Bollywood adventures
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2004
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29
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Trip End
Nov 10, 2005
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Mumbai,
India
Thursday, April 7, 2005
We visted 2 World Heritage Listed places in one day - a record for us! - the Victoria Terminus (railway station), with its eclectic mix of British-Hindu-Muslim styles and Elephanta Island where there is a massive cave temple carved out of a hill. The temple includes a giant sculture of a three faced Shiva, one of the largest and most impressive sculptures we have seen.
We did as the local Mumbaites do and headed to Chowpatty beach in the evening, watching the sun set over Marine Drive where the rich and famous live, and tried the local specialty 'bhelpuri chaat' - a crazy mix of hot, sour, sweet, crunchy and soft pieces of food that resembles something a 5 year old would make it they were let loose in the kitchen (needless to say this dish only needs to be tried once) followed by 'kulfi' (indian ice-cream that can definately be tried more than once!). Michael also inadvertantly ate his first chicken neck and head, commenting on how nice it was before turning it over and realising that it wasn't a particularly meaty wing as first thought. Almost turned vegetarian.
We also took in a Bollywood film "Socha Na Tha", a love story/comedy complete with song and dance routines.
Our collection of souvenirs had grown so we spent a few hours at the GPO experiencing Indian bureaucracy at its finest - the customs officer starts work at 11am, chai beak at 11:15,lunch from 1 - 2, then finishes at 4!, he also ignored us for half an hour, after asking us to wait, before we decided to do as the rest of the Indians and just walk in. (He obviously values his lunch break as he had drawn a 'Lunch - 1-2 pm' sign in black texta on the piller next to his desk and progressively decorated it over those long days). Our parcel was finally inspected and elegantly wrapped in cloth, sewn together, sealed with wax, an, one can only hope, sent.
