India - part 6
Hi Everyone. Last post from India - I'm on my way home now, writing this from somewhere over Indonesia.
Thank you to everyone who has been reading this and sending me nice messages. I've been really enjoying blogging in India and it's nice to know people have been enjoying it!
Anyway, last time I wrote, I was in Goa. Not much else to report from there. It was a pretty laid back week, which was definitely needed after the hectic busy season I had at work, and after 4 weeks of screaming children. I really enjoyed Goa; the place really grew on me. It doesn't have the worlds most beautiful beaches, or a fantastic party scene, and there are no exciting attractions, but there is something about the place that makes a person want to stay. I think the fact that its sleepy and relaxed without being too quiet or boring is what's appealing. The beaches are nice enough and everyone is very laid back about everything. There is no charge to sit in beach chairs, and there are no annoying rules or regulations. You can pretty much do as you please. Don't want to wear a helmet on your scooter? That's your decision. Want to bring your own beer to the beach chairs, no problem. It's also much more green and clean that the rest of India. There is still garbage around, but you almost forget that you are in India at times.
One thing I will not miss when I get home is the service here. While it's nice that you can sit on beach chairs for free, when you do want something, it's near impossible to get someone's attention. And then, when you do, there is about a 75% probability that what you get is wrong. Actually, saying that your order is right 25% of the time, may be generous. And trying to send something back is not an option, because trying to explain what is wrong with what they have brought you is like trying to explain calculus to a 7 year old. It's not just in Goa - the service is terrible everywhere.
However, the alternative (the 25%), is often over intrusive service; someone loitering 2 meters behind you waiting to refill your tea, or serve you from the dishes you've ordered on the table. I suppose I prefer this, but when you are with someone talking, you kind of don't want to be disturbed every few minutes.
One thing I was not expecting about Goa was the number of Russians here. The place is packed with them. Most menus have English and Russian on them. At least wearing a bikini is acceptable in Goa, so there are no wardrobe issues. From past traveling experience (and from what I saw of Russians in Rajasthan) they tend to not have the greatest concept of dressing appropriately in certain places (an instance of cut off jean "daisy dukes" at a temple in Rajasthan come to mind). Sorry Russian friends, but it's often the truth!
On Wednesday I flew up to Mumbai - just a quick 50 minute flight. I decided to treat myself and stay at the four seasons, as it was fairly reasonably priced (as far as the four seasons goes). After 4.5 weeks of bunkbeds, shared bathrooms, temperamental airconditioning, cold showers and very little privacy, I really REALLY enjoyed my stay. The one exception to the poor service I have experienced in India was at the four seasons. I suppose you could say that it was exceptional. For example, if I wanted a taxi I just called down from my room and asked the concierge to set one up. Then, when I went downstairs the cab would be waiting; the driver already having been told the destination. They would then open the door for me and produce a bottle of water for the trip. The hotel breakfast was included and may be the best buffet I've ever had (Vegas included). There was a make your own Bellini station (!!) which consisted of bottles of champagne and various carafs of juices (peach, orange, raspberry, etc) so that you could make our own. The room was also lovely and included the worlds most comfortable bed, and a huge bathtub with bath salts (such a luxury after many cold showers with poor water pressure).
My first day in Mumbai, I had a street food tour booked in the evening. As it started from south Mumbai, I took a taxi down to the nearby gateway of India and took a look at that. Nothing too impressive - its a big stone gate. Snore. I then had some time to kill, so wandered around the area a bit. I stopped at the Taj Mahal palace hotel (a very fancy and famous hotel in Mumbai) for a malasa chai tea, but they wanted 400 rupees for it ($7.50). I don't care how good it may have been, I refuse to pay that in a country where the best Chai I've had has been $0.40. I also stopped off at the famed Leopolds for a drink, but that too was a disappointment. Leopolds has been open since 1890 (ish) and is now quite famous because it was the regular hangout in the book Shantaram (which - don't judge me - I realllllly did not like). It was a tourist trap; tacky, overpriced, and selling "Leopolds" branded souviners. The service was also worse than normal.
I was in a bit of a bad mood when I started my tour, but that changed quickly. I was the only one on the tour and my guide (Asim) was excellent. Asim was born in the slums and got a job (with the tour company who is also a non-government community organization) about 7 years ago teaching computer skills to other slum residents. He then started leading tours and now is one of the company's managers and helps to design the tours.
