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My first impressions of Mumbai were gained by driving from the airport to the hotel in the dark - not a great deal of impression at all. So I had to wait until morning to get my first glimpse of the Indian sub-continent.  Throwing the curtains open once the sun had risen, I was greeted with a lush, green landscape, manicured front lawns and the misty mystique of the distant hills, typical of many British Tv period dramas set in this ex-colony. It was time to go and take a look at!

Checking with the concierge about the state of the climate, he informed me that all roads were open and that they didn't assume the climate to be as terrible as Saturday. Liar!!! But taking him on his word, I climbed into a taxi, negotiated a charge of 1300 Rupees ($30) for the complete day and proceeded to stage at a variety of photographs in my Mumbai City Manual of areas I desired to pay a visit to, as way of communication with Sant Singh, my taxi driver.

Shortly immediately after leaving the hotel, the monsoon place on a demonstration of its energy. The volume of water is unbelievable and as a single wry commentator stated in the newspaper, when it rains "almost everything in Mumbai goes down the drain except the water". And it is so correct.  It doesn't consider extended for this city, which sits at sea degree, to commence to fill up.  Quickly we were driving by foot large flooded roads, significant pot-holes and, at instances, no road at all - it had simply just been swept away - two sections of "motorway" separated by a stretch of rubble, mud and randomly strewn boulders and rocks. It was a serious obstacle program. And the most impressive matter is that no a single certainly looks to consider 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 currently. Driving by the outskirts of Mumbai, a single starts to truly feel the oppressive dimension of this city filled with twenty million people today.  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 built so close together that window mounted air conditioning units almost touch in the void involving a single building and the next. Piles of refuse litter the roadside, coming to life with stray dogs, scavenging birds and the odd person, seemingly looking for any reusable scrap. And then I saw my first cow.

These are not the pretty painted ones that appear magically in Boston and London each summer, but serious, live, wild beasts.  I have always known that the cow is a sacred animal in India and have often seen photographs of lazy bovines sauntering by crowded streets.  But nothing prepares you for the actual sight of these significant creatures lying, standing or walking around the congested road system of a large metropolitan city. Many of them look ill, some even look dead but most just stand there, bewildered and seemingly in a perpetual state of confusion, possibly asking yourself how the hell they got there in the first spot. I am not certain who feeds these animals or if they simply just have to forage in the filth like almost everything else, but for all the deification of these poor creatures, they certainly do not look at all cared for - a really sad spectacle.

Driving into Colaba, the economic and tourist heart of Mumbai, the rain began to get even worse (if that was achievable) so I cancelled my plans to pay a visit to the first photo I had pointed at (the ornate train station) and revised my itinerary by pointing at yet another picture - the Prince of Wales Museum. Climbing out of the automobile 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 small bit louder in order to be understood by a foreigner, so the architecture in this lost British empire looks to represent a false grandeur of what the British aristocracy deemed suitable for a conquered nation.  Drawing on 17th century Arabic and Asian styles, "Indian" buildings erected by people today named Steven and George turn out to be a caricature of a past beauty, with all influences from these simpler eras garishly mixed into a single  [ http://www.dailystrength.org/people/1832048/journal  pretty little liars online free]  uniquely colonial form. The museum I was entering was no exception.  With turrets and golden domes, gothic outcrops and sophisticated Arabic arches, this museum housed some stunning sculptures and paintings from antiquity of a variety of gods such as Siva, Bhrama and the gentle, pot-bellied Ganesh. Nevertheless, immediately after about an hour, hearing the rain quit I curtailed my indoor tour and made the decision to head outside whilst I nonetheless could.

Subsequent quit was the Gateway of India - a significant archway total in 1924, to commemorate the pay a visit to of King George V and Queen Mary. A huge stone edifice, anachronistically placed in the middle of completely nowhere, it almost made me truly feel like breaking into patriotic song with a rendition of "Rule Britannia, Britannia Rules the Waves!"  But I didn't. And anyway, I was currently being accosted by enough people today at the time to danger drawing even much more focus to myself.  Whilst the spot was packed, I seemed to be the only non-Indian there, so I was an simple mark.  I was photographed, prayed for, sold balloons to, made available every form of useful snack imaginable and am certain at a single stage, I was even worshipped - all of program in the expectant return of money. Fighting my way by this increasing entourage, I took some snap shots and fled, obtaining been fleeced of only a handful of dollars.

Strolling in the direction of a handicraft industry, a regional stopped me and pointed strangely at my head.  Currently being a smart and seasoned traveler, I ignored him, quickened my pace and moved on.  He shouted out some phrases to the impact that there was a thing about my person he desired to take away.  I kept walking.  About 15 minutes later on, in a crowded street, a 2nd stranger seemed to reenact this odd conduct and, similarly, I ignored him, physically obtaining to drive my way onwards.  Strolling by any industry like this calls for the capacity to literally fight your way by the endless stream of stall owners vying for your focus. Nevertheless, it was when a third person stopped me in a quiet side street a very good half-hour later on and simply just stated that there was a thing in my ear, that I began to consider observe of perhaps what people today were attempting to tell me.

I place my hand to my ear but could truly feel nothing. "Where?" I asked.  He pointed in the direction of my ear once once more.  Feeling around I nonetheless could not locate something unusual and obtaining seen almost certainly the biggest cockroach in the background of the globe the night just before, I all of a sudden had an irrational worry containing eggs and larvae and all factors science fiction. Approaching me, this teenager stated in passable English that he would take away it for me and then proceeded to dig a thing out of my ear employing a modest tooth choose like device. Triumphantly, he showed me the end of the toothpick, which now had a significant glob of sticky wax-like gloop on the end of it. Smearing this on his finger he proceeded to dissect the yucky substance until he dug out a modest stone. All of a sudden, the plot of every horror movie ran by my mind with aliens bursting from my belly and worms exiting every orifice. "What's it from?" I asked. "Sand," he stated, just before diving into my other ear to retrieve much more of the invasive materials. I couldn't feel what was occurring considering the fact that I have hardly ever had any ear challenges in my life and basically make it a stage, employing a cotton bud, to clean my ears every morning. So this unbelievably quick establish-up of gunk was, certainly, alarming.

Then my very good Samaritan opened his small shoulder pack and took out some tissue and cotton wool and made available, whilst retrieving a bottle from his bag, to place some drops in my ear to clear the trouble up once and for all. I straight away considered that it was unbelievably fortuitous that he should really conveniently be carrying around a box of tissues, a packet of cotton wool and the expected medicine. I declined forcefully!

Due to tiredness or no matter what, I didn't certainly seem to be to place together the myriad of clues as to the place this was all going. Nevertheless, it was when he asked for 900 Rupees for the treatment method that I all of a sudden recognized that the complete matter was an elaborate, intricate and completely planned scam (of which all the other strangers were similarly attempting to spring on me). As a result of 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 complete episode took about 3 minutes and was sublimely surreal. It was time for lunch.