My first day in Mumbai has been great 😁!!
I landed 🛬 just after 4:30am 🌅 and got to my hostel around 5:30am 🚕. Check in time is not until noon, but I had given the hostel a heads up that I’d be arriving really early and they said they would accommodate me if they could, or store my bags until check-in at noon if they could not 🤞.
When I arrived, the man at the front desk told me he had beds available both in the mixed dorm (what I had booked) as well as an all female dorm. He suggested I take the bed in the female dorm because it was a bottom bunk and it would save me having to climb up and down every day. I took his advice, was shown to my room 🙌.
I put my bags 🎒on the floor next to my bed, kicked off my shoes 👟and crawled into my bunk fully dressed (I wasn’t about to dig though my pack for something to sleep in 🤷♀️) to grab a few extra hours of sleep 😴.
I got out of bed around 9am (7am Abu Dhabi time), took a cold shower 🚿(that took some getting used to 😬 ), had breakfast at the hostel, and then ventured out into the world to find a sim card for my phone📱.
I think I was warned about this city just enough 😳.
The smell here is truly hard to get used to 🤢. A combination of rotting meat and fish, human and animal waste, trash and pollution. Honestly, when I walk by a street cart and smell delicious food, it’s hard not to stop just to breathe for a little while 😷.
The roads here are insane! There are no real “lanes”, just cars, trucks, tuk-tuk’s, scooters, and bikes going in every which direction 🌪 making crossing the street a test of trust and faith 🙏 . I had been given a heads up and some advice on how to do it though, so I did fine. Never in my life have I slowly stepped out 🚶♀️ in front of an oncoming car 🚘 and walked, slowly, to the other side 😲.
I spent the morning eating my way around town (I couldn’t just smell the food and not try it!) and then came back to the hostel for a mid afternoon nap in the common room among other backpackers also napping, playing ping-pong 🏓 and listening to music. When I got hungry again I ventured back out to find food, and just as the sky began to open 🌧 up to drench the already muddy streets, I dipped into a restaurant called More’s Kitchen for Butter Chicken, naan, basmati rice and an ice cold beer 🍺. Everything I have eaten has been delicious with the perfect amount of spice!! Side note, it has been about two hours since my last bite of food, and my stomach still feels fine, yippi 🙌!
The weather here today was mostly partly cloudy 🌥 in the mid to high 80’s with mild humidity. A lovely break from the Middle East desert heat 🔥.
Tomorrow I plan to get up early ⏰ in order to get to the Gateway of India before 8:30 am and take a 9am ferry 🛳 to explore Elorra Caves.
If this is one of the hardest cities in all of India to acclimate to, I think I’ll be just fine 💕.
One Good Globe 