I have arrived in India
I have an incredible amount I want to say, but my laptop backlight died so I'm a little stuck at the moment without my own computer. There is a public computer at the hotel at which I'm staying in Mumbai, but it's not ideal. I will try to set a little down.
The subject line of this post should really be "holy shit" cause that's kind of how I have felt since arriving in India. I realize I only wrote once about Singapore, and I do have various interesting things I could say about Singapore and the week I spent there. It's a cool city, good food, interesting people, certain interesting qualities to the culture, but really the last three days in India have been among the most incredibly intense travel experiences of my life. Maybe I felt that way about my first week in China, but India is really it's own thing, completely unique and different than anywhere else I have ever been, and I have only been here for 36 hours in Mumbai, nowhere else in the country. Probably many of the people who spent months and months traveling here would say I haven't seen the "real" India which is an expression I hate for anybody to use about any country. It's just as bad as saying I "did" that country like they have seen all there is to see just because they made the round of tourist attractions. I am sure there is more to India, but there is a lot to Mumbai too.
Anyway, I took this cab on Friday night (which turns out to be a really busy night here) from the airport to my hotel in southern Mumbai. I got in this cab, a non a/c Fiat probably from the 70s that looked like it was on it's 14th out of 9 lives. The driver spoke about 3 words of English, but we figured out the destination or at least direction. Leaving the "parking lot" of cabs it already began.
The first thing that begins to overwhelm is the number of people and the number of vehicles. Constant movement and traffic of both in the streets, on the sidewalks, and in every direction. No lanes or anything like that of course. People walking on the sides of the streets, cabs and motorcycle rickshaws dodging and swerving in every direction to try to get ahead, often coming within inches of vehicles and people. Constant honking of horns, drivers yelling ahead at other drivers. We did that for about two minutes, then pulled into a "gas station." On the right, pumps that sort of resemble a gas station, on the left, something that resembles some kind of bamboo structure supporting some kind of tarp under which are several "pumps" which look more like the skeleton that is probably underneath a normal gas pump. It looked more like a bunch of guys dug holes to tap into a gas line without permission. It seemed that was for the cabs and rickshaws only, though I do not completely understand why. Lots of joking around, honking, driving around people to get in a more advantageous spot to get gas, coming within an inch of each other's "cars" and honking, and that sort of thing. Also this is around 9 or 10pm at night or so, dark, dusty. I'm the only foreigner in this whole scenario by the way, and since being here I've hardly seen any, so lots of staring everywhere. I'm told this is because it is the monsoon season and therefore not a touristy time, although I have been very lucky with weather and it has barely rained at all since I have been here.
So we get the gas, then immediately pull over again so the driver can buy two pouches of what I am told is tobacco mixed with crushed betel nut. This is being sold out of a tray of sorts by a bunch of guys sitting on the ground near the gas station. Seems to be a popular stop for the cab guys. Betel nut for those who don't know is a nut you chew on which gives you some kind of high or buzz. I haven't tried it yet. It is very popular in Taiwan. Here they have various preparations but the most common I've heard is wrapped in some kind of leaf with a little lime and called Paan. They sometimes put water on the leaf though which may or may not be clean, so I'm saving that for my second week in India when I eat anything. My first week I'm trying to be conservative to gradually scope out what my stomach is capable of. Last night I had raw onions in a dish and survived 24 hours so far without incident, but you always hear stories about any contact with raw veggies or local water ending in disaster. The standard rule is if you can boil, fry, or peel it you're good. So I just aim for hot, though last night I broke the rule for the first time. I figure being a little cautious the first week is good. I eat tons of street food in China without incident, but as I said, India is a different story in every respect.
After the driver got jacked up on betel nut, we drove for maybe an hour through the streets and highways though they are basically the same. I'm told it is 28 kilometers from the airport to the south of Mumbai. Lots of traffic. Similar chaotic scenario. My mouth was hanging open most of the ride. The sidewalk scenery is just chaos. There are very few of what we'd call chains or anything that looks every like a 7-11 or some other recognizable business. No comparable Indian chain though I'm told a few do exist. The streets are just packed with small businesses, food stalls, restaurants, and of course people everywhere. Walking, talking, hanging out, cooking, sleeping, eating, drinking all out on the streets. This was Friday night, but other nights haven't been very different from what I've seen. I wish I could describe this chaos more. I have a video I took of some street scenery today and I'm going to take a few more, cause pictures really don't capture it.
