a friend over as well, he was his host brother Andrew. Andrew is actually from Wooster, OH and is taking a year off before starting at Wittenberg and living in India though Rotary International. We hung out at his place for a little and watched Kung-Fu Panda. It was a pretty good movie.
The next day we ended up waking up at about 12pm and I discovered my new favorite breakfast food: Buttered toast with jam! Yea…I’ve never really taken the time to appreciate toast and jam and I have to say, it is a pretty great combination. As a result, I ate an entire loaf of bread for breakfast that morning. Most of my time in Bombay was spent waking up late and going to bed late because of staying out late with friends. We didn’t really even see any sites. We saw the Gateway of India where the Queen of England came in like 1910 or something. We went to Colaba to shop, I bought a few t-shirts and a scarf. I also happened to buy the book Catch-22, which I just finished last night on the way from Agra to Delhi. It was a fantastic book. It was witty and humorous. I think that they should make an HBO miniseries of it. I say HBO because the book isn’t necessarily NBC-rated material. I also thought that if they used the creators of Arrested Development to make the show, it would be awesome, because the two seem to be very similar in storytelling style.
The traffic in Bombay needs to be told about. It is THE WORST traffic I’ve ever seen. I thought Bangkok was congested and crazy. Bangkok is not bad at all. Especially after returning to Bangkok, I realized “Wow, they pretty much stay in their lane with the occasional unsignaled lane change. And they don’t ever use their horns”…Bombay is out of control. One second doesn’t pass without a horn honking while taxis and buses pass within an inch of each other (no lie). Shikah told us that there is a kind of quote about Bombay traffic saying, “If you can drive in Bombay, you can drive anywhere.” I would believe that without a doubt. Words cannot really describe the events that take place while in a taxi on the streets of Bombay…and if I were a better writer I would be able to produce those words. Indian Taxis. They are really cool looking. Definitely British-looking. There is no AC, no stereo (in most), the instrument panels don’t work (which means speed, gas, battery, engine temp), and the gear shifter is on the steering column, so you know the cars are at least 30-40 years old. They sure do feel that old.