Not that great for now

Airport staircase, mid level

I felt bad taking pics of the homeless, so just some rubbish

OK, OK, I’m not giving up just yet. But really. My current experience of Mumbai is the following: it’s a filthy, messy, retching pile of makeshift or ridiculously run down ugly buildings, millions of people who want something from you,  spiced with constant noise of thousands of beeping cars and the ubiquitous stench of rot, shit, piss, animals and hell knows what else. I honestly fail to see what exactly is in this city that’s meant to be attractive. I’m yet to see a single good looking building – I lowered my standards to taking pictures of every building that’s not completely run down, just in search of some scraps of beauty around me. In the first two hours here I’ve seen more people sleeping on the streets than I did in my entire life. Moreover, I’ve been to some poor countries before, but they had at least some sort of vaguely positive spirit about them – here all I feel from people is constant frustration, hurry and agitation. I knew that I should be prepared for a cultural shock and I was prepared to be overwhelmed by the crowds, by the fact that everything will take time, that people will be bothering me on streets, etc. I was not prepared for the shock to consist of the fact that I won’t see anything attractive here, and instead be overwhelmed by dirt and mess.

The problem with all those pictures …

Everything here is an issue – from getting change in a shop, through getting a reasonable tourist map or buying anything, to booking train tickets. Nothing is simple and straightforward, everything is frustrating. At the moment I’m exhausted without having actually done anything. I’m staying in my room for the rest of the day.

Story. I arrived yesterday evening. Mumbai airport is built in a ridiculous way – the bottom level is arrivals, the top is departures. Both levels are about 200m long, and the only staircases that connect them are at the very end of the levels. The staircases look like some run down factory spaces, I honestly thought I took a wrong turn when I got in. There is literally one ATM at the airport, and most staff doesn’t know where it is.

Is that they don’t convey the stench and the noise.

I took a taxi to a guest house recommended to me by Ajey. I was worried that it didn’t allow for booking online, but Ajey said that it’s fine, I just show up, it will be ok. I showed up and they were full. Every other guesthouse around was full. It was 10pm, I was walking around Mumbai Central train station for an hour, stepping between people, dogs and sheep sleeping on the streets and couldn’t find anything. So I did what every tourist guide says one should avoid – I asked a cab driver at the station. Those people supposedly have deals with hotels, so they’ll drop you off to one that has spaces, but it will cost extra, because the hotel pays them to get customers. Still, I was a bit desperate. The room was acceptable, but that’s as much as I can say.

Decorum

On the next morning the manager woke me up at 7, I don’t know why. I packed and went towards Salvation Army hostel which was advertised in the tourist book. On the way I got a good view of the filthy disgusting mess that is Mumbai. The hostel is in the more touristy district and it’s quite a bit better in here – well, it still smells, is horribly noisy and full of bothersome people, but at least I’ve not seen anyone pissing on the street anymore. I checked in – the place is cheap and has lockers, but I dread sleeping here because it’s incredibly noisy.

After that I went out hoping to explore a bit and book my train tickets. I saw the Gate of India and didn’t think much of it – it’s a pretty boring arch without anything special in it, except of the dozens of bothersome tour or lucky charm sellers around it. Next I needed to find a travel bureau, to book train tickets. And here – the joy! Not possible.

Homeless dogs everywhere

So this is how train booking works in India: you need to find the train you want and book a ticket in advance to get a seat. At some point there are no more seats and you’re screwed. The fun part is: you can either book the tickets in person at the station or a travel bureau, or over internet. But to book over the internet you need to have an Indian phone number, so in practice it’s impossible to book a train before you get to India. Ajey was wonderful and let me use his internet account, but I still couldn’t book anything, because as it turns out, to actually pay for tickets you have to choose one of about fifty payment sites – a few weeks back I tried about twenty of those and after none worked, gave up.

Yeah, right…

So you need to be in India to book tickets. But once you get to India it’s too late, because everything is booked out. I went to the tourist bureau, said where I want to go, and was told that I can do that, but next month, because now no more seats are available. After about two hours of juggling ideas and figuring things out (did I mention that every fucking thing is a problem here?) I managed to come up with a route similar but worse than what I initially wanted that would work. The change means that I won’t get to Varanasi at all, and will lose money for some hostels I already paid for, and will have to travel during the day rather than at night, thus wasting more time. Fucking great.

It’s still not sorted, but the agents need some time, so I went for a walk to experience a bit more of the supposedly better part of town. It’s not that much better. It’s a shame that it’s Monday, because all museums are closed, and that would probably cheer me up. Maybe tomorrow. Got internet in the meantime. It’s ridiculously slow, worse than NZ and Indonesia.

Are there any good things? I guess so. The clothes and jewellery sold on the streets are fantastic – shame I can’t buy anything until the last days of my trip, really don’t want to carry it all on me.

The food was ok. Things are really cheap. The street stalls have some really cool random things, I even saw vibrators on one. Also, say what you want about traffic in India, as a pedestrian I love it – I can finally go wherever I want, run between cars and not bother with those stupid pedestrian crossings.

I really need to rest now. I’ll just lie down with a book. I’m not angry, just feel completely crushed, overwhelmed and a bit resigned. I really hope that once I get out of the huge city it will be better. For now, Mumbai seriously kills puppies.