Bring on the madness!!

A week and half in and we're writing our first Blog!! We were here in Sepember '06 for a holiday, (well Sharon was working) and now we're here full on. It was only a short time in the making to get us here, from concept to reality, from Annerley, Brisbane to Juhu in the northern surburbs of Mumbai. Plug these Google Earth coordinates into the fly to tab and that's where we is! "Juhu Home" lat=19.1069492647, lon=72.8327652348

The differences are a mix of the extreme and subtle all at once.. We were given the advice some time ago to think of India not a 3rd world country but as a whole new world. It is so true, India is another world no doubt about it! We're no experts after 10days but the the difference of the poverty and opulence is unmistakable. Depending on which book you read, this city is home to between 13 and 18million people, all of which eat, sleep, work, play and everything else which comes naturally.. yeah Mumbai is out there for all to see, every minute of every day.. The bollywood stars on every billboard are seen in the exclusive bars of Bandra, the rich walking with the poor in the gray market streets, the street urchins latching onto any $$ mark they see and the endless beeps and honks from the ever increasing traffic.

Each morning on Juhu beach the middle class are out for the morning walk, cricket and soccer matches are played every 100m but don't even thing about swimming in the water because those people you think are praying at the low tide mark are simply enjoying the best loo with a view in the city.

Some in this area are rich enough to have their own 7 story building for the immediate family and others sleep in the rickshaw they drive, living in hope each day to pick up the golden cow of the tourists who can't read the meter.. OK I'm sure you get the picture but if you would like to see a short film on the ways of the Mumbai Taxi Drivers deal with their surrounds.. Horn OK Please

We traveled around Juhu and Bandra in the comfort of the auto rickshaws where let me tell you we've supported a few of the families until we learned how to read the meter.. no wonder they pass the locals by and make a direct line for us! People 610 on the meter is not 610 Rupee it's 61, big difference but no matter..

On our way to becoming experts at reading the meter we were treated to quite a bit of fun in the first few days... An overheated "cool cab" on arrival.. poor bugger.. was it our excess baggage which cooked the cab.. We felt for him, sitting on the side of the road, bonnet up with what seemed like 1000 onlookers, less than 1km to our new home.

The next morning we woke to drums and trumpets in the street heralding the arrival of a Jain Guru to our neighbours home. We ran out into the street not knowing what was going on but we soon found out this was something special. We were invited in to sit with, meet with and eat with the congrigation as they celebrated the Guru and the messages he had. The property owner was our translator describing the 28 disciplines of the guru and how they give up all worldly posessions to reach the highest level.. This is why he and his helper are naked at all times during the celebration..









Our new home is a modest 4 bed apartment with surburban views convieniently located close to shops, resturants and a casual walk (mind the potholes, dog sh!t and every kind of transport that wants to use the same piece of bitumen as you). Our night watchman is Yardif, he's a nice bloke, he's been with the building for 30 years and not a word of english, so we are communicating with hand gestures and lots of smiling and the odd head wobble... so far so good.. Gold Coast Tourism has an offical office in the east wing and Markus Engineering Designs is setting up in the west wing.. We have to thank the music gods for IPOD because it has been running full time until we get our shipment from Oz through the bribes of Indian Customs..


We've partly furnished the apartment with odds and sods from the markets and oh an LCD TV for the 200+ channels we're yet to receive... so far we've got 4 sport, 4 news and 50 bollywood channels!! Get this though.. we pressed the salesman for a good deal with the TV and he threw in some movies, one of which was Kalyug which starred Shaz and Paprika!! classic film people!!!

We've dropped into south bombay for a few beers at Leopolds, unfortunately no Shantaram this time but we'll persist!

OK I feel the onset of too may Kingfishers so it's time for a pause and a night in Bandra to be with the bollywood beautiful people..

Stay tuned for more Mumbai Madness!!