He told me that something major cropped up. Someone punctured all 4 of his tires in the night. Hence he was unable to drive us round Mumbai today. Instead he has arranged for his friend to come and meet us at the hotel at 8am. He assured me that the friend speaks English and will definitely take good care of us. He will come and meet us once he gets his car service and that will be late in the afternoon. After ending the call, shared this piece of news with Meijin before calling the other 2 girls to tell them about this.
We decided to meet earlier for breakfast instead. and whilst breakfasting and we can think a little clearer, we question amongst ourselves about his genuity about his tires getting punctured. How can such absurd things happen? not just 1 tire but all 4 tires??? that's something questionable.
anyway the stand-in guide came at 8am. he came with a driver too.... we were thinking that's not too bad. and he also called Amin and let Shu Hui talk to him. he assured the guide is good and he will bring us to all the places that we were to visit today. As time goes, we felt that today was a terrible day. We've been seriously duped.
Bridge linking South Mumbai & North Mumbai
We drove all the way from Fort area in Mumbai to Sanjay Gandhi National Park to visit the Kanheri Caves. However, when we reached there, we were told that the caves were closed that day and its not possible for us to visit!
anyway we left the place and the next place we headed was to Bollywood, which the Indians call it 'Film City'. i think our guide and driver do not really know the way, coz the driver stopped once to ask for directions to Bollywood. and u'll be surprised the road to Bollywood is juz a normal dusty small road. and just before it enters the shooting sites, is something like a village with people living and selling things along the main road. and there we passed through a gate with security guards and 'Wah-la' we're in the film city! But i must say, there is nothing to be seen in the film city, we were all puzzled. Coz its nothing like what you see in Hollywood. As in at least there is a huge plaque or words that bears the name of the place. and all over the place was juz jungle (surprising coz almost everyday we've been seeing acres and acres of brown lands... so its a total change to see some form of real greenery) and we saw a building that was sort of like a studio for filming.
One of the roads in Bollywood
Driving for some distance, we decided that we want to leave coz we could not find the big words that announce 'Bollywood'. Pretty disappointing. as we were leaving, we were stopped by security guards. both our driver and guide got off the car and talked to them. and they were talking for about 30min before 1 of security guard (middle aged man with beard and a huge belly near to bursting) came to the car and told us some surprising stuffs that made us more irritated and angry and really pissed off. He told us that visitors to the film city had to pay 2000 Rupees per person. then he told us that he will allow us to pay 1000 rupees. me and Shu Hui stare and him with irritated faces and we told him that we juz want to leave this place. He then told us that we will not be punished, we juz need to pay the fine of 500 Rupees and we can leave! URGH! such shitty personals. we juz paid the 500 Rupees and get out of there. Corruption is super high and its a pretty common thing in India. These security guards had the cheek to 'negotiate' with us on the price of the 'fine' when we saw nothing and the silly guards at the gated entrance did not stop us from entering. if that so-called film city site is a protected place, then what the heck were the security guards at the entrance doing? Its all a scam. These indians are just outright to suck the money from us! URGH! made us really angry. And we feel that the Indian govt should do something about this! It juz totally put people off.... and will scare or anger tourists away!
The next destination we headed to was to a shopping center. its rare to see shopping centers in mumbai. Coz people usually buy their stuffs from the markets or those small shops. Oh! talking about shopping.... its totally horrible in here. I mean throughout the 6 days that we were here.... i did not buy as much stuffs as I could when I was in Bali or HCM city or China. hahaha... think the only decent thing worth buying in Mumbai is the Mangoes! hahaha.... yeah the boxes of mangoes that we bought the day before.
anyway we had our lunch at this shopping center. I had the 'football' fried prata with vegetarian curries and a masala tea.
Me & my lunch
But the amount was just too much for me. I only consume 1 of the 'football's and a sip of the masala tea. I must say the masala tea tasted horrible to me. Coz its salty and spicy.... definitely not my kind of tea. I told myself never am I going to try that sort of tea again! hahaha... totally put off by the tea.
