Bustin in bombay

Thursday, December 20, 2001
Bombay, India
kay, so i sent an update 3 days ago, but humour me; this is one of my last
emails about this adventure, so i'm desperate to keep writing.

sitting in an internet cafe in Bombay listening to some cheesy 90's pop.
surreal.

what a taxi ride from the airport. got a pre-paid taxi, so we thought we'd
be sorted. turns out this taxi driver didn't speak a word of English and
several times he would stop at an intersection, and ask us "left, right or
straight?". i couldnt believe it. 1 billion people in India, 99% of which i
think is safe to assume speak English and we had a driver that didn't speak a
lick of English! i just saying to him in an exasperated voice "i don't know.
you're the driver!". after stopping several times and asking some people on the
side-streets where the hotel was, we finally got here after almost 2 hours in
the taxi! and this guy still wanted a 50rps ($1) tip! i gave him 20 and wallked
into the hotel.

the area i'm staying in, Colaba, is actually quite nice. trees lining the
street and stuff, and a few nice cafes. vastly different ofcourse from most of
Bombay. the ride from the airport was a sober reminder of the "other" side of
Bombay, not the quiet and green area i'm staying in now, with cafe's and
cinemas, but with thousands of shacks lining the streets, kids and parents
alike begging, and a thousand million different smells assaulting my olfactory
sense.

so been sharing a room at this hotel with this israeli girl who started
chatting to me at the airport in Kathmandu, which has been great as hotel rooms
in Bombay are just ridiculously expensive. In Delhi we paid 300rps for a double
room and here it is about 900! she is on her way to southern India for a few
months tomorrow. but then tomorrow my brother is coming down from where he is
studing in a town called "Ahemdabad". (incidentally quote from Lonely Planet
for Ahemdabad: "Relief Rd gets our vote as the most polluted, congested and
thoroughly chaotic strips of barely controlled mayhem in the country")

okay, i cant really squeeze much more into this email. this isreali has gone to
get her train tickets. once she gets back, we are going to get some lunch, then
spend a few hours walking down the promenade along the sea to watch sunset.

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