During our holiday break in October from school, I was heading to India with a girl I had met while traveling in Vietnam, my friend Megan and her friend, Brittany. On the way there, in the airport I was talking to a man and when I told him I was heading to India his response was that he didn’t like India. When I asked why he said, “Because the people there are ugly, they smell and the food is terrible!” Wow, thanks for being a downer mister! A fun fact to start off my tails about India is that for every 1 million people in Mumbai there are only 17 toilets! YIKES! We flew into Mumbai and instantly I was in shock! There are so many people and the city is so incredibly dirty, smelly and poor. There are so many homeless people lying around everywhere. They just set up sheets on the sidewalk as their homes.
There are cows and goats absolutely anywhere and everywhere!
The most uncomfortable thing about India is how the men look at foreign women. The just stare, stare and stare some more! Even if you catch them and make eye contact, they continue to stare. The traffic in India made the traffic in Bangkok or Saigon look like child’s play! It is basically every man for himself! Women and children are constantly begging and asking for money and it is not uncommon for them to grab you as well when they are begging. In India, everything is separate for men and women. Pilgrims or people coming to ashrams for meditation that come to India from all over are supposedly tried to be outwitted by priests that try to intoxicate them with God or by weed! Women don’t really have any rights in India and the men get to do whatever they want.
Here we were drinking some coffee, which we then found out we were supposed to drink out of the saucer because you aren't supposed to drink out of glass!
A crazy market in Mumbai.
The dirtiness of the city...
There are cows and goats absolutely anywhere and everywhere!
Here we were drinking some coffee, which we then found out we were supposed to drink out of the saucer because you aren't supposed to drink out of glass!
We did a tour of the slums while in Mumbai. The kid’s playgrounds are covered in trash and have dirty water and chemicals all over. All of the kids run around in bare feet. The big employment in the slums is recycling plastic and other substances, although the processes that they use to accomplish this task is unbelievable and has to be horrific on the people’s health and to the environment. There is also a lot of sewing of clothes that are sent to other countries and is almost exclusively done by men. The community playground was awful, there was no grass and was bare. We noticed two little boys squatting, facing each other and talking and came to realize that they were “doing their business!” It was not uncommon to see children or even adults, “taking care of business” absolutely anywhere…and I mean anywhere! Obviously with the lack of toilets because just go to the bathroom anywhere. Mumbai is the 2nd most expensive city in for world for real estate, which is bizarre to me because of the conditions. To live right next to the slums is $400 a month…..which is a ridiculous amount of money in India.
Here is a picture of where all the laundry in the city goes to be washed!
Here are some pictures of goats in the train station just hanging out! Notice the man carrying the large load on his head as well! This is a common site in India!
Fun fact; the max capacity on the train is 1800 people……the actual number of people on the train at rush hour? 7000! I thought I was going to get trampled to death by hundreds of Indian women while trying to get on the train!
A crazy statue....
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