Group Blog- Travel Experiences: Mumbai

This is my post for a Group Blog on Travel:

The place I have traveled that had the most impact on me was Mumbai, India. I traveled there with someone who has traveled all over the world and she too was rocked by India. When I was there I couldn't stop thinking or talking about what I was seeing I was so taken in. As much as I wanted to talk about it when I got back I really couldn't because I feel that words do not do it justice and I'm struggling with that writing this post. Watching Slumdog Millionaire does give you a taste of what Mumbai is really like- they don't exaggerate. Watching Outsourced (available on Netflix) also gives you a taste of the work ethic, conditions, culture there and what it's like arriving at the airport :)

I've seen plenty of slums/poverty before but nothing like this. Anthony Bourdain put it best when he said that the western mind sees a problem and it tries to solve it and westerners go to Mumbai and try to figure it out but they can't- there is no figuring it out. I cried every day on my way to work. I did notice though that despite everything people seemed to be happy.

2 major take aways I had

(1) This made me feel smaller. This place was so different than anything I have experienced it was almost like going to another planet to find that there was something totally different than what I knew. There is so much out there for us to experience and learn from.

(2) The US has no idea what a fine balance we hang in. One or 2 major disasters and we are not far from the life that people in Mumbai live daily. The people in Mumbai are survivors- they can deal with anything. People in the US for the most part are ignorant to this and can barely handle life without electricity for a day (myself included). I think we have a lot to be grateful for (infrastructure for example) and need to get educated (and beyond what the media tries to feed people) so that we are making choices that are right for our country/world. Go beyond the media- go talk to a solider who is in the military and has been overseas supporting us and see a different perspective. (off soap box)

The food there was really good (I love Indian food) though if you go be SURE to take a prescription for traveler's diarrhea- no matter how careful you are (and I was very and still needed it). Also there are beautiful 5 star hotels that will cost you hundreds per night OR this:

This is the only other hotel I saw that wasn't 5 star. I didn't see anything like a "Comfort Inn". And gringas (especially blonde ones) be prepared to be stared at wherever you go. The attention you get from piropos in Chile are nothing like this. It's not staring in a cat calling kind of way but groups of men even across the street will stop and stare until you are out of sight. It's not so much admiration but almost like if an alien were walking by. I was in a grocery store and a guy who was working there was coming the opposite direction from me pushing a grocery cart and locked eyes with me and stared. He turned down the aisle in front of me but his eyes never left me. He would face forward and walk a few steps and then quickly whip his head around to stare again. This happened about 5 times down the aisle. I couldn't help but laugh to myself. When I arrived at the office which was a huge complex you would think that a movie star was there. Everyone totally stopped what they were doing to stare. It was a very weird feeling.

Just to give a little view into the infrastructure there. They were building a courtyad in the middle of this huge complex where the office was. There was not one piece of equipment. Not only were there not bulldozers there were not even shovels. There was a team of men with sticks pulling rocks out of the ground. They would get them up and pass them to a line of women who would pass the bowl via their head until it got to a man who would take the bowl and dump it in a pile. They also had a bucket where they were mixing mortar to make the wall they were working on- same process for passing the bricks. It was amazing to watch. I wasn't in a village in Africa- I was in one of the largest cities in the world.

The people of India are the nicest people I have ever met and are some of the best to work with. Funny story- 2 of the guys took myself and my coworker out to dinner. They were from a different part of India and on the way back asked us if we cared if they stopped at their temple. I guess whatever religion they were the main temple of that religion was in the city and they wanted to visit. We said it was fine with us and when we got there we had the feeling they wanted us to stay in the car instead of going in so we waited. As they were in there we were wondering what the temple was and what the customs are in the temple. When the 2 guys came back they were all smiles and seemed very happy. The one guy got on the phone right away to call his girlfriend. The other guy explained that this temple was for the "Sex God for a good sex life". My coworker and I said "Ah! Now you tell us- we would have gone if we would have known that- no wonder he is calling his girlfriend!" The next morning we went to the office and the guys who took us out were not there yet but there were other people. They asked what we had done the previous night and we said that we went out to dinner and that they stopped at their temple for the "Sex God". They said "Sex God? Which temple is that?" We said "Yea, they said it's the main temple of their religion." When the 2 guys arrived to the office the others were anxious to ask them about this temple. They replied "No no no, not the Sex God- it's the Success God- for a good successful life." :) We got a really good laugh out of that- leave it to 2 gringas...

Now for my shameless advertisement- I created a new blog called Off The Chain Travel which is meant to give top level recos to people who like to really experience the local scene when they travel - going for the local instead of the chain. This started on the way home from a weekend trip S and I took to Indianapolis recently. We had a great time and found several great places and wanted to share it with others. It's still in very early infancy but thought this would be a good opportunity to share. I'm doing this blog for personal reasons- I always come away from places and have recos and thought it would be good to keep them in a central location to share with family/friends and I'm anxious to hear other people's recos as well. I've started the post on Chile- please add any recos you have.