I M P R E S S E D

I can't wait to start writing about Mumbai, so all I'm saying about yesterday's flea market at Anjuna, Goa, is that it was great, very-very-very colourful, and I bought a few little somethings, in prices, though, much higher than those I had found for the same things elsewhere. But, when an old lady tells you that she can't cut 50 rupees, less than a euro, because she woke up at four in the morning to go set up her stall with fishing pants, well, you can't really argue, especially if you are buying a pair of these cute pants for two dollars... By the way, the beach at Anjuna is nice too, but what I am mostly keeping from my visit yesterday to this little coastal village, is the look on most westerners faces, a look that screamed out loud that they had been high for days now, if you know what I mean... Sooooooo, Mumbai, the former Bombay, which, by the way, is hugely still called Bombay by many people I happened to hear pronounce the name of the city. The train arrived at 6am, and... well, I have to say that it was love at second sight... Even before I got off the train, I got approached by some guys called cullies or something like that, people who make a living by carrying passengers' luggage at train stations. Since I am only carrying one little backpack, I said no, and got off the train. There, a new wave of... people-bees waited for me, taxi drivers who jumped on me with loud voices, asking me where I was going, while all I wanted was to get a couple of minutes to wake up properly (I was sleeping until two minutes before the train arrived at the station). Exiting the station building, I avoided another wave of taxi drivers and... this is when I started falling for this city. A few minutes after 6am, almost empty streets, hardly any light in the sky since the sun was still down, and there I was, walking towards the south, knowing which hotel I would like to stay at. The humidity was not any more a problem, unlike the first day I landed at Mumbai, 21 days ago, about the same time, a little after 6am. I guess I have gotten used to it by now... I walked past homeless people lying in the streets, a sight I have, unfortunately, gotten used to as well, saw people washing their teeth on street pavements, saw others washing their cars (many-many of them, actually), and kept walking, enjoying the wide streets, with hardly any cars. After less than half an hour I had reached the Gateway to India, the arch which is Mumbai's emblem, situated right next to the sea. In front of the arch there is a small park, and two dozens of people were practicing yoga, stretching, doing Swedish gymnastics, meditating, images I had seen on TV in documentaries about China, not India. In ten minutes I was at the door of Bentley's Hotel, the place I wanted to stay in Mumbai. After having spent far less to what I expected in this trip, I thought I should allow myself a little luxury and give the 1200 rupees they charge per night, in the hotel which comes with the fame of the most "atmospheric" among the -relatively- low budget ones. The receptionist asked me if I had made a reservation, to get my "paid", as we say in Greece, I don't know if the same expression exists in English, answer. "Actually I sent you two emails a month ago and I never got an answer". A simple "oh" was his reaction... Anyhow, turned out no rooms were available, so, since I couldn't stay there, I chose the cheapest possible place, the Red Shield Hostel. Two things I shall say about it. First, a dorm bed costs 150 rupees per night (breakfast included, we are talking about 3 dollars). Second, in the dormitory, the moment I bended over to tie my shoe laces, I saw a bug walking on the floor, one of those bugs that suck your blood in your sleep. Am I looking forward to spending the night in my bed? Let me help you, the answer has two letters, one vowel and one consonant. BUT, I am not going to bed before midnight, which is when they lock the door, AND, I am waking up at 6 or 6:30 to be at the Gateway of India the moment the sun will start rising, so as to take some nice pictures. So, after locking my stuff in the locker, I went for my first stroll, and the love relationship with the city started growing. The British legacy, architecture-wise, is really breath-taking. Everywhere I turned to look I saw incredible buildings and more incredible buildings and wide streets and, and, and... I was impressed. Bombay, in my mind, as I grew up, was surrounded by a... mystic, could say, aura, the name, the history, the pictures I had seen, so I didn't need too much to fall in love with it... I don't know what people think, but if you ask me, walking for almost ten hours in Mumbai's streets, was highly pleasurable, and didn't feel so suffocating as in Hyderabad, Chennai, or Bangalore... When I got tired, there was a cute juice stall to stop and quench my thirst, and in the corner there would be a CD store, and in another corner there would be a bookstore (my favourite shopping places while travelling), and then there would be more impressive buildings, and more wide avenues, and open spaces, big open spaces, where kids (and not only) would be playing cricket... Wonderful... Really wonderful... By the way, I wanted to finish the day going to the movies, I want to see some Bollywood movie which is BIG at the moment in the country, "Dhoom 2", but my stomach is pulling sneaky tricks since midday, and I don't trust myself sitting in a cinema theatre for almost three hours without needing to go to the toilet, and missing part of the movie. Tomorrow. Oh, almost forgot, as I was walking in the morning towards Bentley's hotel, I saw a movie crew shooting a scene at a place called (don't laugh, oh well, laugh...) "Horniman Circle", a square. Good thing it's "i" and not "y" (giggle :-)).
Twenty one days in India, and earlier I was thinking what my overall impressions are, about the Indians. Hm... I'll keep this one for me... As for the country, at least the part I saw, I have a thousand good things to say, and another thousand not so good, BUT, as I wrote, I think, in one of my very first posts, one of the most appealing things about this country, is that you are NEVER bored. I find it impossible to get bored... Yesterday I was on the bus from Anjuna to Mapusa, on my way back to Panjim to take the train to Mumbai, and as I was watching out of the window admiring the scenery, my bus overlapped an elephant (think about it, right out of the blue you see a huge elephant in half a meter distance on your left...), and a while later we had to stop because a cow was having... fun, sitting in the middle of the road, not giving a dime about the cars/buses/trucks beeping... Then, today, I am in Mumbai, in a city of 16+ million people, being in awe of the buildings the British left behind, the day they left the country... Your eyes are bombarded constantly by images that don't leave you, not a tiny bit, indifferent, and in the end of the day you feel you have seen things you will NEVER forget, even if a brick falls on your head and it gives you an A class amnesia...