Up to Mumbai our two Indian tour guides had been phenomenal. They both made it clear they were from the warrior caste and aren't too fond of Muslims or the Indian version of affirmative action, but hearing their uncensored opinions on life added to the great tours we received. Our Mumbai tour guide was not only the worst tour guide we had, but a complete a-hole as well.
Upon arriving and meeting our guide, Herb made it clear he wanted to see the sights from "Slumdog Millionaire" and wasn't too concerned with anything else. The first stop we made on our tour was the laundry area which was part of the movie. The laundry area was cool and it also kept Herb quiet for a few hours after. The laundry area is a large area in the middle of Mumbai made up of hundreds of 3'x3' concrete cells, some filled with water, some not, used to do laundry. There were hundreds of people working in the laundry area doing everything from beating clothes against cement, hanging clothes, moving clothes, etc. Our next destination was a temple in 'the Beverly Hills' of Mumbai.
The temple was another Jain temple, but not nearly as nice as the Ranakpur temple. We toured the temple while Maureen stayed outside. Maybe she didn't go in because the sign outside said, "Women who are menstruating are not allowed in the temple." Our second inclination that our tour guide wasn't very good occurred while we were in the temple. I asked him about a picture in the temple showing a shipwreck and a guy getting eaten by an alligator. He stopped, looked at it, looked at me like I was stupid, said, "It's a shipwreck," then walked away. Our first inclination that our tour guy wasn't very good happened when he first talked to us on the van and never took his eyes off Lara's breasts. Literally never.
We left the temple and proceeded to the hanging gardens of Mumbai. The hanging gardens are a mislabelled park. It's a large park in the middle of the city with nice walking trails, hedged bushes, and trash cans that look like penguins. When you're surrounded by nothing but city it's a really nice tranquil area. Our tour guide gave us 10 minutes to enjoy. Our tour guide made a point that he speaks English, Spanish, Russian, French, and Hindi, but I can't count how many times he said, "Come please." As Maureen is 74 and has a bad back she doesn't move too well. So when we were walking slow our tour guide would yell "Come please" when he felt we were too far back. We left the hanging gardens and the 'Beverly Hills' of Mumbai for the Gateway of India. I mentioned the Beverly Hills of Mumbai twice to give you a flavor of what it was like for us. Our lovely tour guide mentioned that we were in the Beverly Hills of Mumbai and pointed out the Manhattan of India well over a dozen times.
No more than one hour before we got to the Gateway of India I mentioned to Lara that I thought it was nice that we had been solicited by all sorts of sales people and beggars throughout India, but not once had I been offered to buy drugs. I was making my comparison to Cabo San Lucas when I couldn't walk 100 yards without being offered drugs. We arrived at the Gateway of India and 10 minutes into checking out the Gateway out a guy offered to sell me weed. I told the guy to go fuck himself. Lara wasn't too happy with that. Besides the drug dealer, the Gateway was a cool sight.
We both knew that tour guides took a cut of the sales from the shops that they took us to and our previous guide, Kami, was very upfront with it and told us that he takes 5%. Our guide in Mumbai informed us that he works for the government and would never take a cut. We found it very odd then, that whenever he took us to sights he would give a specific time limit, never more than 20 minutes at a sight, but when we were at the shops he took us to there was never a time limit. The first shop he took us to was a government shop that had fixed prices and had goods that were guaranteed. However, we noticed that the stuff in the store was the exact same as all the other stores we had been to but the prices on the goods was 2x - 5x more. But, if we asked about the price and said it was too much, they were willing to negotiate. Even Herb, who appeared to come to India strictly to shop, was annoyed by how much time we were spending shopping. At 2pm we were starving and asked our guide when lunch would be. He seemed surprised that we would want to stop the tour and pointed out a few restaurants that were within eye sight. We had a nice lunch at an Iranian restaurant, just the type of restaurant we were looking for to get our first taste of South Indian food.
The bad press that I have been giving to the tour guide shouldn't take away from our experience in Mumbai. Mumbai is a 'struggling' metropolis. The skyline is filled with skyscrapers and there are even more going up. Unlike all of the other cities that we visited in India, there were very few cows walking the streets, almost no animal pulled carts and some semblance of order. That isn't to say there isn't absolute poverty, there is plenty of that. Mumbai was also incredibly cleaner than the other cities we were in and we felt like we could walk safely in the city.
Our tour concluded at Gandhi's house and the home of a Rabi who was killed by terrorist. Gandhi's 'home' is actually the former home of one of his friends and it has been turned into a museum on Gandhi. The museum is filled with 50 or so dioramas and was kind of interesting. We made the stop at the rabbi's home at Herb's insistence. The home was attacked by terrorists when they attacked the hotels last year. The rabbi and a friend of his were killed. Herb was shocked and appalled that we hadn't heard of the rabbi's death. Whatever Herb.