First, we started at churchgate station and took the train (subway) two stops to get to Chowpatty beach. The train was very interesting. There are separate "women only" cars (for safety reasons) and a car for handicapped people and cancer patients (which was represented by a picture of a crab). The train was not very full when we got on, as it was the first station, but Asim said that it will get so full people will be hanging out the side and riding on top. Apparently 4-5 people die every day in Mumbai in train related accidents.
Chowpatty beach is quite famous - its at the end of Marine Drive and its where people go to hangout and get some fresh air. We had 4 food dishes there which were all excellent. All places we went used filtered water and had good hygiene standards, so I didn't need to worry about getting ill. The first was something I've been wanting to try but haven't because of the water. It's called pani puri and is a round, hollow pastry, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water, chutney, chili, masala, potato, onion and chickpeas. The result is a spicy bite sized snack. It was excellent. The second thing was what I would call Indian nachos, but what the indians call sev papdi chaat (I think). It's puffed rice cakes covered in chutneys, potatoes, chickpeas, onions, chilli, tomato, and a kind of corn flour chip. It was my favourite - I wish I had discovered it sooner. After that it was a tomato and veggie concoction, called pav bhaji which originated when commuting workers needed lunch on the go. The inventor took left over veggies from the restaurants and mashed them up and covered them in tomatoes to serve with bread. Of course now it's a popular snack and the veggies used are not leftovers. Then it was an ice cream made of condensed milk in 5 different flavours - the mango was my favourite.
I thought it must be quite cheap to eat here, but Asim said that on an average blue collar salary, taking the family there would be a treat you would only do a few times per year. Still by north American/Australian standards, it was very cheap. Asim paid, but I think everything (individually) was $1 or less.
We then took a taxi to the Islamic area where we had all sorts of kebabs. First it was chicken tikka in a sandwich and in a sausage roll type thing, and then deep fried mutton meatballs in a fresh roll with lime. All excellent but I was getting quite full at this point. We finished with another ice cream (an excellent custard and apple gelato like thing) and a donut/pretzel covered in cream. It was an interesting area - there was some sort of religious muslim festival going on, so it was pretty crazy. Everyone was in traditional dress.
Asim told me a bit about the taxis in Mumbai, which are surprisingly very good. There are strict regulations in place, which make it much easier for tourists to get around. Firstly, all taxis have a meter, which they have to use. Also, they cannot (by law) refuse a fare. If they get caught (you can report issues on a website) its a big fine. Of course, the bastards still try to find a way to over charge you (coving their hands over the meter or saying there is a hotel pick up fee) but thats not too bad, as you can ignore what they say and just pay the meter. They know they are trying to screw you, so they don't protest when you give the meter rate. It was nice not having to haggle for every ride. Apparently the drivers either own their taxis or rent them. If they rent them, it costs about 300 rupees per day ($5). The average driver makes about 1000 rupees ($17), but then needs to pay the rental charge and petrol, which leaves 400-500 rupees for a days work ($8). You can see why the street food would be hard to take your family of 4 to very often.
On Thursday I did a slum tour at the Dharavi slum - India's most famous, and one of the largest in the world. It was a very interesting tour which highlighted the fact that the slum is not the extreme poverty we perceive it to be. While it was quite different 20 years ago, over time it's transformed into a self sustaining city with everything the residents need. Sure, it is still dirty and unattractive looking, but the people there are not super poor and many successful people actually choose to live there because of the community aspects.
The tour company I went with was started just 10 months ago by a guy who lives in the slum. He had done freelance tours before and decided to start a business while he gets his phd in chemistry. The company is now number 1 on trip advisor and he says he has so much business he has to turn people down. He has four guides working for him - all living in the slum as well and all university students.
The first stop was an industrial area focused on recycling. The businesses here collect plastic or cans and recycle them. The plastic is sold to other companies and the tin cans are melted down into aluminum sheets which are sold to businesses or used in housing construction. It's a very smart business - using the waste in the slums to generate money and materials. Another business we saw takes large paint drums and recycles them. They are cleaned, removed of any branding, mended if there are issues and resold to the paint companies who can put their branding on them and refill them. All the workshops we saw are pretty primitive - all using manual labour and basic machinery. We saw one gent working with the aluminum; melting it down into liquid and putting it into sheets. His tools were a big spoon and a big pot, and some gloves. He was working in a small very very hot space. One mistake, and no more feet.
