We’re now at Singapore airport – halfway home. I thought I’d have time to catch up on this blog while we were in Mumbai, thinking it would be just another big, dirty city like Delhi, but I was wrong. India saved some of the best till last.
Our final day in Kochi was spent cruising, literally. Along the coastline of the state of Kerala, there’s a network of lagoons, lakes, canals, rivers and inlets forming more than 900km of waterways. All eventually flow out into the Arabian Sea. The waterways are lined with leafy green plants and palm trees so it has a tropical island feel. Clusters of houses are dotted along the water’s edge, some not much more than a hut and others quite new and substantial in size. The communities survive from growing and harvesting crops, fishing and in the case of one household we visited, making coconut husk string.
Our cruise was on a small boat with one man at the front and one at the end punting. It was a slow, relaxing trip, a bit too slow for BJ’s liking. He would have preferred a two-stroke motor so we could venture a bit further into the network of waterways.
By the time our bus dropped us back at the apartment it was after 4pm so there wasn’t much of the day left. We walked down to the local tailor we’d visited yesterday to organise our team uniform. On our last family trip we’d had started a tradition. We all travelled home in ‘Hawaiian’ shirts covered in fruit. I’m still not exactly sure of the relevance of these shirts to Vietnam/Cambodia but they were sold at every market we went to so seemed like an obvious choice. This time we found an amazing elephant print in every colour of the rainbow and had shirt custom made. Lewis is pretty excited, Toni not so much.
Our flight to Mumbai meant an early start. 5am pick up from our accommodation, 1 hour drive to the airport. Security at the airports is tight. Passports and flight details are checked at the door to the terminal and only passengers are allowed inside. Bags are scanned and it can easily take an hour to get through to the departure lounge. We’ve been allowing 2 hours to be on the safe side and make sure we don’t miss any flights.
I was pleased to see all our bags come out on the baggage claim at Mumbai airport. I had anticipated having to deal with problems with our travel, delayed or cancelled flights/accommodation or lost luggage. To the contrary, everything had run to plan and from Mumbai, it didn’t really matter if one of our bags went astray on the flight back to Christchurch, we’d have plenty of other clothes at home to wear while waiting for the airline to locate our bags.
I hadn’t been overly looking forward to Mumbai. I had expected a repeat of Delhi but that wasn’t the case.
Soon after we left the airport we could see modern high rise buildings, a mix of commercial and apartments suggesting this was a reasonably modern city. There were very few tuk tuks, rather small dented taxis and a splattering of European vehicles (some also with dents that I’m sure made the owners cry). Our driver took us over a newly constructed bridge, intended to speed up the compute from the city to the airport and outer suburbs. We passed by some of the slums that Mumbai is known for, flat areas of makeshift buildings, bright blue from the overuse of blue tarpaulins that brought back memories of camping with Jodie in Punakaiki. Our drive took us along the waterfront, not one that people were swimming in but picturesque all the same. By the time we arrived at our hotel I realised I’d misjudged this city.
We’d read in recent online reviews about the roadworks outside our hotel. A sure sign of progression in the city but not great for getting some sleep. Our room was the corner room on level one, roadworks on both sides of us. We asked to be moved.
Our hotel was in the Fort District, a couple of kms from the Gateway of India. The Gateway was built in the early 19th century to commemorate the visit of the British Monarch (George V) and, possibly more famously, it was where the last British troops left India in 1948 following India’s Independence. We called in at a brewery along the way and watched the start of the India v Australia cricket that was being played at the Oval not far from our hotel. BJ is struggling with the lack of beer selection. In most places it’s Kingfisher or Kingfisher. A visit to Pomeroy’s will probably follow closely after picking up Oskar when we land in Christchurch.
The majority of visitors to the Gateway were local so we were asked for multiply selfies. I had a bit of fun and made sure I also got a selfie on my phone, I should have thought of this earlier as I’d have quite a collection by now.
On the way back to the hotel, we called into a design shop which had the best India keepsakes we’ve seen. Turns out to be a store that I’d seen online before our trip. BJ found a t-shirt that he liked but they didn’t have it instore in his size. I thought I’d try ordering it online when we got back to the hotel. The t-shirt was around $25 NZD and the freight would be $50! Needless to say I didn’t order it online but instead, the next day I convinced the store to get one delivered from their warehouse overnight so we could pick it up before leaving for the airport.
