an excellent weekend

Friday night - Indigo (rated one of top 5 restaurants in Mumbai)
Let me catch you up on last night. While making dinner we were getting a bit lazy and almost decided to stay in until we got a call from Vikram - the volunteer that had shown us around a few adys before. So after some excellent homemade dahl (lentil soup), we got dressed and tried to look nice for once. There's hardly any point in trying to get dolled up here because everything sweats right off and you end up looking like you havent showered in days within minutes of being outside. Not to mention the random drops of water and mud that attack you all over your body during your daily walks. Nonetheless, we put on makeup and jewelry and headed out in cab instead of the train since it was late evening.

The taxi drivers here are quite a riot, they agree to take you to wherever you want to go and act like they know where it is until you're almost there and they look at you for last minute directions. Always an adventure, always. After asking four different people on the street, we eventually found Indigo, a bar/restaurant which is located right behind the Taj hotel. Very uppity. Everyone in there was either from abroad, has lived abroad, or has loads and loads of money - Bombay's finest only. We found Vikram in the back laughing it up with a bunch of his friends. For the first time in India, I felt like a midget. At home, wherever I go, I almost always the shortest person around but there, since everyone is short, I feel average or sometimes I even feel tall! We spent a good couple of hours there and went home satisfied with our first nightlife experience in Mumbai.

Saturday - the best day in India so far
All of my roommates are working on their med school apps so they were all hurting because our internet was down. I spent the morning watching indian music videos and proofing my roommates personal statements. In the early afternoon we decided to venture out to Bandra West again for some shopping and to exchange money. The train ride over was a breeze, and to think that just less than a week ago I was in a state of shock about riding in the trains. Adjusting to the system didnt take that long, though I still dont enjoy the staring and random crassness of many of the train riders. Traveling with two caucasions tends to exacerbate the regularity of these occurences since they are obviously foreign and people here have certain misconceptions of them that they often like to test out. The poor girls get stopped in the street and people start taking pictures as if they are celebrities! Even if I get the regular Indian stare, which I can now easilty ignore, I dont get bothered as much since I am usually dressed in Indian clothes and look like everyone else.

It took us a good hour to find a place where we could exchange money - The House of Patels (some of you know what my first thought was after seeing that name!). They insisted that the rate that they were giving us what correct even if what was listed on the board was different (and more). After arguing and trying to figure out the logic behind the lower rate (they claimed that there was a fee for cashing in travelers cheques even if there was a sign saying that there were no cashing fees) we decided that there was nothing we could do about it since there was an obvious language barrier that they could have been taking advantage of. It's sad but we've been warned about getting ripped off so much that its become second nature to question the honesty of everything here. It's uncomfortable and frustrating to always be suspicious of all of the rickshaw walas, shopkeepers, and whoever else we meet on a random basis.

Next stop after almost being run over by some autorickshaws and harrassed by store owners on the street, was Globus - a western style department store with all fixed prices. The beauty of going to a store like this is that you know that you're getting ripped off but at least it wont be any more than anyone else and you are not being harrassed by people while you're looking at clothes (and is air conditioned). Oh the price we pay for peace and a temperature controlled shopping environment! Sherry had told us about a coffee shop in Bandra, so we all brought books and our journals with us in preparation for a nice, relaxing afternoon with lattes and comfortable chairs. And that is exactly what we got! Mocha - a westernized coffee and hookah bar - was amazing. Again, the scene was Mumbai's hippest socialites and foreigners. We spent over four hours eating countless desserts, sipping coffee from giant Friends-like coffee mugs, and ending the evening with a round of peach hookah. Though we were pretty spent after our day out, we headed over to meet up with the volunteers that we had previously met at the puja. They had been invited to a party in Santa Cruz (nope, not Cali but Mumbai) and invited us to join them. Again, after 15 minutes of circling the same street, we found the apartment.

Sherry suggested that we drive back through Dharavi, Asia's largest slum. It was such a contrast from the posh apartment that we had just spent the past few hours in. Within a mile from where the rich live, are the Dharavi slums, its miles of tin and concrete dwellings. And our apartment is quite close to this area and definitely lower middle class. The street leading out to the main road is all mud and broken rocks; there are slums right outside our window, and the whole street is full of vegetable and fruit vendors. The smells and sights of India are beyond imaginable unless you see them firsthand.

Sunday shopping: "special rate. just for you."

A slow morning full of numerous unsuccessful attempts to use the internet, more editing of essays, and good convos, Miriam and I trained it over to Bandra West; we seem to go there for everything since its the up-and-coming area of Mumbai. We were determined to check our email since it had been over 24 hours (can you tell that we're all obsessed with online access?). We stopped at a cyber cafe and waited for 40 minutes to use a terminal. While we waited, we realized what kind of people spend their time in these places. Young boys were sitting together chatting it up in inappropriate language and chatrooms, we were shocked at how openly this was being done. Two boys, who seemed to be brothers, were sitting together and the older one was introducing the younger one to a variety of sites that they are both too young to be looking at. Gross. And across the wall from them was a sign that listed the five different muslim prayers and what the consequences are for not doing each one. A few that I remember read "You will lose the glow in your face." and "You will lose the blessing from your income." Interesting.

After paying 10 rupees to sit in a disgusting and unclean cyber cafe, while everyone read our emails over our shoulders, we walked over to Shoppers Stop (another department store). I bought some books and cds, which somehow just seemed wrong because I feel like I should be buying things that I cant find in America, but oh well. I picked up A Fine Balance because Miriam has been raving about it and said that its a must-read. I'll report back on that after reading it. Next stop: Barista for a mango smoothie and chocolate chip muffin. We went over to the street market after indulging in american treats. The show began there. People were yelling out at us, we had a line of 6-10 people following us at any given time. Everything at these markets are goods that can be bargained for. So, these shopkeepers try to take full advantage of us because they know that they can and we dont know any better. For example, there was a bag that I wanted and when I asked for the price he said 650 rupees. I bought it for 180 but later found out that I could have gotten it for 100 just across the way because I bargained with the second guy just to see what he would go down to. It's all a big game. But yeah, 650? Isnt that crazy, and standing there, you'd be thinking "Oh thats great! It's only $15! I'd be paying at least 50 at urban outfitters or pier one." Ha. Little do we know that we can get away with paying only one to two dollars. Everywhere you go they say "Okay, i'll lower it. this is a special rate. just for you, special for you." So, in all good fun, we started saying it back to the shopkeepers before they had a chance to say it to us. They were on the floor laughing as we walked away.