Day 41 (17 July): Goan Charms

Jorge and I flew to Goa this morning. On the way to the airport by taxi in Mumbai, however, we got a taste of Monsoon rains which weren't nearly as hard as I expected. There was no rain in Goa though. Arriving in Goa (about 500 km down the coast) was an amazing contrast to Mumbai as the place felt like an entirely different world. It was relatively clean with beautiful coast line and palm trees everywhere. In many ways it felt like what you would get if you mixed Costa Rica with Thailand. Goa was a former Portuguese Colony that remained part of Portugal until 1961 despite most of the rest of India becoming independent from Britain in 1947. It is also still predominately Catholic.

We took a our cab to our guesthouse which was in a former Portuguese mansion just a couple hundred meters from the coast. For the rest of the afternoon we explored the coastal area of Northern Goa: Fort Agura, Sinquerium, Candolim, and Calagute. We also had a nice dinner of Goan cuisine which is basically a fusion of Indian and Portuguese food, heavy on seafood. We followed that with drinks at a local bar where we watched some people enjoying their conversation and Feny (an alcohol made from Cashew Nuts.)

Observations:
1) Off season. Because it was the offseason, Jorge and I were the only guests in this huge Portuguese estate and only paid $8 a night for one of the nicest rooms I have ever slept in. During the season it would still only be about twice that much.
2) Airport security. This is a big ordeal in India. You scan your bags several times, must have tickets just to get into the terminal, get stamps, etc. They also manually frisk you after going through the metal detectors with separate lines for men and women. You also must be at the airport two hours early for domestic flights.
3) Portuguese influence. The Portuguese influence in Goa is still very strong. We had a cab driver who looked India, but told us his name was Rafael Fernandes which no doubt was Portuguese. Jorge was upset, however, that he didn't speak Portuguese, since he does. Also, the temperament of the people in Goa is much more European or Latin than in Mumbai which must be a result of the Portuguese influence as well.
4) Off the beach in Candolim, there is a large container ship that has been grounded for four years. Neither the company the owns it or the government wants to pay for the clean-up of the wreck. Its kindof strange that such a thing could stay in a resort-y part of a country.

Day 40 ( 16 July): Bollywood

I waited around for my Bollywood connection this morning. Unfortunately, he called to say that the star actor was sick so I would have to wait until tomorrow for the role. (I already had plans to leave Mumbai tomorrow though, so it looks like no Indian film career for me.)

Shortly after the call, I met Jorge, who arrived from Dubai and we did some sightseeing the rest of the afternoon. We saw the Prince of Wales Museum, the local shopping district called Crawford Market, and the more upscale Colaba Causeway shops.

In the evening we met some random kids from Goa (where we were planning on going the next day) and got dinner with them and then went to see a Bollywood film, called Dus, in the theaters since my acting experience didn't pan out.

Poverty observation:
1) Jorge's comments:
a) "I grew up in Tijuana, so I thought I knew what poverty was, but man if Tijuana is the third world, this place must be the fifth world, I'm scared."
b) "I have never felt to arrogant to be a Mexican before, I can only imagine what this would be like if you came from some place that was rich."

Other/economic observations:
1) The Quality of the Prince of Wales Museum was quite low, but it only cost 2 Rs to get in wioth a student ID or about 8 cents. I think the Smithsonian has taken much of India's good Hindu sculptures and pieces and put them in the Sackler Gallery in DC. Other richer countries have probably done the same as well. That said, India's better museums are supposed to be in Delhi and Calcutta
2) Haircuts on the street. People were getting these in Crawford Market which had to be one of the dirtiest places I've seen with flies swarming all over the fruit, vegetables and meat sold at some counters, but not at others. These are probably really cheap though. I do need a haircut again soon, but might just wait till I am in Malaysia.
3) Kids like sharks. Jorge bought some mango chips at the market that he didn't like. He decided he'd give them to the next kid who came begging to him. When he did it was shocking how quickly the kid he gave them to was pounced upon by other kids that were also hungry and wanted some food. Their behavior was like something you'd see on the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet.
4) Travel within India. I knew India was big, but when arranging onward travel realized how big. Also because it is Monsoon Season and non-tourist season, flight schedules are reduced which means that I am not going to be able to get to some of the places I wanted to and thought I could get to within India. It is also amazing how slow the travel agent was to arrange tickets as it took about five hours to schedule eight flights and two trains.

