The Tale of Two Cities

After our incredibly relaxing week at our Ayurvedic Health village, Stella and I embarked on our next adventure knowing full well, it was going to be a little different. Our week of peace and calm seemed like a distant memory after no more than an hour of Bombay traffic, a driver who did not know where he was going and our first real experience of beggars. We arrived in Mumbai (or Bombay as it was previously known) mid afternoon to be greeted by our driver – I love having my name on a card at an airport, it makes me feel important – who had been kindly arranged through a friend back home (thanks Sheldon!). Our poor driver had a little trouble understanding where exactly we wanted to be going, so after some negotiations, many stops for directions, and Stella and I getting slightly frustrated as the guy who would simply not listen, we arrived at our hotel in the Fort area. I have come to the conclusion that I must have been a Indian taxi driver in a past life as on a number of occasions now I seem to have more success at finding places than our drivers do....strange but handy skill to have.

 

Mumbai is a city of unique sights, smells and experiences. The traffic is constant and perhaps like nothing I have ever experienced (until I went to Dehli, but more of that later). Taxis painted like bumble bees, rickshaws, motorbikes, pedestrians, cars, buses that look like they fall apart at any minute and cows fill the streets in no particular order or fashion. And then you have the noise. Constant, unrelenting and some times eardrum bursting horn honking. At home, honking your horn is typically a sign of anger or warning, in India, it is more like, coming through, here I am, watch out for me! So everyone, and I mean everyone, sits in traffic with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the horn. At first it is intriguing, then it becomes annoying, and then, I guess like most things in India, it blends into everything else and becomes the norm.

Mumbai traffic, and cows

Being in Mumbai was really our first time of full on sight seeing – for me I am intrigued by cities, I love the energy and the pace they run at, the different experiences you can have perhaps more so than the buildings and monuments themselves. Wandering the streets of Mumbai is confusing for the senses, the architecture is heavily influenced by the English so it is in ways very European, but then you are smacked with a smell of unexplainable description, piles of rubbish, a cow in the middle of the road and you are reminded, you are in India. It was also in Mumbai, we were introduced to the saying “one more photo”. It seems, whilst we are intrigued by the local people, they are perhaps even more so intrigued by us. Visiting the infamous gateway to India, Stella and I were treated like celebrities as people covertly filmed us, took photos and then the game ones even asked “can we take your picture?”. At first it was somewhat amusing, even flattering, then it became outright weird. I think I counted 8 guys at one time taking a picture of Stella. And this continued on to Delhi, where the hordes of school children, actually school boys, competed for our attention using winning smiles to convince us to pose for just “one more photo”.

Mumbai for me was very much about the food. Something that runs in my family is a fine appreciation, or you could say love, of food. So to be able to taste and try so many different things was a real treat. I had my best ever Chicken Tikka sandwich, a pretty amazing banana and strawberry smoothy, sublime pistachio Kulfi at Chowpatty beach (like ice cream), and to top it all off stunning tandoori fish and prawns accompanied by a Bombay Sapphire on our final night. Yum....and so farewell to Mumbai and now on to the other city, Delhi.



Pista Kulfi

Limited time in Delhi meant we opted for a guide and driver for our two days – one at the Taj Mahal and the other in Delhi itself. We watched as the day began to break over the skies of the majestic Taj Mahal, one of the seriously amazing sites I have ever seen. It really is breath taking. The early light is magical as it begins to subtly change the colour of the marble, at every angle it looks different, surrounded by a slight haze it simply appears. As the sun reaches further into the sky, the deep blue mixed with the stark white forms more of the picture you see so often but does not really prepare you for seeing it with your own eyes. Our entertaining young guide Deepak explained in detail the history of the sight and took us on a tour of the rest of Agra. Our other highlight for the day perhaps being Deepak sharing his rendition of “Smack That” by Akon – too funny for words it had us in stitches. We have some footage so will post it on FB. We bid farewell to Agra and commenced the drive back to Dehli. And I thought Mumbai traffic was bad, it had nothing on Delhi – and you can add to the mix of modes of transport, bulloaks, horse and carts and camels. Yes, we saw camels.

 

The magnificent Taj Mahal - and a couple of yogis :)

Delhi flew by in a haze of sights, sounds and mad traffic. One day is not really enough to see such a big city, but then on the other hand, one day was plenty of the noise and chaos of Delhi traffic. Somewhat more developed than Mumbai, Delhi has a completely different vibe. Big, bustling and filled with all of your western mod cons, New Delhi is like any other city. It is in the back streets of Old Delhi where you truly experience the life and soul of this city. And again, the craziness of traffic. A seemingly organised chaos that appears to just work, I still don't know how, but it does. It was here I bid farewell to my travel buddy Stella. We had 3 amazing weeks together and I could not ask for a better travel companion....for a first time traveller, she never once freaked out over the things that moved, the things that didn't or the weird and wonderful sights, sounds or smells. The toilet at Singapore airport I think provided the biggest shock....so well done Bella, you are amazing and I am missing you already!!