Feels like Sweden

Another good thing happened today:

Taking rickshaw I lost (left) the cellphone there. We called the driver, he brought it back, and didn't even take the money for it. I was impressed. Wouldn't you?

Haji Ali UPD

Abbas decided to change my yesterday's impressions of Haji Ali Mosque. And he managed. Watch this:

Day 3

Today we went for the first sightseeing tour in Mumbai (first for me, but to the places which were new for Matina as well).

First destination was Haji Ali Mosque. It is supposed to be a great mosque around here, which it didn't look to me :(

- On our way to the mosque we saw a wedding. Check out the groom on the very left - sure you're still dreaming about the prince on a white horse? :)

- The mosque is connected to the shore with a concrete road, quite long and too crowded, so it becomes exhausting.

- In addition to the people's flows coming both directions, the sides of the road are occupied by the sellers, beggars, cripples, coin changers, etc. It makes the way even more pleasant.

- Not meeting the expectations Haji Ali was nothing extraordinary to see, we walked around fearing the way back. (On the video: do I actually sing that song from "Nu pogodi" in the end? Why??? :)

After getting out of the crowded mosque we headed to Banganga Tank, a sacred place for Hindus.

- It felt way more calm and relaxed comparing to Haji Ali.

- Us chilling on its edge.

- In the area near Banganga Tank . Locals told us there is a hundred hindu temples around, we found couple of them indeed :)

Done with the religious places for today and finished a quick lunch we joined a friend (Abbas) to watch a play. It was something local, modern and funny. Something that I didn't get, because apparently I tended not to understand indian accent anymore! All over sudden! Never happened to me! I should go there again in the end of my trip to see if I improved.

After the play Abbas took me for the first bike ride in my life! That was awesome! Cool breeze at a good speed, Mumbai at night, Abbas' comments on the city history, etc. The apogee of the ride was when we went down from the hill with the switched off engine, at the terminal point we had a speed of adout 70 km!

- Check out Mumbai at night (to the extension my camera quality will allow :)

- Brussels La Bourse?

Day 2

Today I tried to take some pictures of what I've seen. And even recorded a video for you!

One of the biggest impressions of the day - the train. You must have heard about it before - those trains where people are all over - stuffed like fishes in the cars and dangling on the sides. But as today was a weekend day, I haven't got to see the real fight for the room in the train :(

Here's the video of us and the train approaching. My last phrase is - "we've got to rush!"

Inside:

After travelling by train we've spent the whole day shopping! There are some criminal stories about it, but i save them for one-to-one chats :)

Other than the train, ricksha is a convenient way of transportation:

- the view from inside

The day finished in Enigma... Strange, isn't it? :)

PS I love it even more here! And Marina says that I make her love the place too :) Come to India, guys!

The very first day

It's not enough that I am a bad writer, I just understood that I have a way to go to become a decent photographer too. Not even in the sense of being able to make good pictures, but in general - I am not able to remember to take pictures at all! But anyways:

I am in India, in one way or another - the country I've been dreaming about for such a long time!

I must admit - it's no way near charming and pleasant to your eyes, and "bounty" type of a country. But you know, my expectations were lowered so much by those who know me and have been here (some people were saying I'm gonna faint when I face everything here!), that I was well prepared to accept everything the way it is. But really - smell, poverty, absence of women, sewage all over the place, chaotic traffic - everything you heard about India is true :)

From the other hand - people are really nice, weather is awesome, prices are extremely low. If not working - travelling here is something you should not miss on!

The first day I spent by doing grocery shopping in the very strange small shops, the type of those pakistani night shops we have in Antwerp, with no results as they didn't sell anything we needed. No pictures from this experience :)

After that we dropped by the Xmas party organized by local aiesec people. The only picture is this one: me with Marina, I am staying in Mumbai at her place.

The night finished with going to some posh club called Enigma in the 5 star Marriott hotel. How to tell you, only the entrance fee was 2500 rupees, which is around 35 euro! But we didn't pay, as foreigners are always welcome :) Here are the pictures:

- with some fancy Indian crowd behind

- and with the strangest xmas tree ever seen

Condition number one.

Believe it or not, but within 3 days I am going to land in India. Still can't quite feel it. This trip has a long history and the reasons I can't already remember, but I am definite about one thing - this country is a MUST VISIT for me.

I start up this web diary for you to follow my wander and for me to afterwards cry about "the good old times". The idea is to stuff it up with pictures along with some short comments, as I don't want you to be bored of reading endless paragraphs of meaningless thoughts :)

But before the pictures please have a look at this short promotion video (in case you haven't seen it yet) and be honest to yourself: it is a MUST VISIT place!

I'd also like to thank some people helping me out with the preparation to my trip: Alina Izh, Katya Porotnik, Olya Obraztsova, Anya&Pasha, Abbas and his Indiasomeday, and many others. Guys, appreciate your inspiration, learnings, tips, advices, pictures and stories! I am finally doing it thank to you.