Monday, August 3, 2009

mumbai

mumbai is a truly amazing city, one that i very quickly fell in love with upon spending some time in colaba. kingfishers at leopold cafe (made famous by gregory david roberts´ shantaram), cups of chai under the gateway to india, walks along the chaotic covered market on the causeway and extremely outgoing fellow travelers make the city an intoxicating blend of colonialism, tourism and modern india.

after the train ride from chennai and the epic battle with the cab drivers, i spent most of the first day there sleeping in the hostel that i found with the help of an old man who was patrolling the early morning streets looking for someone to shepherd into a a place to stay. i woke up in the early evening, a perfect time to take in the people watching at leopold, where before long i had had drinks with an older swedish man who was some sort of telecom mogul and two danish girls, one of whom was an actress in sean penn´s into the wild. she thought it was quite funny that her billed role in the film was "danish tourist." they had earlier made friends with a wild german fellow named jan who later joined us and we wound up having a couple of beers on the breakwater near the gateway. a very productive first night in mumbai was just beginning.

it was very early in the morning by the time we decided to retire, though jan and i decided it was the perfect time to find a cup of chai. he quickly gave up on the search but i found a stand that was buzzing with locals, even around three a.m. one man noticed me observing the goings on and struck up a conversation. obviously, he was a tour guide and he asked if i would like to go around town with him. he seemed nice enough so off we went after talking for a few hours. the sun had just come up and the city was back to its crazy self. my new friend mayur decided to take me to his house in the colaba slum, also heavily discussed in shantaram. mayur´s house was on the top of a few others in the slum and he showed me his great view with the utmost pride. i spent the majority of the day with him there, before going to a fish market and having him take me to a few other spots around town off of the gora line.

i spent a few other days with mayur in the slum before leaving for dubai and new york. it was truly remarkable to see how those people live and to see the level of happiness that they exude at every turn. i found it to be interesting that the slum was the only place in india where i was not hassled for money, where no one attempted to scam me for anything. the people who needed the money the most were the most friendly people i met in that country. traveling there was very stressful at times and lovely at others, but the few days in the slum was unforgettable and made the six weeks in india truly worthwhile.

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