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My initially impressions of Mumbai had been gained by driving from the airport to the hotel in the dark - not a good offer of impression at all. So I had to wait right up until morning to get my initially glimpse of the Indian sub-continent.  Throwing the curtains open after the sun had risen, I was greeted with a lush, green landscape, manicured front lawns and the misty mystique of the distant hills, normal of quite a few British Television period dramas set in this ex-colony. It was time to go and discover!

Checking with the concierge about the state of the weather, he informed me that all roads had been open and that they didn't expect the weather to be as poor as Saturday. Liar!!! But taking him on his word, I climbed into a taxi, negotiated a fee of 1300 Rupees ($30) for the whole day and proceeded to point at numerous photos in my Mumbai City Manual of spots I needed to pay a visit to, as way of communication with Sant Singh, my taxi driver.

Shortly right after leaving the hotel, the monsoon put on a demonstration of its energy. The quantity of water is unbelievable and as 1 wry commentator stated in the newspaper, when it rains "every little thing in Mumbai goes down the drain except the water". And it is so correct.  It doesn't take lengthy for this city, which sits at sea level, to start to fill up.  Soon we had been driving by way of foot higher flooded roads, enormous pot-holes and, at occasions, no road at all - it had just been swept away - two sections of "motorway" separated by a stretch of rubble, mud and randomly strewn boulders and rocks. It was a actual obstacle course. And the most remarkable issue is that no 1 genuinely appears to take any observe.

The drive from my hotel to the center of Mumbai is about 25 miles and, this currently being a Sunday, the journey took about 45-minutes.  I was fortunate - on a weekday the very same trip, I have been informed, will take involving 3 and 4 hrs! So website traffic was light today. Driving by way of the outskirts of Mumbai, 1 begins to feel the oppressive size of this city filled with 20 million people.  And with a tremendous shortage of housing, every available space is taken up with ramshackle, improvised and, literally, thrown together dwellings.  Where there are apartment buildings, they are constructed so near together that window mounted air conditioning units virtually touch in the void involving 1 creating and the subsequent. Piles of refuse litter the roadside, coming to lifestyle with stray dogs, scavenging birds and the odd individual, seemingly searching for any reusable scrap. And then I saw my initially cow.

These are not the fairly painted ones that appear magically in Boston and London every summer time, but actual, live, wild beasts.  I have often recognized that the cow is a sacred animal in India and have typically noticed photos of lazy bovines sauntering by way of crowded streets.  But absolutely nothing prepares you for the actual sight of these enormous creatures lying, standing or walking around the congested road method of a big metropolitan city. Numerous of them look ill, some even look dead but most just stand there, bewildered and seemingly in a perpetual state of confusion, perhaps questioning how the hell they got there in the initially location. I am not sure who feeds these animals or if they just have to forage in the filth like every little thing else, but for all the deification of these poor creatures, they genuinely do not look at all cared for - a extremely sad spectacle.

Driving into Colaba, the monetary and tourist heart of Mumbai, the rain started to get even worse (if that was doable) so I cancelled my ideas to pay a visit to the initially photo I had pointed at (the ornate train station) and revised my itinerary by pointing at a different image - the Prince of Wales Museum. Climbing out of the auto I was instantaneously drenched in a warm, sticky and not all that unpleasant deluge of treacle like rain.

In the very same manner as a Brit abroad speaks English just a tiny bit louder in order to be understood by a foreigner, so the architecture in this lost British empire appears to represent a false grandeur of what the British aristocracy deemed proper for a conquered nation.  Drawing on 17th century Arabic and Asian patterns, "Indian" buildings erected by people named Steven and George develop into a caricature of a previous beauty, with all influences from these easier eras garishly mixed into 1  [ http://watchprettylittleliarsonlinefree.com  pretty little liars season 2 episode 2]  uniquely colonial type. The museum I was getting into was no exception.  With turrets and golden domes, gothic outcrops and sophisticated Arabic arches, this museum housed some wonderful sculptures and paintings from antiquity of numerous gods such as Siva, Bhrama and the gentle, pot-bellied Ganesh. Even so, right after about an hour, hearing the rain quit I curtailed my indoor tour and made the decision to head outside even though I nonetheless could.