After that we saw a bakery. All the kneeding was done by hand and there were three guys feverishly working an actual mountain of dough. This seemed to be a pretty good job compared to the aluminum. We then wondered through the residential area which was a maze of extremely narrow streets (1 person at a time) and low hanging wires, stairs, balconies, etc. We eventually came out to a clearing or town square, which can only be described as a pile of garbage. Everyone was out though; the teenagers smoking, the kids playing cricket on the mound of trash. There was also a public toilet there - 75% of the population use the public toilets. The other 25% go outside or in bathrooms outside the slum (I guess those who leave for work and stuff). One lady in this 'square' had her own toilet, who ironically lived right next to the public toilet. Maybe the proximity allowed her to rig up the plumbing for her own toilet. I got a glimpse in one of the public toilets and it didn't look nearly as horrific as I expected. Ive definitely seen much worse here in India.
We then visited the leather making area where they produce all sorts of leather goods. I bought a very nice leather wallet for $10. I figured its a nice souvenir from the slum and I was supporting local business. Some of the other people on my tour bought nice belts. Apparently, 20,000 goats are killed each day to make the leather. Thankfully, at is done elsewhere in the slum and the worst we saw was the goat skins. I bet leather is actually a pretty profitable business. The rest of the tour was just wondering around. Very interesting.
On my last day, I had a very late flight out. So I did another tour to kill some time between the hotel checkout and the airport. This was with the same company as the slum tour and it was a market walking tour. It was the least interesting of the three, but was still good. We wondered around through 5 or 6 different markets, each one specialized in something (fruits, flowers, silk, etc). It was pretty hectic trying to get from place to place, but I've been to a lot of markets in India and that as pretty par for the course.
The most interesting part for me was when we went to a cow sanctuary. As we all know, cows are sacred in India, but I've found it quite ironic how poorly treated they seem to be. If they are sacred, treat them that way! Anyway, apparently all the street cows do have owners. But what this trust did was round up the ones who's owners could not be found. They are kept in relatively good conditions (as far as inner city xos living goes) and they get plenty of food and medical attention (as needed). There are apparently hundreds of similar set ups through out Mumbai, each with hundreds of cows. I enjoying walking around and petting them. They had divided them all in to "departments", such as the young cow department, the pregnant cow department and the special cow department. Upon enquiry about the special cow department, I learnt it was where they bring the females to mate with the bulls.
Anyway, on that note, Im going to wrap up. I don't have much else to say and all that cow talk is making me want a burger (which is plan number one when I'm home).
Thanks for reading
S
Thank you to everyone who has been reading this and sending me nice messages. I've been really enjoying blogging in India and it's nice to know people have been enjoying it!
Anyway, last time I wrote, I was in Goa. Not much else to report from there. It was a pretty laid back week, which was definitely needed after the hectic busy season I had at work, and after 4 weeks of screaming children. I really enjoyed Goa; the place really grew on me. It doesn't have the worlds most beautiful beaches, or a fantastic party scene, and there are no exciting attractions, but there is something about the place that makes a person want to stay. I think the fact that its sleepy and relaxed without being too quiet or boring is what's appealing. The beaches are nice enough and everyone is very laid back about everything. There is no charge to sit in beach chairs, and there are no annoying rules or regulations. You can pretty much do as you please. Don't want to wear a helmet on your scooter? That's your decision. Want to bring your own beer to the beach chairs, no problem. It's also much more green and clean that the rest of India. There is still garbage around, but you almost forget that you are in India at times.
One thing I will not miss when I get home is the service here. While it's nice that you can sit on beach chairs for free, when you do want something, it's near impossible to get someone's attention. And then, when you do, there is about a 75% probability that what you get is wrong. Actually, saying that your order is right 25% of the time, may be generous. And trying to send something back is not an option, because trying to explain what is wrong with what they have brought you is like trying to explain calculus to a 7 year old. It's not just in Goa - the service is terrible everywhere.
However, the alternative (the 25%), is often over intrusive service; someone loitering 2 meters behind you waiting to refill your tea, or serve you from the dishes you've ordered on the table. I suppose I prefer this, but when you are with someone talking, you kind of don't want to be disturbed every few minutes.
One thing I was not expecting about Goa was the number of Russians here. The place is packed with them. Most menus have English and Russian on them. At least wearing a bikini is acceptable in Goa, so there are no wardrobe issues. From past traveling experience (and from what I saw of Russians in Rajasthan) they tend to not have the greatest concept of dressing appropriately in certain places (an instance of cut off jean "daisy dukes" at a temple in Rajasthan come to mind). Sorry Russian friends, but it's often the truth!
