Cosmopolitan

Bundi provided me with a very nice atmosphere but you have to leave at some point, eh?
So I booked a bus ticket to Ahmedabad where I would have to go to get the 2nd bus to Mumbai.
Of course I messed up the time of departure and luckily the whole bus waited about 40mins for me.
Anyway the bus got me where I wanted to go. I visited the ATM and got a bus ticket to Mumbai for the evening. So I had half a day to spend in Ahmedabad.

Not much to do there. I walked through the huge market in the streets, bought some books, sunglasses (since mine, the ones Renaud wore in the photo below, are still in Bundi) and a Sunday Times. Nice day. I waited for my bus to come, which was delayed for two hours so I sat in the street with some guys of some cooking joint, cutting massive amounts of onion and pepperoni.

Street chefs




Street scene



The bus took me to Mumbai, acutally it took 6hrs to reach the border of Mumbai and another 4hrs to get to the center. Horrific. A huge maze of many millions of people, 55% living in slums. A sickening odour and huge piles of self-incinerating rubbish everywhere. I spent the night in "The Salvation Army Red Shield Hostel" in a 14 people dormitory for a 150Rps a night. By far the cheapest place in all Mumbai but still very bad value, since you can get a double room with private bathroom for 150-200 normally. Anyway, there are a lot of travellers around and I met up with Nina (Duesseldorf), Michaela (Ulm), Benni(Hamburg).

Shore in Mumbai


Street, Mumbai outskirts


Street, Mumbai center


We were asked (as every white person in Mumbai) to participate in a shooting for some Bollywood movie. Normally they need white people dancing in the background of some night club scene/music video etc. But they had different plans for us. We were driven out to a peninsula some 30kms from the center. The movie was settled in 1912 and was about the first Indian guy doing a motion picture ever. We got some costumes and had to stroll in background of the beach while the main characters were talking. We got loads of Chai and food and 500Rps each, all expenses paid.

Me and Benni in costumes with chai


Nina, the guy who playd the snack vendor on the beach, and us


Film set on the beach




On the way back we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai, but since we got out at the wrong station we found ourselves in the middle of the Durga festival (lasting 9 days).

Durga


We in the Durga temple




We came to talk to an Indian guy and invited him to come to the Hard Rock
Cafe with us. Since no rickshaw wanted to take us there Michaela just stopped an Indian guy in a big car and asked him to drive us there...
it worked.
Only rich, Western style, Indians in there. Food was great, the band playing was nice, the Caipirinha was crap, the B-52 not available but the Cosmopolitan was quite good. After the band finished the DJ, not having Muse and the Subways with him, played a pretty fucked up mix of Linkin Park, Rammstein, Rage, and classic '70s, '80s and '90s rock. Nice party and Mumbai really proved to be the most cosmopolitan place in India so far.

Driver, us, Indian guy



Back in the hotel at 3 in the morning we decided no to go to sleep til our train leaves at 6:55 to Goa. Michaela wanted to stay longer and Nina who wanted to come to Goa one day after us went home with an Indian guy. While smoking in the dorm we accidentally (and luckily) woke up some of the other guys just to find out, that Jules from Udaipur was there waiting to catch his flight to Switzerland in the early morning. Small world.

After a 12hrs train ride down here we are in paradise. I just rented a 150ccm Bajaj Pulsar for two weeks and will spend the time swimming and eating prawns and the most fresh and delicious fish for barely anything. Water temperature is about 26C and accomadation, as well as food, beer and everything is cheap as hell. Not to make you jealous, but the pic below is just accidentially taken from my breakfast table this morning, nicer pics of the really beautiful spots are to follow.