Friday, October 17, 2003
Bombay - A more bustling city than the one's we had visited before, we had our first opportunity to see the Arabian Sea. We spent a long three days there, too long. It was a nice opportunity to relax though. We walked around the bazaars and Nina shopped 'til I dropped, we saw the first 30 minutes of a Bollywood movie, but left because we were really tired, and I couldn't understand what the heck was going on. There was lots of singing, dancing, and cheesy acting. We also rode the local trains around, which had special cars for females. One day we went up to the Hanging gardens near Malabar hill (the upper class area), and went to the beach at night. It is apparently the thing to do at night because there were lots of Indians there, many begging and offering malis (massages), popcorn, and whatever there was to sell. It was quite nice, except for the fact that the waters edge was littered with trash. The next day we left for Goa, and almost missed our train because we were not told that our train left from a different train station, and then the taxi driver tried to stiff us for the taxi ride. We made the train though and got to Goa. We only planned to stay here one day, but we couldn't get a train out for a few dayz because they were all booked, and so forced to stay in paradise and experience...
...A TOUCH OF THE ARABIAN SEA.
The beaches are great here. They're long, the water is warm, and the attitude is very laid back. We're staying in this old Portuguese style villa, a doctors house converted to a guest house. There are the beach chairs and umbrellas on the beach, along with bars and restaurants. We had a very relaxing lunch on the beach yesterday. It was the ideal setting to relax. Only the sound of the the waves crashing was audible along with the light sea breeze. There are lots of Europeans here, along with Indian vacationers as well. It's amazingly clean here though! No beggars or homeless either. People still trying to sell us lots of useless stuff. Most common words we here, "TAXI," "MASSAGE," "SIR," "MADAM," "HELLO," "SCOOTER," or a combination of all the above for the most entrepeneurial. We're leaving for Cochin, Kerala tomorrow morning and plan on taking an 8 hour cruise along the backwaters. I'll try and get more pics up. Slow connections here.
...A TOUCH OF THE ARABIAN SEA.
The beaches are great here. They're long, the water is warm, and the attitude is very laid back. We're staying in this old Portuguese style villa, a doctors house converted to a guest house. There are the beach chairs and umbrellas on the beach, along with bars and restaurants. We had a very relaxing lunch on the beach yesterday. It was the ideal setting to relax. Only the sound of the the waves crashing was audible along with the light sea breeze. There are lots of Europeans here, along with Indian vacationers as well. It's amazingly clean here though! No beggars or homeless either. People still trying to sell us lots of useless stuff. Most common words we here, "TAXI," "MASSAGE," "SIR," "MADAM," "HELLO," "SCOOTER," or a combination of all the above for the most entrepeneurial. We're leaving for Cochin, Kerala tomorrow morning and plan on taking an 8 hour cruise along the backwaters. I'll try and get more pics up. Slow connections here.
Monday, October 13, 2003
We are in Mumbai (Bombay) now. We arrived early this morning. Yah, we were going to stay in Jaipur an extra day, but it cost too much to change the train ticket, 50% penalty, so we opted to run back to the hotel, pack, eat, and take off. Train ride was 18 hours. We rode on first class, but even there you had to watch out for people trying to take your stuff. Mumbai is quite different from the other places we've been to so far. People are much less aggressive in selling tactics, and taxi drivers aren't all over you. No autorickshaws in the city. We have only been here a few hours and plan to do some shopping, eat, and take in a Bollywood movie today.
