Thursday, January 13, 2005
India, Day One: Southampton to Mumbai
It’s 9:20pm GMT, but it’s 2:45am here in my Mumbai hotel room. After a fairly uneventful 8 hour flight, during which I saw various films including Garden State, which I can heartily recommend (thank-you Al!), tolerated BA food, and learned that Spa is in fact an acronym for salus per aquam (‘health through water’), things got a lot more interesting, as you can imagine!
Firstly, it’s nice and warm at around 1am – around the mid-twenties. This probably means it’ll be quite uncomfortable during the day. Things smell different, too – sort of wheat-y I guess. Not unpleasant, just different. Outside the airport (even this late at night) there was a swarming crowd of people – reception parties, taxi drivers, would-be porters and so on. Luckily a man called Deepak was there to guide us through everything. There is a pre-pay taxi system operating from a booth on the way out. Apparently you shouldn’t use ‘normal’ street taxis. We paid at the booth and were given a ticket which showed us which taxi was ours, by the numberplate. Round the corner there was, literally, a field of taxis, all with their drivers dozing within. After Deepak had awoken our driver with a loud knock at the window, we were off on the craziest journey I think I’ve ever taken. The taxi was ancient and very noisy and slow, and there didn’t appear to be any rules of the road whatsoever. Although traffic lights were in abundance, everyone just seemed to slow down slightly and then carry on, whatever the colour of the light. There were also loads of speed-humps, even on the most major highways. Most of them aren’t painted, so you just have to know where they are or face ruining your suspension!
At first I was delighted by all the road-side shacks selling all manner of things, many of which seemed open (at 1am remember), with people standing outside around campfires. It reminded me somewhat of the Glastonbury festival. However, as I got used to this I could appreciate the squalor of a lot of these places. Everything seemed dirty and litter-strewn, with people sleeping out on the streets in abundance (at least it’s warm, I guess) and lots of (presumably) stray dogs. This may take a while longer to acclimatise to. Anyway, now I’m here I’m really excited to get to know the place. Unfortunately, my immediate itinerary is not kind. I’m off to bed now to catch 6 hours or so of sleep, then it’s off to the office to meet up with my boss, and then back to the airport again, for an internal flight to Bangalore. G’night!
Firstly, it’s nice and warm at around 1am – around the mid-twenties. This probably means it’ll be quite uncomfortable during the day. Things smell different, too – sort of wheat-y I guess. Not unpleasant, just different. Outside the airport (even this late at night) there was a swarming crowd of people – reception parties, taxi drivers, would-be porters and so on. Luckily a man called Deepak was there to guide us through everything. There is a pre-pay taxi system operating from a booth on the way out. Apparently you shouldn’t use ‘normal’ street taxis. We paid at the booth and were given a ticket which showed us which taxi was ours, by the numberplate. Round the corner there was, literally, a field of taxis, all with their drivers dozing within. After Deepak had awoken our driver with a loud knock at the window, we were off on the craziest journey I think I’ve ever taken. The taxi was ancient and very noisy and slow, and there didn’t appear to be any rules of the road whatsoever. Although traffic lights were in abundance, everyone just seemed to slow down slightly and then carry on, whatever the colour of the light. There were also loads of speed-humps, even on the most major highways. Most of them aren’t painted, so you just have to know where they are or face ruining your suspension!
At first I was delighted by all the road-side shacks selling all manner of things, many of which seemed open (at 1am remember), with people standing outside around campfires. It reminded me somewhat of the Glastonbury festival. However, as I got used to this I could appreciate the squalor of a lot of these places. Everything seemed dirty and litter-strewn, with people sleeping out on the streets in abundance (at least it’s warm, I guess) and lots of (presumably) stray dogs. This may take a while longer to acclimatise to. Anyway, now I’m here I’m really excited to get to know the place. Unfortunately, my immediate itinerary is not kind. I’m off to bed now to catch 6 hours or so of sleep, then it’s off to the office to meet up with my boss, and then back to the airport again, for an internal flight to Bangalore. G’night!
# posted by Pgd @ 4:27 am 