The other thing that had my mouth hanging open was the poverty. I think on Wikipedia I saw these people referred to as pavement dwellers. I saw a few slums, but most of what I have seen are people just sleeping on the streets. And it is not like a homeless guy in New York who curls up in a doorway or something or under a bridge with a sleeping bag. There are people who have tents or things like that, or a tarp under which they sleep, but there are tons of people just laying down in the middle of the sidewalk with nothing. If you saw someone in NYC like that you'd call 911. I heard a disturbing story today about the 911 of India that I will write about later. But anyway, you also see them face down in the train station on the floor. Or on a median strip of a road, sprawled out and people just walk around. Lots of people just sleeping and living completely outside, no homes at all. Women with small babies crawling on the sidewalk in filth, playing with a piece of trash like a plastic bag or something. Children without clothes. This is just on the streets within a few blocks of where I am. I walked through a few side streets and a small "village" which is more like a "slum" I'd say though I guess not technically since they have some kind of an actual house-like structure in which they live, whereas in slums I gather it is mostly plastic and tarps. I am going to visit Dharavi which is one of the biggest slums in the world. Some students from there who still live there run a tour to show you what it is all about. I saw a smaller one today in a suburb but I didn't walk through. Anyway, the number of people just living on the streets with seemingly nothing is incredible. I read that depending on where the line is, 40% of India is living below the "international poverty line" which is less than $2 a day I think. I'm sure there are people who know a lot more about the situation in India, but since being here I have only just started reading more about it. There are a lot of different opinions and a various efforts have gone into combating poverty here but it is obviously an ongoing and complex problem. I'm just trying to describe what I have seen.
I guess I'm going to publish this and just add on stories. I have a lot to write about India but it'll have to be in successive posts. I haven't even gotten to my first meal on Friday night, which I will write about next. Saturday I took a long walk along the water since we're at the coast of the Arabian Sea. I met up with my friend Shweta who is local and spent time in Colaba, the "touristy" neighborhood of Mumbai that is supposed to be filled with foreigners and barely was. We went to several bars including the Hard Rock Cafe which was also mostly locals because it is a "cool" place to hang out here. After that I was in this *really* local bar, then we had a run-in with the cops which is another story. I hung out with another local friend the next day, and today I went out to Shweta's suburb an hour north of here for my first solo ride on a local train and a local bus. There's a lot to say and I will add details and tell all these stories, but it'll have to wait til the next one!
The subject line of this post should really be "holy shit" cause that's kind of how I have felt since arriving in India. I realize I only wrote once about Singapore, and I do have various interesting things I could say about Singapore and the week I spent there. It's a cool city, good food, interesting people, certain interesting qualities to the culture, but really the last three days in India have been among the most incredibly intense travel experiences of my life. Maybe I felt that way about my first week in China, but India is really it's own thing, completely unique and different than anywhere else I have ever been, and I have only been here for 36 hours in Mumbai, nowhere else in the country. Probably many of the people who spent months and months traveling here would say I haven't seen the "real" India which is an expression I hate for anybody to use about any country. It's just as bad as saying I "did" that country like they have seen all there is to see just because they made the round of tourist attractions. I am sure there is more to India, but there is a lot to Mumbai too.
Anyway, I took this cab on Friday night (which turns out to be a really busy night here) from the airport to my hotel in southern Mumbai. I got in this cab, a non a/c Fiat probably from the 70s that looked like it was on it's 14th out of 9 lives. The driver spoke about 3 words of English, but we figured out the destination or at least direction. Leaving the "parking lot" of cabs it already began.
The first thing that begins to overwhelm is the number of people and the number of vehicles. Constant movement and traffic of both in the streets, on the sidewalks, and in every direction. No lanes or anything like that of course. People walking on the sides of the streets, cabs and motorcycle rickshaws dodging and swerving in every direction to try to get ahead, often coming within inches of vehicles and people. Constant honking of horns, drivers yelling ahead at other drivers. We did that for about two minutes, then pulled into a "gas station." On the right, pumps that sort of resemble a gas station, on the left, something that resembles some kind of bamboo structure supporting some kind of tarp under which are several "pumps" which look more like the skeleton that is probably underneath a normal gas pump. It looked more like a bunch of guys dug holes to tap into a gas line without permission. It seemed that was for the cabs and rickshaws only, though I do not completely understand why. Lots of joking around, honking, driving around people to get in a more advantageous spot to get gas, coming within an inch of each other's "cars" and honking, and that sort of thing. Also this is around 9 or 10pm at night or so, dark, dusty. I'm the only foreigner in this whole scenario by the way, and since being here I've hardly seen any, so lots of staring everywhere. I'm told this is because it is the monsoon season and therefore not a touristy time, although I have been very lucky with weather and it has barely rained at all since I have been here.