Day 39 (15 July): Less than 36 Hours to Vomiting

This morning I took a ferry from the Gateway to India out to Elephanta Island which is 8 km out into the city's harbor. Part of the logic was that I needed to get out of the claustrophobia of the city already. (Mumbai has seven times the population density of Tokyo and thirteen times the population density of LA.)

On Elephanta Island, I saw a bunch of caves with Hindu statues carved into their walls, I also saw monkeys and some cannons put in place during WWII to protect the city. I also had lunch on the island with the guide I hired to show me around for just 80 Rupees (or less than 2 dollars.)

Upon returning, however, I felt sleepy and took a nap in my un-airconditioned room with only a small window. Within an hour, I was vomiting and proceeded to vomit another four times before I was through. Strangely, I never really felt sick expect for when I had to vomit and once I had done it, I almost instantly felt better. The last two times all that was coming up was water. I expected I would get sick during my trip at some point since 3+ month of traveling and eating/sleeping in stange places takes a toll. I also expected it would most likely be in India, but I didn't expect it so quickly.

By the evening I felt completely better. I wandered out into the street where I met a guy who was a scout for Bollywood Films. He thought I would make a good extra in a movie they were shooting the next day and offered me 1000 Rs (nearly $25 to do it.) I told him I would since it sounded cool and I wanted to go see Bollywood as it was. I went to dinner with him and then he took me to a bar and eventually we ended up at a club that was supposed to be the best in India in the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Observations:
1) Bollywood. Bollywood is Mumbai's film industry. They produce more movies every year than Hollywood does.
2) Education and its value. Education is highly, highly valued in India. The front page of the Times of India (the world's largest English language newspaper) had scholarship winner's pictures on it today. The guide I had lunch with was also telling me about his kids education.
3) Indian Engineering. India's have been engineers for years or at least since the 1400s. The angles in the caves created unique views across at three-headed Hindu figures, so you could only see one head at a time unless you were inside all of the caves pillars. A pretty impressive feat, as was all of the chiseling that had to be done.
4) Lunch only cost me 20 Rs (or less than $0.50). Maybe that's why I got sick. There were plenty of people eating at the restaurant including other white tourists, so I figured it would be safe. Besides which it looked relatively clean. If prices are this cheap in a tourist location, I can now understand how the poverty line is often drawn at $1 a day, since it is possible to eat and stay full at that price (if you don't puke up your food.)
5) Indian Navy. I knew India was supposed to have a strong Navy, but that was very apparent today motoring across the harbor where you could see a portion of their fleet docked. It was almost as impressive as the fleets in San Diego of Norfolk in the US.
6) Contrast between rich and poor. The Club at the Taj made this very apparent. Inside was a former Miss World pageant winner and Bollywood actresses. The cover charge was 600 Rs (USD 15) while out on the street one block away there are people who have less than 40 Rs (USD 1) to live on. Somehow, life goes on and people are used to this.


Illustration of poverty/despair:
1) I saw a guy today who was basically walking around like a dog or a monkey on four legs. His knee-caps seemed to be on the wrong side, so his knees bent backwards. He was toothless and severely malnourished.

Day 38 (14 July): Overwhelmed at the other end of the Spice Road

Arriving in Mumbai (Bombay), which is at the northern end of India's West Coast on the Arabian Sea, has to be one of the most shocking experiences especially after the opulence of Dubai (or at least its airport). Even getting off of the plane, I was surprised how dingy the airport looked for a major city and a county's economic center. (I read in a guidebook that a full 40% of India's GDP can be attributed to the city of 15 Million out of the countries 1+ Billion.) The reality of Mumbai progressively got more intense leaving the airport as you begin to smell the air which is a combination of raw sewage, gas fumes, and rotting food. On the taxi ride out of the airport you drive through the world's largest slum with over 2 million people living in it. People reach through the windows of your cab asking for money...

After checking into a guesthouse on the fourth floor of a building in the Colaba district in the a much nicer, but still not poverty free replete with people sleeping on the streets, I took a little time to recuperate before venturing out to see the Gateway to India (an grand arch right near my hotel built to commemorate the arrival of British Royalty in the early 1900s.)

