July 3rd 2010

Date and time of this blog: July 3rd 2010, 7 PM.

I am currently on the train to New Dehli. There are magnificent sceneries outside of the train but unfortunately my spot does not allow me for taking good pictures. So let me paint it out: The dark clouds that drenched me in rain earlier in the day still fill the sky. As the night approaches closer, the view outside is of a somber rainy paysage with hills in the background, lonely palm trees and short leafy trees shadowing over the mid-ground and flooded marshes rising all the way to the foreground. It’s a bit reminiscent of the rural Thailand that I saw on my way down to Pattaya; except for the dark and flooded deserty scenery.

Anyhow… IM IN INDIA! And boy is it scary. Mumbai is far less developed than I thought it to be! Infrastructures such as roads, rails, service centers and irrigation systems are so backwater. Only a puny part of the city is clustered of high-rise buildings and with no super mall, let alone any mall in view. Trash everywhere! People litter freely, though I would understand why. But it was hard for me to grasp the reality at the beginning.

The first thing that shocked me was the Mumbai airport. It was so small! It had a simple design, it wasn’t very spacious and it lacked color. Out of the airport; it was completely the 3rd world. Only Rickshaws and old 19 hundred type taxis filled the streets. Half of the streets were beaten up dirt paths. With all the cars so tightly packed and spewing out exhaust; it was impossible to breath. There were no rules for traffic. It was every man for themselves. On the roadsides were cell like shops and residences stacked on each other in a valley like format with the road at the center. Then I realized that what I saw from the planes’ bird eye view truly represented the city. The slums are the reality and Bollywood is the fantasy.