Bombay, baby!

Bombay, as a city, is absolutely insane. The overcrowded streets are crammed tight with people, cars, motorcycles, oxen-driven carts, cows, sheep, cats and dogs. For every person sleeping inside, it seems like there are two more sleeping on the streets. I found it so difficult when I first came. It's just so sketchy and loud and dirty and run-down, and not even in a fun way like Cairo. I couldn't quite hate it, and I didn't quite love it, but I was fascinated. And I still am.

I decided to wait on purchasing a guidebook because they're so expensive in London, and I'm a little (just a little!) cheap. But when I came here, I realized that they don't exactly have bookstores in my area. Or stores in general. There are just hundreds of little kiosks, with men peddling their goods. For fruits and vegetables, men and women sit on the street with their produce laid out on clothe on the ground. Toilet paper is very difficult to find, and usually only from pharmacy kiosks for more than a dollar a roll. Eww. It's insane. It's incredible. It's India, I guess. So I was eventually able to find a Lonely Planet from a little kiosk, and found out from it that Bombay is this weird mixture of glamour and slums, and that the location of my hotel is even slummier than usual. Which makes sense, I guess. Right now I'm in Colaba, the tourist and business centre, and only a 20 minute incredibly sketchy bus ride away. And now that I'm here, which is still Bombay but slightly more comfortable, I'm appreciating my area a little more. It may be skeezy, and it may have been a MAJOR culture shock, but that's why I came to India, right?

It's also very hot, and since I was packing for Siberia, I'm not very well prepared in terms of clothing. I have 2 shirts that aren't sweaters, and one of them is an elbow length black shirt. I'm tempted to buy a sari, but am worried that the Indian people will laugh at me. As it is, I'm being very anti-social. I realized yesterday that the longest conversation that I've had with anyone since I've been here has been 5 minutes in duration, and that was with my hotel clerk when I signed in. It's because I don't love being here by myself and the men can be a little sketchy. I was on the airplane on the ride over, when I asked an Indian man sitting next to me how hot is was. (He said it was coolish, the liar!) Anyway, almost immediately he asked me for my e-mail address and wanted to get together. As if! And I get approached a lot, which can be slightly scary when I'm by myself. But other than that, I'm fine. I got a single room with cable television (about 50 channels, 3 of which are music and 1 is constant movies!) for $12 CDN in Bombay, the most expensive Indian city for accomodations. So that's pretty sweet. And I went to see a Bollywood movie yesterday which was one of the funnest things ever. It was all in Hindi, but luckily the plot wasn't that difficult to follow, and the audience was amazingly responsive. They booed when the bad man came on, cheered when the good guys came on, screamed, laughed and sighed at all the appropriate parts. It was awesome!

And now that the culture shock has worn off a little, I'm beginning to enjoy Bombay more. There are all these little stands on the sidewalks (because they're not packed enough) selling freshly squeezed juice for 5 cents, delicious samosas wrapped up in newspapers for 10 cents, beautifully arranged exotic (for Canadians) fruit plates for 5 cents, and so on. It may be loud and sometimes dirty, but it is colourful. And since I'm going to be in India for another 6.5 weeks, I'm glad that I'm finally starting to see it's charm!