We are coming up on two weeks in India now, and it is hot hot hot. It would be unfair to say that we weren't warned, but y'know, you never really think it will happen to you do you.
Well it did.
I have spent the last two weeks having my brains fried under a not-so-slow heat. To top that I think I may have actually become water repellent. Water is leaving me like fleas of a drowning dog and I am consuming mineral water at a rate of up to 7ltrs a day. I am told I will acclimatize but, unless 'acclimatization' involves simply getting used to being hot and wet, I remain skeptical.
And yet for all of the discomfort, India is still a pretty cool place. Arriving in Mumbai after a mercifully uneventful flight was like parachuting into a scene from Jurmanji. Outside the obvious tourist district, Mumbai is packed with astonishingly impressive architecture left over from the days of the Raj, all of which now have a slight air of post-holocaust decay about them. The drive in from the airport underscores this. As you drive through the ramshackle run down suburbs and the no-holds-barred traffic, breathing smog and suffering in the intense and sudden heat, black kites wheel above you like bad omens and tropical plants rear up out of the urban decay with a vitality that seems uncharacteristic. The whole provides an air of the jungle slowly reclaiming its own.
Mumbai is a good introduction to India, and a couple of days spent there provides some spectacular sites and some good nights out. After Iran it was nice to see Europeans as more than a rarity once again and the throbbing backpacker vibe, whilst odd after so long in the middle east, was a welcome taste of the familiar. But the humidity slowly wears you down and after 2 days I was ready to leave. Once again on the way out of town, this time in the truck that will be our home for the next 18 weeks, we watched as the black kites made slow circles over the packed human chaos of Mumbai.
India here we come...
Well it did.
I have spent the last two weeks having my brains fried under a not-so-slow heat. To top that I think I may have actually become water repellent. Water is leaving me like fleas of a drowning dog and I am consuming mineral water at a rate of up to 7ltrs a day. I am told I will acclimatize but, unless 'acclimatization' involves simply getting used to being hot and wet, I remain skeptical.
And yet for all of the discomfort, India is still a pretty cool place. Arriving in Mumbai after a mercifully uneventful flight was like parachuting into a scene from Jurmanji. Outside the obvious tourist district, Mumbai is packed with astonishingly impressive architecture left over from the days of the Raj, all of which now have a slight air of post-holocaust decay about them. The drive in from the airport underscores this. As you drive through the ramshackle run down suburbs and the no-holds-barred traffic, breathing smog and suffering in the intense and sudden heat, black kites wheel above you like bad omens and tropical plants rear up out of the urban decay with a vitality that seems uncharacteristic. The whole provides an air of the jungle slowly reclaiming its own.
Mumbai is a good introduction to India, and a couple of days spent there provides some spectacular sites and some good nights out. After Iran it was nice to see Europeans as more than a rarity once again and the throbbing backpacker vibe, whilst odd after so long in the middle east, was a welcome taste of the familiar. But the humidity slowly wears you down and after 2 days I was ready to leave. Once again on the way out of town, this time in the truck that will be our home for the next 18 weeks, we watched as the black kites made slow circles over the packed human chaos of Mumbai.
India here we come...
posted by Al at 3:07 am
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