Today was an intense day on many levels. Intense heat, intense smog, intense crowds and some intense levels of travel. We set out on a boat to Elephanta Island which, as I said in a previous entry, is an island with very old caves carved in the mountain side. There are about six of them and they were used for religious ceremonies and have large columns and big religious statues carved out of the rock inside them. It was an hour long trip by medium sized boat each way and was definitely much longer than we had expected it to be. Cool but super needed a beer when we got back.
After the boat landed back in Mumbai we headed over to Café Leopold which is apparently pretty legendary for several reasons, one being that that it is super old, from around the 1870’s, and the other two being that 10 people were shot to death by AK-47 fire and a grenade explosion during the 2008 Palestinian terrorist attacks and also that the food is very expensive and not that great. We knew that it wasn’t going to be the traditionally great-deal-meal that is normal in India because it's kind of a tourist joint, so it was fine. About 40 dollars for two people which is beyond unheard of in India. Somewhere in our day Kevin bought a fine TAG Heuer knockoff watch which would soon break into a billion pieces.
After Café Leopold we caught a dollar fifty cab ride to Chowpatty Beach which was full of Indians watching the sunset, flying kites and enjoying the last day of their weekend.From there we headed to Victoria Terminus, a huge train station built by the British with some great old Victorian architecture. A huge dome and spires, stained glass and many intricate and ornate craggy designs all over it. The station has a very European feel to it and if it wasn’t for the thousands of dark haired Indians running around inside you would swear that you were in Germany or Holland. If you weren’t ready for the sight it would definitely not be something that you would expect to see in India.
After being shocked by the shear masses of people around the train station, we tried to head to large indoor Crawford Market, also designed and built by the British. We were never successful at finding the actual market itself but did see miles and miles of packed streets full of vendors and shoppers with each block specializing in a specific product like the chicken street, the baked goods street, textiles, or the goat street.
We also bought a movie ticket at a theater to check out a Bollywood flick. The movie was called something like “Who Killed Jessica?” or something to that extent. It was in Hindi and was pretty bad so we left early but that was the plan to begin with. Interestingly they do throw in some English words here and there so we could sort of follow the story. Sorry if we offended any Indians with our early departure.
Previously during our stay in Mumbai we had found a good and very cheap little breakfast spot by our hotel. You could get an omelet and toast for under two bucks US and being the cheap bastard that I am this authentic local eatery was quickly on my favorites list. Things, however, changed drastically when I went back late-night an hour or so ago. It is after midnight now so maybe I will go deeper into the issues I had on later pages. To briefly sum it up here, I walked in by myself at about 11:30PM and had to walk out after about four minutes because too many people were staring at me and I was very uncomfortable and slightly annoyed. I did get some food at another locals only joint but only after psyching myself up to not care about how many people were looking at me as I ate.
Thinking back on the situation, I don’t think that any of the staring was out of hate or abhorrence, just the fact that Indians don’t see a whole lot of white people, especially in a locals place like this so they just couldn’t help but stare. Maybe it is too cocky sounding that I think I am that interesting to look at but I can’t think of anything else. What I do know is that Indians tend to look at you for far longer than what is considered normal in the US and other parts of the world I have been to. People walk by our seats on the train and glance at us but then do a double take and maintain their stares, turning their heads completely as they walk by our compartment. Maybe staring is just part of the culture and isn’t considered rude or not normal but it is uncomfortable if you aren’t used to it. I’m not pissed and actually more interested in why this is a normal way of social interaction more than anything else and that’s why I’m talking about it so much. Also because it feels very strange to have dozens of eyes staring at you at all times and weird to be making eye contact with everyone around you for like a minute each without flinching. Don’t challenge anyone to a staring contest here. You’ll go down.
Alright, it’s late and I am very tired so I’ll look into this staring thing a little deeper when I get a chance to talk to someone about it.
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