Lara and I had the evening to ourselves. We had the best dinner of our India trip at the hotel and stuffed ourselves silly. After dinner we tried to walk around, but Mumbai at night isn't the safest looking city. The following morning we got up at 4am and headed for the airport for Aurangabad.
Upon arriving and meeting our guide, Herb made it clear he wanted to see the sights from "Slumdog Millionaire" and wasn't too concerned with anything else. The first stop we made on our tour was the laundry area which was part of the movie. The laundry area was cool and it also kept Herb quiet for a few hours after. The laundry area is a large area in the middle of Mumbai made up of hundreds of 3'x3' concrete cells, some filled with water, some not, used to do laundry. There were hundreds of people working in the laundry area doing everything from beating clothes against cement, hanging clothes, moving clothes, etc. Our next destination was a temple in 'the Beverly Hills' of Mumbai.
The temple was another Jain temple, but not nearly as nice as the Ranakpur temple. We toured the temple while Maureen stayed outside. Maybe she didn't go in because the sign outside said, "Women who are menstruating are not allowed in the temple." Our second inclination that our tour guide wasn't very good occurred while we were in the temple. I asked him about a picture in the temple showing a shipwreck and a guy getting eaten by an alligator. He stopped, looked at it, looked at me like I was stupid, said, "It's a shipwreck," then walked away. Our first inclination that our tour guy wasn't very good happened when he first talked to us on the van and never took his eyes off Lara's breasts. Literally never.
We left the temple and proceeded to the hanging gardens of Mumbai. The hanging gardens are a mislabelled park. It's a large park in the middle of the city with nice walking trails, hedged bushes, and trash cans that look like penguins. When you're surrounded by nothing but city it's a really nice tranquil area. Our tour guide gave us 10 minutes to enjoy. Our tour guide made a point that he speaks English, Spanish, Russian, French, and Hindi, but I can't count how many times he said, "Come please." As Maureen is 74 and has a bad back she doesn't move too well. So when we were walking slow our tour guide would yell "Come please" when he felt we were too far back. We left the hanging gardens and the 'Beverly Hills' of Mumbai for the Gateway of India. I mentioned the Beverly Hills of Mumbai twice to give you a flavor of what it was like for us. Our lovely tour guide mentioned that we were in the Beverly Hills of Mumbai and pointed out the Manhattan of India well over a dozen times.
No more than one hour before we got to the Gateway of India I mentioned to Lara that I thought it was nice that we had been solicited by all sorts of sales people and beggars throughout India, but not once had I been offered to buy drugs. I was making my comparison to Cabo San Lucas when I couldn't walk 100 yards without being offered drugs. We arrived at the Gateway of India and 10 minutes into checking out the Gateway out a guy offered to sell me weed. I told the guy to go fuck himself. Lara wasn't too happy with that. Besides the drug dealer, the Gateway was a cool sight.
We both knew that tour guides took a cut of the sales from the shops that they took us to and our previous guide, Kami, was very upfront with it and told us that he takes 5%. Our guide in Mumbai informed us that he works for the government and would never take a cut. We found it very odd then, that whenever he took us to sights he would give a specific time limit, never more than 20 minutes at a sight, but when we were at the shops he took us to there was never a time limit. The first shop he took us to was a government shop that had fixed prices and had goods that were guaranteed. However, we noticed that the stuff in the store was the exact same as all the other stores we had been to but the prices on the goods was 2x - 5x more. But, if we asked about the price and said it was too much, they were willing to negotiate. Even Herb, who appeared to come to India strictly to shop, was annoyed by how much time we were spending shopping. At 2pm we were starving and asked our guide when lunch would be. He seemed surprised that we would want to stop the tour and pointed out a few restaurants that were within eye sight. We had a nice lunch at an Iranian restaurant, just the type of restaurant we were looking for to get our first taste of South Indian food.
The bad press that I have been giving to the tour guide shouldn't take away from our experience in Mumbai. Mumbai is a 'struggling' metropolis. The skyline is filled with skyscrapers and there are even more going up. Unlike all of the other cities that we visited in India, there were very few cows walking the streets, almost no animal pulled carts and some semblance of order. That isn't to say there isn't absolute poverty, there is plenty of that. Mumbai was also incredibly cleaner than the other cities we were in and we felt like we could walk safely in the city.Our tour concluded at Gandhi's house and the home of a Rabi who was killed by terrorist. Gandhi's 'home' is actually the former home of one of his friends and it has been turned into a museum on Gandhi. The museum is filled with 50 or so dioramas and was kind of interesting. We made the stop at the rabbi's home at Herb's insistence. The home was attacked by terrorists when they attacked the hotels last year. The rabbi and a friend of his were killed. Herb was shocked and appalled that we hadn't heard of the rabbi's death. Whatever Herb.
Lara and I had the evening to ourselves. We had the best dinner of our India trip at the hotel and stuffed ourselves silly. After dinner we tried to walk around, but Mumbai at night isn't the safest looking city. The following morning we got up at 4am and headed for the airport for Aurangabad.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for the comment!