Today was Ghandi's birthday and the first day of my true love for Mumbai! I dont know if it was a combination of the beautiful sunny skies after days of rain, less traffic because of the holiday, or taking the public train for the first time... but I spent the day traveling around and having adventures and enjoying this amazing place! I first took the 15 minute walk along a trucker road to get a rickshaw (they are, for some mysterious reason, not allowed to come into where i live...) and when i got to the line of ricks, i apparently picked the WRONG one to hop into! There was a line of them and I was not aware of this so when i got in the one closest to me, one of the other wallahs (drivers) came over and started screaming at my driver! He proceeded to motion to me that i must get out of the rickshaw and come into his, which i was disinclined to do seeing as he was going ballistic on driver #1! I unwillingly changed rickshaws and then driver #1 pulls his rick upside #2's, completely boxing us in. He comes around and starts physically poking and prodding my driver #1. Im freakin' out because theyre fighting and the other rickshaw drivers (about 10 all male) are watching and finally another rick pulls up alongside this madness and motions for me to come into his! I leap out amidst the beginning of a fight and hop into this new rickshaw and he speeds off down the road, getting me safely to my destination! (needless to say, he got a big tip!)
After that adventure, I met up with Karishma (lives in Bandra where I used to) for a day of her showing me the trains and Colaba! Since today was a public holiday, there would be fewer people on the trains and it would be the best first time. So we went to Bandra station, bought our tickets at the "booking office" to get into a ladies compartment second class. We found the platform and waited about 2 minutes until our doorless train rolled into the station! we got into the ladies compartment (i thought it would be strange to be separated from the men that way but its actually really nice!) and had a pleasant train ride for about 20 minutes when we arrived in Churchgate. [note: This exact same excursion took me a literal 3 hours on saturday evening when i decided to take the bus. 1 hour waiting for the bus and 2 hours stuck in traffic] The entire ride (and return ticket) cost all of Rs. 12 = approx 27 cents US.
We walked around Colaba, went to Leopold's (famous for foreigners and all kinds of food) where we talked to a random German dude who was sitting by himself, shopped a bit, drank delicious milky pineapple drink (called energee for some reason), and headed back to the train station! The train ride back was just as enjoyable and easy and we got a beautiful view of the sunset over the city from the open train door. i didnt take a picture. oops.
Back to Bandra, Karishma and I took a rickshaw back to her place where I left to meet a Norwegian friend. We had a great street-food esque pav bhaji(bread and vegetable mash) dinner on Juhu beach and walked along by the water for a while. After we got out of the main throng of people on the beach [where we were touched and asked to take pictures due to being white and him being tall and blonde]it was a really fun spot to be! Almost a carnival-like atmosphere on a beautiful night.
Tomorrow back to work but from today, I will take the train happily and hope to explore the city more that way! I miss you all from home, wish you could see some of these wonders with me, and Ill try to post some photos soon! keep emailing and ill send back postcards! all my love.
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