Mumbai gets the 'thums up'

For those who don't know, "Thums Up" is the Indian version of coca cola. Actually it tastes a lot sweeter than Coke, but quite refreshing.

Beverages aside, we have had a very interesting and enjoyable few days exploring this enormous city and a lot of preconceptions have been shattered. It actually is a lot more easier to get around (and cross the street) than Cairo mainly because there are thousands of little black and yellow taxis (about 60,000 according to Lonely Planet) that charge on the meter so you only pay a few dollars to get around town. OK, so occasionally you can see the road through the taxi floor, but that aside, we have been making good use of them.

Everyone warns you about the smell in India, but the truth is that Mumbai does not smell. OK so we have experienced some truly vomit-inducing smells but these have mainly been when walking past the public toilets. Generally though, there is nothing to disturb the nose to any great degree.

The poverty is very real though. We walked back to our hostel at night last night and the night before and people literally sleep everywhere, on the pavement, in alleyways, in underpasses. And not just individuals, there are whole families sleeping on the streets. Its very upsetting. The other thing true about Mumbai is that it is very, very dirty. Filthy in fact. We have been to Chowpatty beach (in downtown Mumbai) a few times, its great in the evening as everyone comes out to have some food or just to chat. But the water's edge is covered in mounds of rubbish. People just throw their used wrappers and whatever else on the ground. Not just the poor, which would be understandable as they are trying to survive, the middle-class people traveling on the ferry with us today to visit Elephanta Island across the bay were just chucking their empty bottles and chips packets into the sea. It's shocking to people like us who are not used to it.

We have walked a fair bit of the city and though its big we have got a bit of a grasp of it. Downtown is full of old colonial era buildings from the time of the Raj, there is Malabar hills with more affluent apartments and around the centre you find some beautiful art deco buildings and apartments. And of course there is cricket. I have had numerous conversation involving the game. They love it. In the parks they are always playing or practicing.

I have had to bash out this post since it took 30 minutes just to get the photos on - some technical issues on the computer. I hope it makes sense. Tomorrow we are off to Goa by train and will try and write something more coherent and with more photos, but enjoy the ones below.