Monday,
17/12/2012 – 187 A.D.
Tuesday, 18/12/2012 – 188 A.D.
Today I headed back into the slums of Dharavi to pick up my leather jacket. When I arrived at the "shop" (basically a tiny, illegal structure, just like 90% of the shops in Dharavi) the gits kept me waiting for an hour before it was ready. I had my iPod with me and had various podcasts I could listen to and pass the time, all I needed was a quiet spot (preferably in the shade) where I could sit and wait. But where do you find a quiet spot in what was until recently Asia's second largest slum? You don't. I lent beside a small stone wall for a while, but a load of little slum kids came up and started talking to me, so I moved on. Eventually I just aped the pose of several other people and pretended I was waiting for a bus. Cometh the hour, cometh the jacket. I had expected it to need plenty of alterations, like the suit I bought back in Vietnam. But no, everything seemed to fit just fine - even the arms were the right length. Result!
Later that afternoon we jumped into a cab and headed downtown, getting caught up in the traffic jams on the flyover. The cheeky cab driver wanted extra money for being caught in the hold-up, despite the fare we'd initially agreed. He got a compromise of a couple of notes. We got him to drop us outside of the Chatrapati Shiavji Terminus - trying saying that after...a rather strong popadom. CTS is the busiest railway station in India and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally called the Victoria Terminus and was built in 1887 to commemorate the golden jubilee of the queen that it's named after. It was also just around the corner from the Macdonalds that we needed to hit.
We were only down in this part of town to check out a few more markets, use up those last few rupees and pick up any souvenirs. I think our days of sightseeing are well and truly over now! We're winding down big time, though that's not an easy thing to do in a city like Mumbai. People are everywhere in most parts of Asia, but they seem to be twice as everywhere here.
For a while we stopped in a nearby park that was essentially one giant sports field full of youngsters playing cricket, which is the national sport over here. It's kind of sweet that England recently beat India in some sort of international test. We bring that up whenever we are approached by people and have a good laugh about it. No-one in these parts really seems to follow football - ask them about English soccer and the only player they seem to know is Rooney. At least there are a lot less M*n Un*ted shirts on display! Mind you, as an LFC fan I really shouldn't talk about football, given how this season's gone for us so far!
I am currently going through my luggage and making room for those extra souvenirs, taking out and binning items that are no longer necessary, such as little tub of washing powder, superglue and makeshift sickbag. Before I set out on this journey I wrote out a "sanity sheet", a document listing reasons for why I was embarking on the trip and which reminded me of the mundane things I would no longer have to worry about while on a break from my regular life. It was basically designed to pick me up if I ever got sufficiently down. I'm pleased to say that I maybe glanced at it twice the whole time I was away, and that was only because it fell out of my bag while I was reaching for something that was stuck down at the bottom. And what is included on this sanity sheet of mine? Ha! That will never be made public. But doing the dusting is on there, I'll give you that much. Thing is, I never actually did the dusting when I wasn't travelling...
A quiet day today. The again, our philosophy at the moment is that it's going to be so manic for the first few days when we get back to England that it's best to keep things quiet for now. This is the calm before the Christmas storm. The only reminder that it's Christmas that we get in Mumbai is the awful instrumental CD of festive songs they play in the hotel restaurant.
The main thing I did today was to go and get myself fitted for a leather jacket. I always have trouble finding off-the-rack jackets to fit me, so I thought I'd take advantage of the decent local prices that I'd read about. However, to get the jacket I had to do a 45 minute brisk walk up to Dharavi, which was until recently the second largest slum in Asia. Have you seen the film Slumdog Millionaire? `Course you have, and Dharavi is where they filmed a lot of that movie, particularly the earlier parts in which the main characters are very young.
I was quite pleased with myself that I managed to find my way there using the map I'd hastily sketched out in my jotter, especially as most of the road names were in Hindi. Or Urdu. Or Punjabi. Let's just say that they weren't in English. Unfortunately I found myself really needing to go to the Gents shortly after leaving the hotel, and there's nothing worse than entering price negotiations when you really need to relive yourself. As I entered the squalor of Dharavi I figured there must be public restrooms somewhere nearby, no matter how revolting. Then I spotted a small child defecating by the side of the road and realised that it wasn't going to happen. I'd just have to hold it.
