16 Mar India Day 8: Haggling and Slums

Day 8 (Haggling and Slums)

Today started painfully with a 5:30 am meeting time. To catch our flight to Mumbai on IndiGo we took a four-hour bus ride back to Delhi. Needless to say, multiple wake-up calls were at the ready.

On our way out, I recorded footage of the villages we passed on our way out of Ahmedabad. I fell asleep for various legs of the journey even though I sat in the very front of the bus, as Doggett had insisted, and the bus driver informed me that he needed me not to fall asleep or else he would feel the pull of sleep. Unfortunately, we had to make an emergency “car-sick” pit stop (about two-thirds of us were either sick or recovering). Interestingly, those who had eaten the night before had not gotten sick, and now Rohit and I believe that eating street food keeps you healthy. We arrived at the airport, passed through security, and killed some time by eating fast food. When we got on the plane, I immediately passed out.

Fortunately, the legroom on the Indigo flights worked well with my short stature. Paul and some of the other tall folks in the group, however, suffered immensely. Upon arriving in Mumbai, we boarded a tour bus that took us to a Bollywood dance studio with the best dance instructor ever!! He was so excited about teaching us how to dance, with his pink nail polish and feminine grace. “One, two, ya we go!” he instructed. “You get it? Maybe?” We danced to Chikini Chameli by Katrina Kaifif, and we made it rain, we showed off our guns, we… it’s hard to explain.

We learned so many silly dance moves.

After sweating our butts off, we headed to the Trident hotel (the hotel that had been hit by terrorist attacks).

With our leisure time, some of us went to Leopold Café on Colaba Causeway that had also been hit by terrorists. Morbidly, many people come to Mumbai specifically for the “terrorist” tours to visit all the places hit by terrorists. Extremely disturbing. That being said, we could not help but take pictures of the bullet holes in the walls when stopped by Leopold. Before ordering, Neeka and I went to the causeway to buy multiple pairs of sandals.

Tourists flock to Colaba Causeway for shopping. Vendors selling trinkets – from jewelry to gigantic phallic balloons – lined the streets. I wonder where the demand for the phallic balloons came from; vendors would not sell them in such quantities if no demand existed. Very quickly, we learned that haggling saves money. The vendors at least doubled or even tripled the costs specifically for tourists. When I haggled, I started by cutting the price in half and then working my way up. Have no fear in walking away as you will usually find a merchant chasing after you with a much better price.

Tangent #1: Cab drivers near our hotel, the Trident, try to rip tourists off by charging 200-250 rupees (about $5) for fairs that should cost 50 rupees. Most tourists just don’t know and when they hear cabbies say that the drive will only cost $5, they just roll with it. After much practice, the entire group quickly figured out the system and made sure not to be taken advantage of by the cab drivers.

After roaming around the causeway for a few hours, we went on a tour led by a UT alumnus. Unfortunately, I must admit that I fell asleep for half of the tour. My allergies have been awful on this trip and Zyrtec puts me to sleep. We stopped by the slums and from afar checked them out. The slums, an intricate network of land squatters, fascinate me. The government has worked hard to clear out the slums to make room for highend hotels and apartments, but many of these slums house hundreds of small businesses. One such business laundered various items. There were rows of white sheets and various items hanging on clotheslines – their cleanliness and spotlessness a big contrast to the dirt and grime covering the rest of the area. I would have loved to go exploring the slums, but many people have advised me not to for hygienic purposes.

A group of street children ran around us begging for money. According to the tour guide, the homeless and the pour in Mumbai ask more aggressively that in other cities. Giving out money to any one person would cause a demand so great that the entire group would be swarmed.

Tangent #2: I have mixed feelings about giving money to the poor as I do not have the means to help all of them that ask. It is never a great feeling turning a blind eye and pretending not to see obviously malnourished hungry people carrying hungry babies. The poverty here shocks me.

Scary story: Back at the hotel room, the doorbell rang, and thinking a classmate had stopped by I opened the door, still in my towel as I had just taken a shower. Turned out to a male staff member just wanted to bring in fruit for my room. He left and I resumed lounging around the room in my towel because I was in relax mode. Ten minutes pass and the doorbell rang again. The SAME GUY comes back with some coasters and I let him (still in my towel by the way) in thinking he would quickly leave once he finished. Except he did not leave. He began casually asking me about my camera (which was on the bed) and whether he could try using it. As I am always happy to show people how to use my camera, I told him about it never thinking that I did so standing there only in my towel. I told him about Moth to Flame and gave him a card, and after a few minutes, he gave me a hug. “What are you doing later?” he asked. I told him that I came with a school group and that we had many activities planned later. “I want to know when you are free, so we can hang out.” He asked me out and this took me completely by surprise. I realized tight then that letting him in my room and giving him my business card was a huge mistake. After a few round of refusals he finally left, but I definitely regretted handing him my card.

When dinner rolled around, a few of us went to hang out with Adit’s wife, who graciously escorted the girls (Steph, Aimy, Theresa) around to various stores and helped us haggle. Way too many rupees later, we met up with Adit and ate traditional Indian food and Indie-Chinese food at a special club that required membership, which Adit had, and overlooked the water. Next to spot, we saw a traditional Indian wedding reception going on and it looked wonderful. Lights adorned every tree and flowed along a pathway into the water. Indians splurge on weddings; a wedding easily exceeds 200K (USD). Flipping ridiculous. I want a wedding like that.

After dinner, I made my way back home did the usual passing out dance with my pillow.