Mumbai

We left way too early (for a Saturday morning) and surprisingly got to the station without any trouble and even got on the right train.



It took us 5 hours for the journey of about 170 km. (However there is said to be a faster train which only takes 3 hours. We are still learning... )


After our arrival we got ripped-off by a taxi driver, who was so kind to bring us to our hostel for 4 times as much as we should have paid and even tried to get 20 rupees more than that when we arrived. Well, now we know... :)

This is Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Station Mumbai) where our train arrived.



I initially expected Mumbai to be more crowded and adventurous than Pune and was ready for another culture shock. But nope, I was wrong. Obviously we stayed in touristy areas during the two days and didn't go to see any poor parts of Mumbai. However I was nevertheless surprised that what we got to see was way more relaxed and less chaotic than in Pune. We enjoyed the international atmoshpere and noticed that people were more open and friendly.

Sometimes it was a strange and unreal feeling to see police men hidden behind walls of sandbags on the streets, or to come across an armor-plated police vehicle in front of a night club. Considering the history of terror that Mumbai has and the fact that many places that we saw once were targeted, it's probably better just not to think about it too much.
However last week I suddenly found myself sitting on the back of a colleague's motor-bike without having any choice or moment to think about it (and of course without a helmet), rushing through Pune's traffic to the registration office. That was probably way more dangerous than the small likelyhood to be close to any terror attack. :)

I think we saw a lot for the short amount of time that we had.
Some impressions of where we went and what we saw:

That's the Gateway of India




We learned that there are 70.ooo taxis in Mumbai, and that rikshaws are only allowed in the suburbs.


That's a private hospital (if our driver was right)


Jain Temple




The attempt to bring some colour into our apartment. Fortunately they did NOT buy the half-naked Sha Rukh Khan.


The famous Leopold Café where we had dinner on the first night.

Well, at least some of you know my attitude towards pigeons ...

Mumbai University


Anyone any idea what kind of birds they are?


Mahalakshmi dhobi ghats - the world's largest outdoor laundry.


The Hanging Gardens




It was a nice weekend. I'm sure we will be back in Mumbai some time soon ...

we are fine!

Hey,

you might hear about a terror blast at the German Bakery in Pune that happened about 3 hours ago. We don't know a lot about it yet.

But the other interns and me are all well!

So please don't worry.

winter wonderland

Despite of the disturbing terror attack that happened nearby in the evening, we had a nice Saturday. It was our first free day since we arrived in India. We hadn’t seen a lot of the city yet so we decided to stay in Pune and start to visit the first one of Pune’s sights. Since we still have winter and chilly 33°C it was the perfect day for a trip through the city.

... highly motivated (but already suffering from the heat) on the way to the rikshaws

We went to Shaniwar Wada, the ruins of a palace which was built in 1732. At the entrance we strangely got somehow the feeling that we might not be perfectly welcome. But nevertheless we paid the 100 Rs entrance fee (Indians pay only 5 Rs) and ignored the disdainful behaviour of the guy who sold us the tickets.

After a few steps we saw, yeah … ruins, and would have loved more information about the palace. We read the in the travel guide about the place until we found out that the palace had become even more interesting for the Indian visitors since we arrived. It was almost funny to watch how some guys secretly tried to take pictures of us with their cell phones, some didn’t bother to keep it a secret, and others just came to us and asked to take a picture. Naive as we are we thought at first that they simply wanted us to take a picture of them (there are so many international companies here in Pune, we are by far not the only western people), but soon we noticed that they just wanted pictures together with us …

However, since we take pictures all the time, it is probably only fair if the Indian people take pictures of us too.

(street scene outside of the palace as seen from the palace wall)

After we had seen the palace we walked through the area nearby. It is so fascinating to see all the different booths where you can buy fresh fruits, juices, or all kinds of things to eat.

Later we went to Laxmi Road. The streets in this area have a large number of small shops with mostly traditional indian clothes but also all kind of other things. It was nice to spend some time in the bazaar atmosphere.

… and now I’m here.

Hey everybody,

I’ll try to write a few first impressions, altogether I’m fine, trying to get used to the weather and the different culture.

The way from the airport in Mumbai to Pune was already an adventure. It is one thing to watch videos on youtube that show crazy traffic scenes, but suddenly to be in the middle of the chaos is alone worth a visit of India. We got picked up in Mumbai and it took us about 3 hours to get to Pune. Strangely I didn’t worry too much and felt safe the whole time. As we got told, traffic rules do exist in India, however nobody really cares about them and usually the bigger or stronger car wins. The streets were crowded with cars, trucks, persons (sometimes whole families) on motorbikes, pedestrians, and of course street dogs (despite of the time, it was 2 am). Everybody was honking, sometimes leaning out of the window to emphasize the intention of changing a lane. However lanes are not regarded as that important anyway…
Well, we got to our apartment, and the highway from Mumbai to Pune is really good. It was fun.

Today we spent a few hours at work (most of the time just waiting) and at the local registration office. We were told by our mentor that bureaucracy in India is even worse than in Germany. I didn’t believe it at first, but now officials here even know now how many pillows we have in our beds … however that went well too. We had great help and although at the end it turned out that most of us didn’t have to register at all, we were accompanied the whole time by a nice guy from our company. Without him, no chance we would ever have managed the whole process!!!

Oh yeah, and we already got lost twice. It was kind of funny both times, and we survived (what honestly is not THAT easy for German pedestrians in Pune’s traffic).

The first two days were very intense. We had a lot of things to do, oh and of course we went to dinner twice and had really, really delicious indian food. :)

Sorry, I’m too exhausted to write more for now. I will add a few pictures to show some first impressions. I'm sure things will slow down here eventually and I'll have more time to write.

that's our group, still in Heidelberg


our arrival in Mumbai, happy to be in the right car and on the way to Pune


It is fun to take rikschaws for transportation. Especially if they drop you of at the right place... otherwise ... well, we survived. :-)






That's close to our apartment building