8AM: Holy cold shower batman! So, the bathroom floor is also the shower floor. The toilet and sink are far enough away that you won't get them too wet by showering in the middle. I did remember to move my toilet wipes... Oh yeah, did i mention theres no toilet paper here? Last night when I got into the room, I was excited to see hot water faucets on the wall. I should've known, they were just for decoration!
Only got a few hours of sleep last night. Guess I wasn't as tired as I thought. I bet tonight will be different. Gulbanoo Aunty (GA) is coming by around 10 to grab me. We'll then walk over to her her apartment and get breakfast. Kaamil's will be meeting up with me later and then we're going to see the city and grab a few odds and ends.
4:45PM: Well, didn't get any odds and ends. Learned a lot about the city. Realized I still have a lot of self introspection to do. Had McDonalds.
GA came by to get me around 10:30. Khoja standard time is in full effect here! Breakfast was awesome! Fresh eggs, fresh roti, fresh chevro, & of course, chai.
Kaamil came by around 11:30. First stop was Hassanabad. Sultan Muhammad Shah's tomb was closed since they were doing work & even with the offer of a bribe, they weren't letting us in. The tombs upstairs were open though. It's so peaceful inside the tomb. Even with the heat, there was a slight be breeze blowing across the marble which kept everything cool.
Next we went to different parts of the city. Saw Diamond Jubilee School & Prince Aly Khan hospital. We parked near the Gateway to India and walked there to see it and the ocean. Wow! What a contrast: beautiful clean monuments, filthy ocean and parade grounds. There was smog so thick, I felt like I was in LA. From there we walked through the tourist trap shopping areas and saw cheap trinkets being sold to naive tourists for extraordinary prices. The knock off business here beats China in my opinion. I resisted buying souvenirs today in hopes of finding more genuine locally made things in Jodhpur.
Drove around a bit more and went to another ocean front view. South Mumbai is huge! The skyline was amazing! Front there we were finally hungry, So being the good American I am, we went to McDonalds. The Maharaja Mac was amazing! Fries tasted the same here as they do back home. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll try the Veggie Mac.
I didn't see last night were the sheer number of retail shops below every residential tower. The Indians developed the live, work, play, pray concept a long time ago. The Zoroastrians have similar compounds. In fact, at their graveyard, they don't burry the bodies. They take them far into the sanctuary and allow vultures and nature's other carrion feeders to take care of the bodies. It sounds cruel and weird, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of giving back to the life cycle of nature after death.
Rain came and went at different intervals today, but it wasn't too bad. Tonight is Yeo me Ali, so we're going to Dharkana JK. I'm off for a quick nap & another shower. Speaking of showers, there is hot water available. You have to turn the heater on.
12:25AM: This really is an amazing city. Tonight, my 62 year old uncle had me on the back of his bike racing through the streets of Mumbai. Experiencing Mumbai on the back of a bike is organized chaos of a different sort. In a car, the smell & the people don't really affect you and the cars are at least your equals. On foot, everything is a potential hazard: tripping, people, cars, bikes, bicycles, trucks, pushcarts, horse carriages, etc. On a bike, everything is a hazard, but you have the freedom of speed. I finally relaxed into the ride about halfway from GA's place to Zakir's...this just means I relaxed the death grip on the handle behind me and wasn't squeezing my thighs as tightly to my small seat. The smell was the most interesting part. Each person, car, bike, shop that we passed presented a new smell. We would turn a corner and BAM! It would hit you!
JK ceremonies are very different here compared to Atlanta.
After JK we visited with Mumtaz Aunty and then went to GA's place for dinner. Mutton curry with fresh rotis and mango juice! Yum yum! Then it was off to Zakir's place for some visiting time and I showed them all them pictures of our family I brought.
Tonight is the lunar eclipse, so the tide will be high all day tomorrow which means the walk way to Haji Ali Mosque will be closed.
Totally forgot about Mad Over Donuts! This place is awesome! It puts all the donut shops back home to shame!
No comments:
Post a Comment