since my arrival in mumbai/india, i've been assaulted by a whole new set of smells and experiences and so far, it's been pretty fantastic :-) i had a half day to acquaint myself with the city before anne-marie arrived and from there, we truly haven't stopped!!
we headed off by local bus to the dhobi ghats which is the local outdoor laundromat for all of the hotels/businesses in mumbai. it was amazing to watch these guys in the blistering heat and humidity bash dirty laundry against the concrete so that it became clean. they then put it through the manual spinners, hung it to dry and then ironed it with a coal-heat iron. it looked like quite an effort!!
from the ghats, we got on a local commuter train and went to see the gandi museum. en route, we stopped off in a little fruit and veg market on a quiet street and where we were asked by almost every stand operator to take their photo!! it was a fantastic experience and i ended up with some great photos of the local people. we had lunch and then toured the museum which gave a reasonably thorough synopsis of gandi's life and his accomplishments. after the museum, we headed over to chowpatty beach for a stroll along the coast. it was hot and the sun/humidity were oppressing so we eventually departed and headed for some shade. we headed off to the prince of wales museum which had a massive collection of statues, sculptures and art from the raj era including an old coin collection which i loved! that said, we were both exhausted from so much activity that i'm not sure that either of us truly appreciated it to the appropriate degree.
from there, we headed back to the hotel for a shower and then dinner. a funny thing happened on the way to dinner...we got asked to be extras in a bollywood film!! we met up with about 10 other tourists and headed off in a taxi, train and then bus to bollywood which is about an hour and a half north of mumbai city. it was an overnight film shoot so we arrived around 10pm and left around 5am the next morning and for all these hours, we were paid 500rupees which is about $13cdn. i'm happy to report that working on a film shoot is not as glamourous as some might expect, at least not in bollywood :-) we did the same clapping scene about 20 times while the "hero" attempted to walk across hot coals and his "heroine" attempted to show concern for her man. they were both fairly horrible actors and there was much effort taken to ensure that hair, make up and eye brows (yes, eye brows) were looking beautiful every time!! by around 1am, i was over the whole experience however i was kinda stuck there until the shoot was finished. we got driven back to mumbai city and en route there was a bit of miscommunication between the driver and one of the girls about where to leave us and suddenly the driver was racing down the city streets at breakneck speeds and all of the foreigners were holding onto the seats in front with white knuckles!! it was a harrowing experience!!
you'd think that we'd have headed home to bed (like everyone else did) but i knew i wouldn't sleep so amg and i went out to gateway to india and watched the sunrise. we then had breakfast, planned our itinerary and then headed off on a tour of the dharavi slum.
the slum is 1.75 square kilometers in size and houses just over 1m people. we toured around their recycling operation (they bring much of the city's waste into the slums and then rework the cast-offs and then sell the item back to the manufacturer for re-use). the slum itself generates around $650m in income every year simply by recycling the cast-away items such as plastics or cardboard. in addition to industry, people also live, bank and go to school in these slums. we toured through the residential area where a family lives in a small room with no furnishing which also contains the kitchen. there's another house stacked above with access only by a very steep ladder. there is no space between "houses" and the house across the road is about the shoulder width of me x 2. there's no natural light and everything has a damp feeling. in addition, the toilet facilities are shared; 1 for about 15,000 people. the organisation who's running the tours is donating much of the money paid to schools and community centres within the slum. it was definitely an eye-opening experience which makes one very grateful for our quality of life!!
we headed out for dinner and then drinks with some fellow travellers from the bollywood shoot. somehow, despite our exhaustion and lack of sleep, we ended out dancing to indian dance music until 1am!! 42 hours with no sleep... i crawled into bed that night and slept like the dead :-)
i think i'll stop there as otherwise, my update will be too long but i can happily report that the adventures have continued and i reckon this is only the beginning ;-)
hugs,
s
