Click the Picture below to view the Video at YouTube. Again, the video was to large to post on the blog so it is at Youtube... allow some time for it to load up if you are on a slow connection.
(Click Pic Above to Watch Video) Mumbai is a massive city and the shear amount of humanity here is overwhelming. People are literally everywhere. As I wasn't sleeping so well just yet I got up at about 5:30 AM and walked around the city. At this time you can see the huge number of people living in the streets of Mumbai or sleeping in cars and trucks.
I used a guide named Terance who appears in some of the video to show me around the city. We went to many destinations, some straight out of the travel book and some off the beaten path. At one point we walked for nearly an hour through Mumbai's largest slum settlement housing millions of residents. It was quite a sight to see... an assault on the senses of sight, smell, and sound. It was supposedly the neighborhood in which some of Slumdog Millionare was filmed. I was very impressed by the amount of activity in the slum- people were making things happen, not idly sitting around. You can get just about anything you want in the slum too... they had an arcade full of old skool video games, barber shops, meat markets, schools, temples, plumbers, auto-mechanics, psychics, everything but BEEF! The tour of the city was quite enjoyable, but fast paced and hot. I feel like I saw just about every tourist attraction the city has to offer within a 8 hour day.
All in all things are good... the worst thing about the city is how dangerous the traffic is. The cars, trucks, taxis, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, bicycles, bullock carts, buses, and pedestrians all participate in a noisy, maddening dance, defying all laws of traffic, in an collective effort to speed down the road in the most dangerous way possible. No hard and fast laws or rules exist and crossing traffic at some of the largest intersections is very nerve racking. Its a mad dash... kinda like the video game Frogger where you guide the frog back and forth avoiding oncoming cars until you cross the road to safety. I'm getting accustomed to it now, but it is still crazy! More video to come soon!
Oh and I apologize for the poor shooting and editing quality of this video. Some of the shots are kinda crappy and I crop out my own head several times! Gotta get better.
Nice video matt, you're too hard on yourself -Glad you got a pic of Ganesha - my favorite Hindu god. In case you didnt know he is the god of wisdom, brings good luck & clears obstacles - nice huh?! I have his statue. He is supposed to be called uppon before heading on a journey - so remember that when you leave Mumbai!
ReplyDeleteGood to see your face - take care & have fun. M.A.
Good update Matt, must say you and I are worlds a part - you in a mass of humanity and I here in Montana fly fishing and camping with Miss Lily in some of the most remote and awewome county in the US. Just keep working to get your aclamation - takes time.
ReplyDeleteSomeone told me this (and the Indians tend to inflate numbers), but due to a massive drought as the monsoon has been very weak this year 100,000 Indians are immigrating to Mumbai every day right now. The crops are failing and the rural agrarian economy is faltering in the interior plateu causing many to come to to Mumbai- the city of wealth- searching for a little bit of income that they can send back home to the family.
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