024 Mumbai

Last Wednesday I flew into Mumbai via Zurich. First time in India. First time in Asia in general as well, so I was quite curious how it would be, and also a little bit nervous. This is the beginning of the biggest chunk of my year of traveling, 5 months in Asia. I will spend a bit over a month in India, the plan is to travel from Mumbai through the south and up again towards Chennai, from where I fly to the next destination.

I arrived pretty late at the remarkably well organized international airport in Mumbai, got my bag back, got my passport stamped, and made my way through the que for the prepaid cabs. Right away it was obvious there are a lot of people in this town. Even in the airport itself, behind the security, lots of people where guiding the passengers, carrying bags, looking important, or just standing around. No employee shortage here. The heath outside was actually pretty ok, about 25 degrees at night.
The cab took me to the south of the city, where I booked a hostel. He didn't talk to me, besides a demand for more money because he had to search. I kindly explained him that this was a prepaid cab and that it was not my fault he didn't know the way in his own city.

The next morning I set out to find a payphone to call a Couchsurfer who wanted to show me around. When I walked into a postoffice, where they didn't have a phone, a lady asked me what I was looking for, and gave me her phone after I explained. Nice people here.

general impression after walking around for a few hours though the centre: Crazy traffic (honking your horn seems obligatory), lots of people about everywhere. Not much hassle on the streets, in the tourist areas people try to sell you stuff, but a firm 'not, thank you' suffices. One man on the street was convinced I was his friend, but after I ignored him (I didn't understand wat he said at first), he changed his mind about it.
On the first day in the city, I met up with Poornima, who lives in Mumbai and offered to show me around. We walked around in the centre, had a nice lunch (first experience with Indian food in India: if you ask for something not so spicy, it is really really nice. If you ask for something spicy, it is really really spicy). In the evening we were invited by one of her friends to come to a Salsa evening. Yeah, why not. 

Poornima and Raguh turned out to be really great people. They told me a lot about life in Mumbai, and I ended up staying a couple of days more with them because there was so much to do here. They life in an apartment in the North of town (about 50 minutes by really full commuter train), and their elevator plays Christmas music when the door is open.
Amongst other things we visited Elephant Island, Kenhiry caves, the north of the city, etc. We also went wall climbing, and I was introduced to many vegetarian dishes, so now I know what I can order when I am on my own later :)
In total I spent a week in Mumbai, which was a fantastic experience, mainly because of the wonderful people I met here.