I stuck to the main roads through the slum, which was a good thing. It's everything you expect - chaos, rubbish, small shacks that house huge families and look like they'll collapse if someone sneezes. Curiously I got less attention than I normally get when walking the streets - the occasional wave and the odd, "Hello, Sir!" - but nothing compared to what I thought I'd receive in such a densely-populated place. Dharavi Main Street is where there are said to be a couple hundred leather goods shops, but after walking down it for about 20 minutes I'd given up hope that I'd find any. But eventually they appeared before my eyes and I went inside to try my luck. I had to try three places before I found a good enough deal and left for the long walk back, still needing a squirt, but happy that my mission was successful...so far! Will be going back tomorrow to see what the master leather tailors have come up with. I doubt the sleeves will fit.
There are official companies that do tours through the Dharavi slums, but I felt as if I'd unofficially done my own, even though I hadn't seen the world's largest outdoor laundry. And I didn't take pictures out of respect for the people who lived in this place, which is the rule on the official tour. Nah stuff that, I simply didn't take my camera with me for safety reasons. So, there are no photos, but I shall leave you with a selection from me and Tim's afternoon walk along the western coast of Mumbai...
UPDATE - having looked on Wikipedia, Dharavi apparently has one toilet for every 1,440 residents. Eeek!
Tuesday, 18/12/2012 – 188 A.D.
Today I headed back into the slums of Dharavi to pick up my leather jacket. When I arrived at the "shop" (basically a tiny, illegal structure, just like 90% of the shops in Dharavi) the gits kept me waiting for an hour before it was ready. I had my iPod with me and had various podcasts I could listen to and pass the time, all I needed was a quiet spot (preferably in the shade) where I could sit and wait. But where do you find a quiet spot in what was until recently Asia's second largest slum? You don't. I lent beside a small stone wall for a while, but a load of little slum kids came up and started talking to me, so I moved on. Eventually I just aped the pose of several other people and pretended I was waiting for a bus. Cometh the hour, cometh the jacket. I had expected it to need plenty of alterations, like the suit I bought back in Vietnam. But no, everything seemed to fit just fine - even the arms were the right length. Result!
Later that afternoon we jumped into a cab and headed downtown, getting caught up in the traffic jams on the flyover. The cheeky cab driver wanted extra money for being caught in the hold-up, despite the fare we'd initially agreed. He got a compromise of a couple of notes. We got him to drop us outside of the Chatrapati Shiavji Terminus - trying saying that after...a rather strong popadom. CTS is the busiest railway station in India and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally called the Victoria Terminus and was built in 1887 to commemorate the golden jubilee of the queen that it's named after. It was also just around the corner from the Macdonalds that we needed to hit.
["Fashion Street" AKA the market along Mahatma Gandhi Road.]
For a while we stopped in a nearby park that was essentially one giant sports field full of youngsters playing cricket, which is the national sport over here. It's kind of sweet that England recently beat India in some sort of international test. We bring that up whenever we are approached by people and have a good laugh about it. No-one in these parts really seems to follow football - ask them about English soccer and the only player they seem to know is Rooney. At least there are a lot less M*n Un*ted shirts on display! Mind you, as an LFC fan I really shouldn't talk about football, given how this season's gone for us so far!
I am currently going through my luggage and making room for those extra souvenirs, taking out and binning items that are no longer necessary, such as little tub of washing powder, superglue and makeshift sickbag. Before I set out on this journey I wrote out a "sanity sheet", a document listing reasons for why I was embarking on the trip and which reminded me of the mundane things I would no longer have to worry about while on a break from my regular life. It was basically designed to pick me up if I ever got sufficiently down. I'm pleased to say that I maybe glanced at it twice the whole time I was away, and that was only because it fell out of my bag while I was reaching for something that was stuck down at the bottom. And what is included on this sanity sheet of mine? Ha! That will never be made public. But doing the dusting is on there, I'll give you that much. Thing is, I never actually did the dusting when I wasn't travelling...
[Christmas finally comes to Mumbai!]
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