Starting in Mumbai

The first thing I noticed when arriving in India was the extreme poverty. Even driving from the airport to my hotel in the dark, you could tell that the pictures of India that you find on the internet are basically a lie. I’ve found that any picture on the web, whether its of your hotel room or a public landmark, are staged to make it look nicer and cleaner and newer than it actually is. The same thing happens everywhere I guess, but here the differences are staggering.

When you start to walk around in Mumbai you immediately realize how lucky you are to live in a country that has clean streets and a basic standard of living that is far above places like this. I only spent four days in Mumbai and at the end of those four days I thought I was going to HATE India. Everything in Mumbai nearly turned me off India altogether. The trash everywhere, the people sleeping and defecating on the street , the stray dogs that look like they will give you rabies just by standing near them.

The only thing I really enjoyed about Mumbai was the traffic. The traffic here is INSANE. And not insane like in LA where you are parked on the freeway for an hour, insane like there are absolutely zero rules on the road. Cars and tuk-tuks and bikes and mopeds and ox carts and pedestrians and buses going in every direction, cutting each other off, stopping for no reason, driving the wrong way down the road, making random U-turns, and there is no such thing as a “lane” you need to stay in.

Oh and I can’t leave out the cows that are EVERYWHERE. Random bulls that will decide the middle of a busy six way intersection is a good place to lie down and have a nap for a while. It is a miracle that more people don’t die, even though India has the highest number of traffic related fatalities per capita in the world it feels low after driving around for a couple days.

I really didn’t start to enjoy India until I got to Goa. The past five days have restored my faith in my India adventure. I checked into a hostel on Monday after the most miserable 15 hour bus ride of my life and have since started to actually enjoy the country. The food is fantastic here, even though every “restaurant” I have been to would immediately be shut down in the states after even just a cursory heath inspection.

I rented a Royal Enfield yesterday (Basically India’s version of a Harley) and have since toured around most of Goa, even did a little off-roading with some friends yesterday to get down to a secluded beach that was straight out of a movie. I am really enjoying the beach vibe here so I’m going to stay for another couple weeks, after which I will be heading North to Nepal to trek some of the Annapurna Circuit.

I will post again soon now that I’m in more of a normal routine and not bouncing around like crazy, also pictures and videos will be uploaded later today after i get some good footage on the Enfield, but right now i have to figure out how to unlock my phone for an Indian SIM card which proved impossible in Mumbai.

Check out the photos that are posted.

Later for now,
Jesse