Mumbai (Feb 12-13)

Jesse and Caleb in Mumbai

Meeting Jesse in Mumbai
Caleb Cohen

I wake up at about 9 o’clock. I'm totally disorientated… where are we? What hotel is this? Suddenly I remember, we’re in India… in Mumbai.... we got here yesterday and… JESSE IS COMING TODAY!! I quickly hop out of bed and head into mom and dads room to go to the bathroom. When I come out my mom says Caleb, Jesse is waiting for you! Ok I’ll go up to his room, I reply. I walk out the door and Jesse is right there waiting for me in my room.

We head down to breakfast at this uber expensive hotel and me and Jesse get our own table. I try everything, it’s pretty moderate. Me and Jesse catch up on some of the stuff happening in Vancouver. The gulab-jamoon is amazing. Its hot and sweet and the best one I’ve had in India. A gulab-jamoon is… well I’m not sure what it is but it’s a ball of something soaked to the bone in honey. It is the most delicious sweet in India. I have 5. Jesse and Patricia brought us a box filled with jelly beans. There where about 500, all different flavours. Me and artemis had way too many that first day.

Jess and Artemis waiting at the hotel

Near Train Station with Patricia and Jesse

We head out to go look around Mumbai with Patricia and Jesse and of course Mark is hungry. So he picks up a samosa and I have one to. We head around the corner deciding where to go. We head towards the main train station. On the way we find a little side street filled with food vendors. Most of them are selling the same thing. Its called Pau Badji. They have a huge vat of it filled to the top and they scoop you off a hunk, plunk in some butter, and fry up a delicious gushy bun. We later found out that you could only get this in this spot in Mumbai, no where else in India. I was very disappointed that I didn’t have one. But I did try some. It was very good.

Pau Badji

Pau Budji Eating

We headed to the train station and had a look around inside. It was very nice. Inside was packed to the brim. When you walk in you have to go through a little security gate. I don’t even think it was on, and nobody was watching it. We looked around a bit and then headed back outside. We wanted to get to the Welcome Gate of India. We ask someone and he says “Go straight, and when you get to the church go left and when you get to the synagogue keep going straight, and then you’ll get to a festival turn left and about five minutes walk straight you get there.

In front of the University

Surprisingly, that’s exactly how the route was. Church, left, synagogue, and then festival. The festival was very odd. It was more like an art display. It was a bunch of … well art. The art was demonstrating for recycling. It was not very good but it was interesting. We walked down a little alleyway with a bunch of vendors. Artemis got a gelato for like 6 bucks. And we continued down to the welcome gate of India.

When we got there the first thing we noticed was the Taj Mahal Hotel. It was all boarded off and you couldn’t go inside. If any of you are wondering the Taj Mahal Hotel is the hotel where all those tourists got shot from the Muslim extremists. Also I don’t know why its called the Taj Mahal Hotel because the actual Taj Mahal is about an 18 hour train ride from Mumbai.

Taj Mahal Hotel

The welcome gate of India was filled with Indian tourists. We looked around a bit and took a picture altogether from a guy who had a portable printing machine. He printed the picture out right on the spot. Most of the time spent at the gate was taking pictures with Indian families. It came to a point where we had to run away because there where so many Indian families wanting to take a picture with us. Why, you ask? Well because of the simple reason of our skin tone. Artemis didn’t seem to mind all the pictures but the rest of us where pretty fed up.

Gate of India

Gate of India

We decided to take a tour. We went to the washing area. The washing area is where everybody gets their washing done. All families and all hotels that are 3 star and below. Its basically a big area with little cement booths that are open. There are men that work there and what they do all day is stand in the booth knee high in dirty India water and smack the clothes against a rock. They just smack it. Smack, Smack, Smack.

Washing area

Washing Area

What we had to do was, he dropped us off we had a quick peek and then we had to get back in the car. Fast. There where so many beggars there it was… I cant even think of a word. When you get there they all come running up the stairs and by the time they reach the top you better be outa there or else, who knows.

The next place we went to was the Ghandi house. This is where Ghandi spent a decent part of his life. It was basically a large museum. Very interesting. After that we headed towards the “rich” part of town. The “rich” part was just a bunch of really, really ugly looking apartments that look like they have been abandoned. The driver said they are expensive because they where so high up, but it was still a shithole. We went to the rich peoples temple which was odd. And went to the see the view of Mumbai. It was pretty spectacular.

Sipping Chai on the streets

We headed back to the hotel and went out for supper at a nice place that was okay. And then we went to bed. The next day we woke up and went on the train to Jaipur.

Caleb