From there, I got in a tourist cab and saw a lot of the city with the help of the driver. I saw laundries, the Ghandi Museum, Malabar Hill (the rich neighborhood), the Hanging Gardens, the Towers of Silence, Chowpatty Beach, Marine Drive, and a number of Victorian buildings left by the British. After the cab ride, I explored a little on my own on foot, seeing the Bombay Stock Exchange, Reserve Bank of India, and Dalal Street (Bombay's Wall Street.) In the evening I wandered through a big park (oval maiden) and watched some people playing cricket; the eventual asked me if I wanted to swing a bat at a couple balls, which I did but it went pretty poorly.

Observations:
1) Poverty. This is really impossible to describe how bad it is. Its not just poverty, but real despair and anguish too. Out of the cities total population nearly one-third lives on the streets: that's nearly 5 million people or a population greater than that of the City of Los Angeles.
2) Sanitation. This is poor all over the city with human feces on the street and a lack of bathrooms. Even the rich area is not free of poor sanitation. The Towers of Silence are a place where the Parsi people (who are actually quite rich and live in Malabar Hill) put the bodies of their dead in stone towers to be picked at by crows as it is part of their religious tradition. Needless to say, I have been freaked out whenever I have seen crows in Mumbai since. Another place with poor sanitation is the laundry which is Asia's and the world's largest. Its an outdoor place with big pools of water an hundreds of people working there. They dunk clothes in water that only gets changed once a day so is really dirty, apply a little soap, and beat them dry against stones. I think I'd rather not get my clothes washed there although my hotel sheets probably were.
3) Drugs. This was the first thing I was offered by a guy on the street upon getting out of the cab to go to my hotel. Later in the day, I saw some people smoking something out of a tin foil sheet which I can only imagine was some kind of drug.
4) Cool cabs. At the airport, I was offered the option of a 'cool cab' or a not-cool-cab. I opted for the not cool cab. The difference is whether or not their is air conditioning. The cool cabs cost nearly twice as much, but it is a way of segmenting the rich and the not quite as rich who can still afford to take cabs.
5) Phones everywhere in the streets. No one seems to have long distance phones at home, so people go to 'Cyber Cafes' on the street which are little more than long distance phone booths or stalls.
6) Monsoon. Apparently since it is monsoon season, Mumbai and India, see little tourism this time of year. I have, however, yet to see any rain.
7) The Reserve Bank of India is India's Central Bank, however, there seems to be a private bank with the name Central Bank of India. I think that's quite amusing.

Day 37 (13 July): Flying through the Arabian Middle East

I spent most of the day today on planes and in airports with long layovers in airports getting from Goreme back to Istambul then through Dubai to Mumbai. Nonetheless, a couple of interesting things happened:
- In the airport in Istambul, I got a tap on my shoulder from Jorge Garcia who started his MPIA degree at UCSD a year after me. It turns out he was on the same flight but stopping over in Dubai for 36 hours and then heading on to Mumbai where we planned to meet up. Jorge, however, is only in India for 5 days.
- On the Istambul to Dubai flight I had a good coversation with the man assigned to the seat next to me. He was an architect from Al-Ain, which is another one of the Emeriates about 100 km from Dubai, that makes up the UAE. He thought it was great that I was making an around the world trip, but was a little upset that I wasn't stopping over in the Arabian Middle East at all and that more Americans don't feel safe there.

Observations:
1) The Dubai Airport is quite an experience. It must be one of the largest shopping malls I have ever been to and also one of the most pristine airports as well. They seem to have the airport set up with long layover (mine was 4.5 hours) so that people shop there and money flows into Dubai.
2) Emeriates Airlines employs almost no UAE citizens as stewardesses as most of them do not traditional do such work. Instead the stewardesses are mostly Western European women. This is inline with Dubai having nearly 25% of people living there as expat workers.

Question of the day:
1) If you look at the statistics for Americans killed out of the total population, are we more unsafe in Souteast Washington, DC than we would be in the Arabian Middle East or even Iraq? Mohammed, the guy sitting next to me on the Istambul-Dubai segement, pointed out people from the UAE go to places like New York in the US that they fell unsafe going out at night (which is something many Americans do as well) whereas there is little need to feel unsafe going out at night in the UAE.