The staff at our hotel were amazing. They were constantly offering to help but not in the annoying way that we’ve struck in so many places were you feel that they’re just doing so in the hope of a tip. These guys seemed to genuinely care about making our experience memorable. Like many of the hotels and restaurants, ours didn’t have a liquor licence. They did however serve ‘green tea’ aka Kingfisher beer in teacups, which we had to pay cash for.
Day 2 in Mumbai and we were on a mission to buy some of the metal dishes that our curries had been served in. We walked via the Mumbai Central railway station is one of the busiest in the world with 1,250 local and long-distance trains arriving/departing from its 18 platforms each day, carrying over 3 million passengers. The building is impressive, built by the British in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee – a great photo opportunity.
The markets are arranged in streets where every shop/stall sells exactly the same products. We were looking for ‘Steel Street’ and after asking a few locals, we found it. We walked from shop to shop, negotiating the best prices for the dishes we were after. We’re no longer limited by the weight restrictions of the domestic flights so we added a few kgs to our luggage.
Bryce had read about an antiques market which we thought was worth a visit. Turned out to be secondhand, mostly broken, furniture. Their definition of ‘antiques’ is a little different to ours.
We had pizza and beer at Leopold Café that night – the site that was first attached during the 2008 terrorist attacks. 10 people were killed and the cafe was badly damaged (some of the damage is still evident) but the café defiantly reopened 4 days later. We also walked back down to the Gateway to India to see it lit up at night. Across from it is The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel which was the second and main target of the attacks. A beautifully restored, five star luxury hotel that looks even more spectacular at night.
We had a late checkout on our final day in India. We needed extra time to fit all the trinkets we’d bought into our packs and clean the sh*t off our shoes.
We took taxis to the Dhobi Ghat Laundromat. This is said to be the world’s largest outdoor laundry with concrete wash pens, each fitted with a flogging stone, where, at it’s peak, over 7,000 people scrub, flog, dry and press garments from neighbourhood laundries, hotels and hospitals.
The laundry is surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings on two sides, and a road and rail tracks on the other two. I overheard a guide telling a group of tourists that there are negotiations underway between property developers and the families who, for generations have earnt a living from the laundry. Evidently the developers are offering to provide apartments to the families in return for the laundry land. The problem being that for many of the workers, this is the only work they know so they may end up with a lovely apartment but no means of income.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking from our hotel across to the coastline and along the waterfront. We cut through a park where there were multiple games of cricket underway. Some looked to be official games with players in whites, others seemed to be groups of friends, maybe in their lunchbreak, having a bit of fun. We’ve seen impromptu games of cricket everywhere we’ve travelled, often being played on dirty, dusty grounds with no green grass in sight.
Along the waterfront are a line up of Art Deco style buildings that would have been high-end apartments in their heyday. Palm trees are dotted along the road and it looks like something out of an old Hollywood movie although they were all in need of a bit of repair (like most things in India).
We’d booked taxi’s for 7.30pm but we were ready to go by 6 so left early and it was lucky we did as it took one taxi 2 hours to get to airport, then over an hour to get through security and customs. We had only about 20 minutes at the gate before our boarding time.
We only got a few hours sleep on the 5-hour flight to Singapore. We had a full day in Singapore, arriving around 7am and leaving around 8pm so caught a train into the city and had breakfast at a very cool café that I’d found on the internet (Free the Robot). Breakfast has been included in the price of most of our hotels and we can’t complain about the food. Freshly made omelettes most mornings or pancakes/waffles and in some cases traditional Indian dosa or breads. But after a month, I couldn’t resist a breakfast of hash browns, poached eggs, avocado and bacon.
We walked our way across town in 33 degrees, 60+% humidity to Raffles Hotel. There was a queue to get into the Long Bay that wound down the stairs. We decided we could do without the tradition of throwing our peanut shells on the floor and sat outside in the courtyard bar and enjoyed a Singapore Sling.
The temperature and lack of sleep was starting to get to us so we caught a train back to the airport and a quick visit to check out the huge water feature in the Jewel shopping mall that links to Changi airport. Toni, Bryce and the boys went across to terminal 1 for a dip in the swimming pool, BJ and I headed to a lounge for a shower and to try to get a bit of sleep. We’ve both had colds for the last 4-5 days and while I’m on the mend, BJ’s not great so wanted to get some rest before the flight back to NZ.
We’ve had an amazing trip and I feel a bit sad that it’s over. India has been all that I imagined and at times so much more. At other times we had to search through shit covered streets to find the good stuff, but it was worth it. Our hats say it all …..”I Love My India”.
