Mumbai
Happy New Year to the dearest and the nearest,
May your year be full of the joys of good health and filled with contentment.
I arrived in India exactly 3 weeks today and the time has been filled with adventures primarily of the social variety.
Week 1 – Mumbai
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Traveling with a 65 litre rucksack packed by your 13 daughter has some major limitations especially when one has never had to pack ones suitcase in living memory since I got married. The fist one is finding things and the second one is having to organise ones daily life e.g. what to wear, washing clothes, organising the rucksack.
My traveling companion is 26 year old Hemant, aka `Midge’, my father’s sisters’ son – a seasoned individual who spent 28 months on a world wide tour on a very limited budget…..I am talking about spending a couple of dollars a day for food / bed etc. Now this poses a slight dilemma for me, accustomed as I have been to some of the finer aspects of life. `Roughing’ it with Midge calls for a different mindset – one which I was totally unprepared for. To be fair to him, although the first week was not spent in the Hyatt or Marriott, the hotel was fairly reasonable……full of Arabs and their entourage of Harems. There were only two wall clocks in the reception….one for local time and the other for United Arab Emirates. London, New York, Paris, Sydney times are irrelevant!
Mumbai has some wonderful delights and extremes. The majesty of the colonial buildings and its modern architecture provides a dramatic backdrop to a city of countless slums. The city has been bursting at the seams for years with the population growing by 2 million in 4 years to today’s total of 13 million. Bombay hosts 29748 people per sq/km – compare that with the mostly densely populated capital in Europe – London at 4,539/sq. km.
Suffice to say, Mumbai was a gentle acclimatisation to what awaits me on the trek.
Till the next episode, take care.
Kiran
