Arrived safe and sound in Mumbai around 10:30 am here-time, I think thats about 6am GMT. The place is everything you’d expect- a seething sweltering mass of humanity and crumbling buildings- it is absolutely overwhelming. The heat is stifling- it was 32 degrees when the plane landed this morning, and, I guess, it probably got hotter since then. The taxi driver said today would get up to 49 degrees - this can not possibly be true.
I actually got the hotel to send someone to pick me up with a board saying my name on it. I felt a bit bad about this, it was a bit like cheating. But at least I wasn’t killed immediately.
I’ve just had a walk around the block, and I had to go and lie down after half an hour in the sun and in the full gaze of Mumbai life. I’ve already had to turn away child beggars and drug dealers aplenty- its so hard to say no ( to the child beggars), but you wouldn’t be able to get back to your hotel if you took your wallet out (I’m informed). It is all at once hostile and hospitable, charming and ugly, outrageous, and .. well, just pretty outrageous.
I’m feeling pretty good considering I didn’t get any sleep last night, but the heat is so severe I may take a little nap for an hour now before eating. I’m not wearing any sunblock, as earlier I put on my mosquito repellant, and then panicked that its magic would be lost if I put something on top of it. I don’t know which order to apply myself with lotions and tonics- this may be crucial in staying alive for the next few hours.
The hotel is a bit of a dump - 1 medium sized cockroach so far- but is comfortable and safe, and I have an idea of where to eat for later. I’m meeting a friend of my cousin Ben’s later on, so that will be a good way to see a bit of the city, then by tomorrow it should finally sink in what on Earth I have let myself in for.
They say you see more people in Mumbai in one day than you do in London in a year- this is also not true, but I’m away to test it.
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