not so long this time.......
Wednesday 8th December
So today I went to Ellora Caves. I got on the local bus and it smelt bad; someone had thrown up on the floor at the front of the bus. Nobody seemed to care. I headed for the back seat. Then, when we were nearly there a kid on the back seat puked on the guy next to him, all very unsavoury. I have seen quite a few Indians be sick on buses, not sure why.
Anyway, the Ellora Caves were amazing. As you go through the main entrance you can see that a temple complex has been carved into the side of a cliff. It was started in around 760AD and continued for maybe 200 years. And all they had was hammers and chisels. The temples and the bridges between them and the life-size elephants are all cut in this way. You can go into the temples and the design of the animals and the gods is intricate.
There are about 30 other caves, good but not as impressive as the main one, excpet for the Buddha Cave. You walk in through the entrance and there is a huge Buddha statue inside a kind of catherdral, the ceiling is ribbed and there are small statues along the side, and around the back of Buddha where it is dark, so they must have cut them out of the rock, in the dark. It was fantastic. The main temple and the Buddha in the cathedral were defintely highlights of this trip.
I sat under a tree for a while and read my book, and had one last look around before heading back. I got in a jeep/taxi and it was soon filled with 17 people. The police stopped us but just asked the driver for his ID and waved us on. He drove like a maniac!
Back in town I had chicken masala from a locals restaurant. It was far too spicy but I was having a good chat with the owner and didnt want to just leave it. He gave me some chicken fat soup which I didnt finish either or my heart would have stopped. I think that was the first time I have eaten meat in India.
Had nothing to do but wait for the bus for 3 hours. Didnt sleep well on the bus from Aurangabad to Mumbai.
Thursday 9th December
Arrived in Mumbai at 6:30pm. The taxi driver ripped me off but I was too tired to argue. I had heard that Bollywood reps recruit foreignors as extras for Bollywood movies here in the district of Colaba, but was still surprised when, before I even got out of the taxi at the hostel, a round smiley face Indian guy stuck his head in the window and said "Do you want to be in a Bollywood movie?". I told him maybe another day.
I am staying at the popular and cheap Salvation Army Red Shield Hostel. Its a pretty shabby old building with 8 bunks in each dorm, pigeons in the bathroom and at least one mouse in the kitchen. There are many bathrooms, but finding one that is not locked and has running water is a challenge in itself. Of course, you get what you pay for. And they do give us breakfast - bread and jam and a hard-boiled eggs, and chai. The Indian staff can be heard singing carols, including Away in a Manger.
Anyway, as I was starting to suspect, the meal last night was too spicy for me, and/or I got food poisoning, so I spent the day in bed and on the toilet. Made it out to a nearby restaurant in the evening for a couple of samosas.
Friday 10th December
By lunchtime today I felt mostly better and headed out into Mumbai. First stop was India gate which is a large stone archway to mark the arrival of George VI in 1911. It's impressive and I think I remember Michael Palin standing there in one of his shows. A popular tourist spot. It is good to be near the ocean again, the Arabian Sea.
Mumbai is more like a European city with wide boulevards and British and other architecture. It is not as franctic as other towns and cities in India, there are are no tuk-tuks and no cows and less hassle. I like the atmosphere. I headed to the Central Train station, partly to see it for itself as it is a grand old colonial building, and also to book my train ticket to Goa since the trains are booked up well in advance around this time of year. I got a ticket for next wednesday which isnt quiet as soon as I hoped but not too bad.
I walked back to the hostel and then went with American Crystal to the bus ticket agents, near the train station. It was late afternoon, blue skies and nice to walk through the city. Passed a large park full of people playing cricket.
Saturday 11th December
Today we went to Bollywood. There are casting agents all around Colaba looking for foreignors as extras, so it was easy enough to arrange. We were about 40 travellers on an old school bus and they drove us to the studios to be extras. Somehow the driver got lost so it took longer to get there than it should have. We had heard that the Bollywood experience can be a bit hit and miss, but they treated us really well and we had a very entertaining day. They gave us, for breakfast, corn flakes with milk, hot chips and jam and egg sandwiches, and chai. Then they gave all us guys dinner suits, tie and shoes to wear on set, and the girls got dresses and had their hair and make-up done, about which they were very happy.
The movie they are shooting is called 'Rascals'and the studio set was made up to be aboard a cruise ship where there was an International Naval Ball, so there was a band and lots of sailors. The two main male actors are apparently very famous Bollywood stars but obviously I didnt recognise them. The scenes included a fight and some introductions. We were given soft drinks to hold as if they were booze and were told to just chat so it wasn't much acting. Now and again we had to face the front and applaud the main characters as they entered the room. We had to have specific instruction on how to clap properly! And of course we each tried to make sure we were in shot once the Director called 'action'.
We had a lunch break and they gave us garlic bread, pasta, sweet and sour vegies and more chai. Then we went back to the set to continue. We spent quite a bit of time just sitting at the side chatting and then moving into the middle of the studio when the Director needed us. The movie is released in May 2011 and maybe I will make it into the final cut. Even if I don't, it was a great day, being involved in the movie was fun and the other travellers were cool. We got back to Colaba at 8pm and had dinner and went to the pub to watch football.
Sunday 12th December
Today, Crystal and I went to Dharavi Slum. Other travellers didn't want to come because they thought that it would be voyueristic, looking at poor people. But I had been told by another traveller who had actually done the tour, that it isn't really like that, and it isn't.
We met our guide at the station and he took us on the train for half an hour and we got off the train and crossed over the railway bridge to the slum. The guide said it would be better not to mention Australia as there is some resentment towards Australia because of the bashing of Indian students in Melbourne last year.
Anyway, I was a little nervous as we approached because you might expect a slum to be a little unsafe, but it was fine, especially as our guide grew up there and the people there know him (well, not all 1 million of them know him). We were asked not to take photos, which was fine. The slum is basically a city within a city. They have 3 main industries which are recycling (mostly plastic), pottery and making leather goods, and they have the machinery and skills required to make small successful, enterprenurial businesses. They export the finished products in and outside of Mumbai. Around these industries of course are other businesses such as supermarkets, cinemas, banks, fruit markets and taxis. There was a sense of community with Hindus and Muslims sharing the same space, and we didnt get hassled like in many other parts of India. Its just another way of life in India, like the countryside or the city. The word 'slum' conjures up the wrong image of the place.
There were obviously some problems. Some houses dont have toilets so people have to queue for the poorly maintained public toilets and if they dont want to do that, then they just go on a rubbish heap. And some parents dont send their kids to school, they often get them to do work. The government is responsible for clearing the rubbish heap but never does.
The guide took us up to the roof of one house where we could see over the slums, and the nearby hospital that they cant really afford to visit. As it was sunday, there was no school so lots of kids running around and shouting 'Hi' to us. We played cricket with the guide's friends. The guide made sure we got back on the train ok.
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