After lunch, we headed to a Jain temple. When we reached there, we were told that the temple was closed and it will only open at 3.30pm. However we were allowed to take pictures. But the most irritating thing was how the heck did our guide not know about the opening hours and closing hours of the places of interest that we were to visit today? Seems to us that it must be their 1st time doing this tour guide job! totally pissed....
Temple that was closed
After the Jain temple, all of us were tired and decided to head back to the city where we can do some shopping... however, they brought us again to another 2 places. the Chowpatty beach and the Mt Mary church. Only me and Shu Hui got down to take some pictures whilst Meijin and Ka Wei sat in the car and rested.
Chowpatty beach
Lots of people at the beach
A boy carrying a block of ice and a beggar girl holding a small piece of ice
Mt. Mary church
After this, we told the guide and driver that we want to head back to Colaba street, South Mumbai, to do some shopping. We don't want to do anymore sight-seeing. Coz the guide do not explain anything at all, so we had no idea where we were and what sort of history that place has. And that's when Amin called and Shu Hui had a chat with him on the phone. He knew that we were pissed and told his friend to drive us to the road just outside the Dhobi Ghaut region and he'll take care of us from there.
So we met Amin and changed cars. He started to tell us his day... and how frantic he was. He was sincere in his explanation... so we gave him the benefit of the doubt and believed him. He brought us to a mosque that's built in the sea. This mosque is called Haji-Ali. According to Amin, this mosque is unique because it is not just for the Muslims, but a mosque for people of all faith. and the road that leads to the mosque is covered by the sea in the morning. That road only appears after morning everyday. And I must say there are lots of people there. Be they visitors like us, or merchants selling their wares or beggars. Everywhere was just people and more people. I asked Amin if there are always so many people visiting the mosque each day. He told me yes.
People walking through the street of shops to the mosque
Road leading to the mosque. Beggars sitting at the sides of the road
I feel really sad seeing the beggars.... they can be handicapped or suffering from certain diseases or kids as small as 4 years old sitting there with their hands raised out asking for money. Mothers with a suckling baby in her arms begging for money. It was really really a sad sight. I was affected by what I saw similar for my friends, but I wonder if those people who are walking that road to and from the mosque if they are also affected by what they see.
Visitors to the mosque
Entrance to the mosque
Mosque from far
By this time, my stomach was feeling terrible. I had a bloated stomach and was feeling a little uncomfortable. Furthermore with the jostling of the people, made it worse. Hence, when my friends got off at Colaba street to do some shopping and see the sun-set, I told them that I'll take a rain check. Coz my stomach was getting worse and I was starting to feel a little light-headed. Hence Amin drove me back to the hotel and i slept and drank 夏山菊 (a chinese herbal tea that will help to remove the built up of heat in the body, removal of bowel systems etc.) never in my life have I ever drink so many packets of the herbal tea. I drank 2 sachets every 1 hr. My body was feeling feverish and my heart was beating faster than normal. I knew that I was suffering from heat stroke. Guess my body could not take the extreme heat anymore and had to breakdown.
By the time my friends return and that was close to dinner time, I was not getting any better, instead felt worse. I told my room-mate, Meijin, that they juz help me buy a bunch of bananas and 2 big bottles of water will do. Coz I did not have any appetite to eat anything... my stomach was juz very bloated and I was feeling nauseous but can't vomit out. After my simple dinner of bananas and herbal tea, I was not getting any better, I went to the toilet and forced myself to vomit all the contents out. And after retching, I was sort of cured! hahaha... the amazing of vomiting. (gag) Then I drank some tea and took some bananas before calling a night. I told myself that no matter what I must recover by tomorrow. Coz tomorrow we'll be visiting the largest slum in Mumbai, Dharavi Slum. And I must not miss it. Coz i doubt I will come back to Mumbai again. =D
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