On Wednesday I flew up to Mumbai - just a quick 50 minute flight. I decided to treat myself and stay at the four seasons, as it was fairly reasonably priced (as far as the four seasons goes). After 4.5 weeks of bunkbeds, shared bathrooms, temperamental airconditioning, cold showers and very little privacy, I really REALLY enjoyed my stay. The one exception to the poor service I have experienced in India was at the four seasons. I suppose you could say that it was exceptional. For example, if I wanted a taxi I just called down from my room and asked the concierge to set one up. Then, when I went downstairs the cab would be waiting; the driver already having been told the destination. They would then open the door for me and produce a bottle of water for the trip. The hotel breakfast was included and may be the best buffet I've ever had (Vegas included). There was a make your own Bellini station (!!) which consisted of bottles of champagne and various carafs of juices (peach, orange, raspberry, etc) so that you could make our own. The room was also lovely and included the worlds most comfortable bed, and a huge bathtub with bath salts (such a luxury after many cold showers with poor water pressure).
My first day in Mumbai, I had a street food tour booked in the evening. As it started from south Mumbai, I took a taxi down to the nearby gateway of India and took a look at that. Nothing too impressive - its a big stone gate. Snore. I then had some time to kill, so wandered around the area a bit. I stopped at the Taj Mahal palace hotel (a very fancy and famous hotel in Mumbai) for a malasa chai tea, but they wanted 400 rupees for it ($7.50). I don't care how good it may have been, I refuse to pay that in a country where the best Chai I've had has been $0.40. I also stopped off at the famed Leopolds for a drink, but that too was a disappointment. Leopolds has been open since 1890 (ish) and is now quite famous because it was the regular hangout in the book Shantaram (which - don't judge me - I realllllly did not like). It was a tourist trap; tacky, overpriced, and selling "Leopolds" branded souviners. The service was also worse than normal.
I was in a bit of a bad mood when I started my tour, but that changed quickly. I was the only one on the tour and my guide (Asim) was excellent. Asim was born in the slums and got a job (with the tour company who is also a non-government community organization) about 7 years ago teaching computer skills to other slum residents. He then started leading tours and now is one of the company's managers and helps to design the tours.
First, we started at churchgate station and took the train (subway) two stops to get to Chowpatty beach. The train was very interesting. There are separate "women only" cars (for safety reasons) and a car for handicapped people and cancer patients (which was represented by a picture of a crab). The train was not very full when we got on, as it was the first station, but Asim said that it will get so full people will be hanging out the side and riding on top. Apparently 4-5 people die every day in Mumbai in train related accidents.
Chowpatty beach is quite famous - its at the end of Marine Drive and its where people go to hangout and get some fresh air. We had 4 food dishes there which were all excellent. All places we went used filtered water and had good hygiene standards, so I didn't need to worry about getting ill. The first was something I've been wanting to try but haven't because of the water. It's called pani puri and is a round, hollow pastry, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water, chutney, chili, masala, potato, onion and chickpeas. The result is a spicy bite sized snack. It was excellent. The second thing was what I would call Indian nachos, but what the indians call sev papdi chaat (I think). It's puffed rice cakes covered in chutneys, potatoes, chickpeas, onions, chilli, tomato, and a kind of corn flour chip. It was my favourite - I wish I had discovered it sooner. After that it was a tomato and veggie concoction, called pav bhaji which originated when commuting workers needed lunch on the go. The inventor took left over veggies from the restaurants and mashed them up and covered them in tomatoes to serve with bread. Of course now it's a popular snack and the veggies used are not leftovers. Then it was an ice cream made of condensed milk in 5 different flavours - the mango was my favourite.
I thought it must be quite cheap to eat here, but Asim said that on an average blue collar salary, taking the family there would be a treat you would only do a few times per year. Still by north American/Australian standards, it was very cheap. Asim paid, but I think everything (individually) was $1 or less.
We then took a taxi to the Islamic area where we had all sorts of kebabs. First it was chicken tikka in a sandwich and in a sausage roll type thing, and then deep fried mutton meatballs in a fresh roll with lime. All excellent but I was getting quite full at this point. We finished with another ice cream (an excellent custard and apple gelato like thing) and a donut/pretzel covered in cream. It was an interesting area - there was some sort of religious muslim festival going on, so it was pretty crazy. Everyone was in traditional dress.
