After three days of flights and a night in the Amsterdam airport I finally arrived in Mumbai (Bombay), India on Friday around 11:30 PM. My friend, Kolby, was scheduled to be there with a hotel pick up. Kolby is a great guy I met off Couchsurfing.org during my little 6 month stint with IICD amd Kolby gave me and a Korean friend named Hye Jin a place to stay for a couple of weeks in Tempe, Arizona. He also is the one who invited me to India.
A nice indian man who sat beside me on the flight, Kunal, took pity on me and walked me through customs and directed me towards currency exchangers and exits. We exchanged emails and life stories on our 9 hour flight from Amsterdam. More later on the stories of the friends I have made in unexpected places. Its funny how the best experiences come from the most unlikely places whether its that last minute cheap bus where you met that young indian girl with the pretty smile or that unintended rickshaw ride that squeezed 8 men and yourself into a 3 person cart while meeting that nice gentlemen who had been working at the Ajanta Caves plaza for over 20 years.
As I stumbled out of the airport into the sticky humidity proudly clutching my freshly stamped passport, I stopped and slowly blinked. Distantly I heard Kolby yell my name. Every single physical sense I had was being assaulted from every direction. The stink of urine, trash and feces filled my nose. The constant barrage of sounds slammed into my eardrums: honking of every kind, yelling, barking, children...the constant white noise of an Indian city.
The Anjali Inn driver and Kolby lead me to a van a long with another arrival, a korean backpacker. I have heard of the way people drive in India but nothing can really prepare you. I braced myself as we dove into traffic. There's almost no way to really describe it. It was near midnight yet the streets were packed. There are no clear lines of cars and you would not even be able to fit a hand in the space between bumbers.
Arriving at the hotel/hostel, I am informed that this is one of the nicest places we will be staying at. The sheets look questionable but we have A/C. It's late but we decide to go for a short walk. The walk consists of a carpet of trash and feces while dodging holes. As we head back to the room before our 4:45 AM wake up call to catch an early train, I wonder what the hell I just got myself into. Welcome to India.
Keep 'em coming. Loving it so far.
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