Following quit was the Gateway of India - a enormous archway full in 1924, to commemorate the pay a visit to of King George V and Queen Mary. A substantial stone edifice, anachronistically placed in the middle of definitely nowhere, it virtually produced me feel like breaking into patriotic song with a rendition of "Rule Britannia, Britannia Guidelines the Waves!"  But I didn't. And anyway, I was currently being accosted by sufficient people at the time to danger drawing even far more interest to myself.  Even though the location was packed, I seemed to be the only non-Indian there, so I was an effortless mark.  I was photographed, prayed for, sold balloons to, supplied every type of handy snack imaginable and am sure at 1 stage, I was even worshipped - all of course in the expectant return of cash. Fighting my way by way of this developing entourage, I took some snap shots and fled, possessing been fleeced of only a couple of dollars.

Walking in the direction of a handicraft marketplace, a neighborhood stopped me and pointed strangely at my head.  Getting a smart and knowledgeable traveler, I ignored him, quickened my pace and moved on.  He shouted out some words to the effect that there was one thing about my individual he needed to get rid of.  I kept walking.  About 15 minutes later, in a crowded street, a second stranger seemed to reenact this odd behavior and, similarly, I ignored him, physically possessing to push my way onwards.  Walking by way of any marketplace like this calls for the capacity to literally fight your way by way of the endless stream of stall owners vying for your interest. Even so, it was when a third individual stopped me in a quiet side street a very good half-hour later and just stated that there was one thing in my ear, that I started to take observe of possibly what people had been making an attempt to inform me.

I put my hand to my ear but could feel absolutely nothing. "Where?" I asked.  He pointed in the direction of my ear after yet again.  Feeling around I nonetheless could not find anything at all uncommon and possessing noticed in all probability the greatest cockroach in the historical past of the planet the evening ahead of, I abruptly had an irrational dread containing eggs and larvae and all issues science fiction. Approaching me, this teenager said in passable English that he would get rid of it for me and then proceeded to dig one thing out of my ear utilizing a little tooth pick like device. Triumphantly, he showed me the end of the toothpick, which now had a enormous glob of sticky wax-like gloop on the end of it. Smearing this on his finger he proceeded to dissect the yucky substance right up until he dug out a little stone. Suddenly, the plot of every horror movie ran by way of my mind with aliens bursting from my belly and worms exiting every orifice. "What's it from?" I asked. "Sand," he said, ahead of diving into my other ear to retrieve far more of the invasive material. I couldn't believe what was happening because I have by no means had any ear issues in my lifestyle and really make it a point, utilizing a cotton bud, to clean my ears every morning. So this incredibly rapid develop-up of gunk was, indeed, alarming.

Then my very good Samaritan opened his tiny shoulder pack and took out some tissue and cotton wool and supplied, even though retrieving a bottle from his bag, to put some drops in my ear to clear the issue up after and for all. I instantly thought that it was incredibly fortuitous that he ought to conveniently be carrying around a box of tissues, a packet of cotton wool and the demanded medicine. I declined forcefully!

Due to tiredness or no matter what, I didn't genuinely seem to be to put together the myriad of clues as to the place this was all going. Even so, it was when he asked for 900 Rupees for the treatment method that I abruptly recognized that the whole issue was an elaborate, intricate and completely planned scam (of which all the other strangers had been similarly making an attempt to spring on me). By slight of hand, he had the wax ready on the end of the toothpick and like the well known magic trick of producing a coin appear from behind your ear, had me at the reveal. I gave him ten Rupees for a trick very well executed (and to make him go away) and left feeling angry with myself for falling for the oldest scam in the guide! The whole episode took about 3 minutes and was sublimely surreal. It was time for lunch.