Mumbai-- arrival

Written in the late afternoon of Nov. 9, while in my hotel room in Mumbai. The picture was taken at the Gateway of India, just after sunrise that first morning.
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Well, here I am. In India. In Mumbai no less.

I am in my hotel room here in Colaba, called Maria Lodge, with my new traveling buddy Christoph. Christoph is a German student a few years my senior whom I met at the airport here after our arrival on the same plane from Bahrain, in seek of someone to split the (relatively high) cost of a cab from the airport. I just happened to be so lucky that the one person I ended up talking to was heading to the same part of Mumbai without plans or a hotel reservation. Christoph seems to be quite a kind, bright fellow. He looks like some kind of poster boy for the Third Reich (as he acknowledged himself at one point, in context), and happens to have had a book of short stories he wrote published. We have been operating so far almost as if we traveled here together, sharing this hotel room (after looking at at least 5 other places) and spending the morning wandering about Mumbai together. I expect we part ways in a few days--he plans to start his 2 months here by first going north--which is okay, but he has been great company. Having a companion has made arriving in Mumbai a good deal less overwhelming, I think. In fact, so far, despite seeing many of the things I was told I might find here, I have been almost disappointing un-overwhelmed. But perhaps I speak too soon.

The highlight so far was without doubt arriving at dawn at the Gateway of India, an impressive waterfront arch built by the British some while ago essentially as a monument in honor of themselves (or so it appears, anyhow). After perhaps 45 minutes in the cab from the airport in low, pre-dawn light, during which I witnessed more poverty than I've seen total in the rest of my life (I think we passed through a stretch of what may be the world's largest slums), the driver let us out a block away from the Gateway. And then we were in India. We watched the sun rise over the water (not something I can recall having done before, come to think of it), both of us just sort of standing there in a sleepy awe, laughing to ourselves out of a sort of excited contentment to be where we were in the context that we had arrived.

We've just awoke from a 4-5 hour nap, and are about to head out again, perhaps for some food. Hopefully I'll find some internet, too. I'm thinking that tomorrow perhaps I will visit Elephanta Island, and think that perhaps I'll move on from Mumbai the day after that.

Best,
Josh