Week 7, India: Mumbai and the "Tuk-Tuk"

The experiences

Well, Mumbai is not my favorite city, but I should have guessed that since it's in the tropics and an enormous city of 22 million (half of them living in the slums). I do like some large cities immediately, some take time to grow on you, but others just aren't my cup of tea. And anyone who's seen me on a hot day knows that I was not built for hot climates--flashback to the 4th of July parade where mom couldn't even watch me in the wool uniform carrying my sousaphone. Mumbai did grow on me more as the week wore on but I really just used the time to do more relaxing in a hotel room with air conditioning, HBO, and imported bed and bedding. Call it a mid-India break.

I got out of my room a few times to go to a lovely pizza place across the street with a fantastic view of the bay (and really great food--pizza is really nice for a change), run to the natural foods store on the other street a block down and take a day tour of a Bollywood studio and do some shopping.

The tour started with a quick stop at a fruit juice shop called Haji Ali. They are famous for their mango fruit cream which of course was Vishal (my guide) and my breakfast. Click the link to see just how rich of a start that was to my day. We drove around town looking at some of the very beautiful and well guarded houses to the rich and famous (lots of Bollywood stars).

Guards outside private residences seems popular here. This is the home of someone in the Forbes top 5.

It keeps going up...there's a shopping mall somewhere in there

Then we arrived at SJ Studios where I got to play on all of their sets. They keep the sets the same for most everything they shoot with some adjustments to color in editing and such. We were there when they took the cafe set and turned it into a night club for the shoot. 

I shot...

I ruled...

I paid the price...

I wish I knew what was going on, but I think they were learning to dance using newspaper

After the studio Vishal took me to lunch where I had the best Chicken Tikka ever (and my first meat in weeks). Then we hit some shops. This is where I started to get "upset" for lack of a better word. We were in a great shop and I was being sensible but they kept of course trying to get me to buy more things, and mostly with the selling point of "they're the best". Not wanting to insult "the best" I ooed and ahhhed, but well that's just not in the budget. They tried to sell me clothes that wouldn't fit over my large Midwestern chest, very high end jewelry and at the end I think they took the tags off the 3 tops and pashmina I did buy and doubled the price. I'm still happy with my purchases but bitter about the experience. I know I am partly to blame so I'm working on my shopping game face but really just avoiding shopping :).

And I watched copious amounts of TV including the ultimate childhood throwback 3 Ninjas. Because there's nothing better than hearing: 

Rocky: We should run. 

Tum Tum: We should hide. 

Colt: We should kick their butts!

But beyond that it was a quiet and hot week. I did learn a bit more about Indian traffic though. What you notice immediately in India is the noise of the horns, the lack of true lanes and the variety of vehicles traveling the roads. When I first arrived I tried to stay awake in the car to the ashram by analyzing the number of beeps in all scenarios. I thought I had it worked out so that one beep was a "hey, I'm behind you, passing you, coming from a blind spot" and two beeps was "you're too close" and the laying on the horn was more like "seriously move". But my guide Vishal (who'd lived in Chicago and Sacramento) set me straight. My brain as usual tried to make a pattern or add logic to a completely chaotic behavior; there is no system.

Your immediate reaction to being in the thick of it is "this isn't safe" but that feeling quickly fades. In Amritsar, when my fellow travelers and I stopped to think about it none of us had seen an accident anywhere in our travels. And I think we only saw a disgruntled driver once (we were all together on our way back from the Wagah border). So the "system" works and works well. Mostly when going around town you grab a rickshaw (bike form) or an auto-rickshaw (motorized). Tourists have branded the auto-rickshaw as the "tuk-tuk" because of the sound it makes. But I have to say my first reaction getting in one was "this is a golf cart." From the sound it makes down to the acceleration. There are some differences of course, three wheels not four, steering like a bike instead of a car but all in all that's really what it is. Which made me think of my time in Atlanta where we heard of the fabled Peachtree City where everyone drives around town on golf carts. So, halfway around the world, we aren't really that different.

The lessons

• Keep a close eye on what you're buying in shops and beware of shady sales people. (Read: I should have gotten Indian garments in Vrindavan at Gangotri--awesome shop and people, I think they have an online store too.
• Always remember that what you know as a certain food at home, may not be the case abroad. One of the pizzas I ordered in Mumbai had some very interesting versions of sausage and pepperoni. I thought about trying to figure out what they were but in the end decided it was better not to know. This means that tracking the different meats I've eaten (per Annie's suggestion) is a no-go.

Interesting

• Bollywood produces over 2,000 movies a year
• According to some, Bollywood is how a lot of mobsters launder money

The first time I ordered a warm brownie with ice cream and they actually gave me a brownie that was smoking.