Asim told me a bit about the taxis in Mumbai, which are surprisingly very good. There are strict regulations in place, which make it much easier for tourists to get around. Firstly, all taxis have a meter, which they have to use. Also, they cannot (by law) refuse a fare. If they get caught (you can report issues on a website) its a big fine. Of course, the bastards still try to find a way to over charge you (coving their hands over the meter or saying there is a hotel pick up fee) but thats not too bad, as you can ignore what they say and just pay the meter. They know they are trying to screw you, so they don't protest when you give the meter rate. It was nice not having to haggle for every ride. Apparently the drivers either own their taxis or rent them. If they rent them, it costs about 300 rupees per day ($5). The average driver makes about 1000 rupees ($17), but then needs to pay the rental charge and petrol, which leaves 400-500 rupees for a days work ($8). You can see why the street food would be hard to take your family of 4 to very often.
On Thursday I did a slum tour at the Dharavi slum - India's most famous, and one of the largest in the world. It was a very interesting tour which highlighted the fact that the slum is not the extreme poverty we perceive it to be. While it was quite different 20 years ago, over time it's transformed into a self sustaining city with everything the residents need. Sure, it is still dirty and unattractive looking, but the people there are not super poor and many successful people actually choose to live there because of the community aspects.
The tour company I went with was started just 10 months ago by a guy who lives in the slum. He had done freelance tours before and decided to start a business while he gets his phd in chemistry. The company is now number 1 on trip advisor and he says he has so much business he has to turn people down. He has four guides working for him - all living in the slum as well and all university students.
The first stop was an industrial area focused on recycling. The businesses here collect plastic or cans and recycle them. The plastic is sold to other companies and the tin cans are melted down into aluminum sheets which are sold to businesses or used in housing construction. It's a very smart business - using the waste in the slums to generate money and materials. Another business we saw takes large paint drums and recycles them. They are cleaned, removed of any branding, mended if there are issues and resold to the paint companies who can put their branding on them and refill them. All the workshops we saw are pretty primitive - all using manual labour and basic machinery. We saw one gent working with the aluminum; melting it down into liquid and putting it into sheets. His tools were a big spoon and a big pot, and some gloves. He was working in a small very very hot space. One mistake, and no more feet.
After that we saw a bakery. All the kneeding was done by hand and there were three guys feverishly working an actual mountain of dough. This seemed to be a pretty good job compared to the aluminum. We then wondered through the residential area which was a maze of extremely narrow streets (1 person at a time) and low hanging wires, stairs, balconies, etc. We eventually came out to a clearing or town square, which can only be described as a pile of garbage. Everyone was out though; the teenagers smoking, the kids playing cricket on the mound of trash. There was also a public toilet there - 75% of the population use the public toilets. The other 25% go outside or in bathrooms outside the slum (I guess those who leave for work and stuff). One lady in this 'square' had her own toilet, who ironically lived right next to the public toilet. Maybe the proximity allowed her to rig up the plumbing for her own toilet. I got a glimpse in one of the public toilets and it didn't look nearly as horrific as I expected. Ive definitely seen much worse here in India.
We then visited the leather making area where they produce all sorts of leather goods. I bought a very nice leather wallet for $10. I figured its a nice souvenir from the slum and I was supporting local business. Some of the other people on my tour bought nice belts. Apparently, 20,000 goats are killed each day to make the leather. Thankfully, at is done elsewhere in the slum and the worst we saw was the goat skins. I bet leather is actually a pretty profitable business. The rest of the tour was just wondering around. Very interesting.
On my last day, I had a very late flight out. So I did another tour to kill some time between the hotel checkout and the airport. This was with the same company as the slum tour and it was a market walking tour. It was the least interesting of the three, but was still good. We wondered around through 5 or 6 different markets, each one specialized in something (fruits, flowers, silk, etc). It was pretty hectic trying to get from place to place, but I've been to a lot of markets in India and that as pretty par for the course.
The most interesting part for me was when we went to a cow sanctuary. As we all know, cows are sacred in India, but I've found it quite ironic how poorly treated they seem to be. If they are sacred, treat them that way! Anyway, apparently all the street cows do have owners. But what this trust did was round up the ones who's owners could not be found. They are kept in relatively good conditions (as far as inner city xos living goes) and they get plenty of food and medical attention (as needed). There are apparently hundreds of similar set ups through out Mumbai, each with hundreds of cows. I enjoying walking around and petting them. They had divided them all in to "departments", such as the young cow department, the pregnant cow department and the special cow department. Upon enquiry about the special cow department, I learnt it was where they bring the females to mate with the bulls.
Anyway, on that note, Im going to wrap up. I don't have much else to say and all that cow talk is making me want a burger (which is plan number one when I'm home).
Thanks for reading
S
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