So we get the gas, then immediately pull over again so the driver can buy two pouches of what I am told is tobacco mixed with crushed betel nut. This is being sold out of a tray of sorts by a bunch of guys sitting on the ground near the gas station. Seems to be a popular stop for the cab guys. Betel nut for those who don't know is a nut you chew on which gives you some kind of high or buzz. I haven't tried it yet. It is very popular in Taiwan. Here they have various preparations but the most common I've heard is wrapped in some kind of leaf with a little lime and called Paan. They sometimes put water on the leaf though which may or may not be clean, so I'm saving that for my second week in India when I eat anything. My first week I'm trying to be conservative to gradually scope out what my stomach is capable of. Last night I had raw onions in a dish and survived 24 hours so far without incident, but you always hear stories about any contact with raw veggies or local water ending in disaster. The standard rule is if you can boil, fry, or peel it you're good. So I just aim for hot, though last night I broke the rule for the first time. I figure being a little cautious the first week is good. I eat tons of street food in China without incident, but as I said, India is a different story in every respect.
After the driver got jacked up on betel nut, we drove for maybe an hour through the streets and highways though they are basically the same. I'm told it is 28 kilometers from the airport to the south of Mumbai. Lots of traffic. Similar chaotic scenario. My mouth was hanging open most of the ride. The sidewalk scenery is just chaos. There are very few of what we'd call chains or anything that looks every like a 7-11 or some other recognizable business. No comparable Indian chain though I'm told a few do exist. The streets are just packed with small businesses, food stalls, restaurants, and of course people everywhere. Walking, talking, hanging out, cooking, sleeping, eating, drinking all out on the streets. This was Friday night, but other nights haven't been very different from what I've seen. I wish I could describe this chaos more. I have a video I took of some street scenery today and I'm going to take a few more, cause pictures really don't capture it.
The other thing that had my mouth hanging open was the poverty. I think on Wikipedia I saw these people referred to as pavement dwellers. I saw a few slums, but most of what I have seen are people just sleeping on the streets. And it is not like a homeless guy in New York who curls up in a doorway or something or under a bridge with a sleeping bag. There are people who have tents or things like that, or a tarp under which they sleep, but there are tons of people just laying down in the middle of the sidewalk with nothing. If you saw someone in NYC like that you'd call 911. I heard a disturbing story today about the 911 of India that I will write about later. But anyway, you also see them face down in the train station on the floor. Or on a median strip of a road, sprawled out and people just walk around. Lots of people just sleeping and living completely outside, no homes at all. Women with small babies crawling on the sidewalk in filth, playing with a piece of trash like a plastic bag or something. Children without clothes. This is just on the streets within a few blocks of where I am. I walked through a few side streets and a small "village" which is more like a "slum" I'd say though I guess not technically since they have some kind of an actual house-like structure in which they live, whereas in slums I gather it is mostly plastic and tarps. I am going to visit Dharavi which is one of the biggest slums in the world. Some students from there who still live there run a tour to show you what it is all about. I saw a smaller one today in a suburb but I didn't walk through. Anyway, the number of people just living on the streets with seemingly nothing is incredible. I read that depending on where the line is, 40% of India is living below the "international poverty line" which is less than $2 a day I think. I'm sure there are people who know a lot more about the situation in India, but since being here I have only just started reading more about it. There are a lot of different opinions and a various efforts have gone into combating poverty here but it is obviously an ongoing and complex problem. I'm just trying to describe what I have seen.
I guess I'm going to publish this and just add on stories. I have a lot to write about India but it'll have to be in successive posts. I haven't even gotten to my first meal on Friday night, which I will write about next. Saturday I took a long walk along the water since we're at the coast of the Arabian Sea. I met up with my friend Shweta who is local and spent time in Colaba, the "touristy" neighborhood of Mumbai that is supposed to be filled with foreigners and barely was. We went to several bars including the Hard Rock Cafe which was also mostly locals because it is a "cool" place to hang out here. After that I was in this *really* local bar, then we had a run-in with the cops which is another story. I hung out with another local friend the next day, and today I went out to Shweta's suburb an hour north of here for my first solo ride on a local train and a local bus. There's a lot to say and I will add details and tell all these stories, but it'll have to wait til the next one!
posted by Dan at 10:26 AM
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