Many had asked the reason why we chose Mumbai, India as our destination for holidays. Definitely, it is not a common choice for tourist like us. Little did they know that India is one of the favorite location for backpackers. I won't say that I am, or we are, backpacker. India is a country full of cultures, good and bad. A place where Buddhism and other religions met. Ajanda caves are one of the many evidences of that.
There is a need for proper planning in every trip. Unfortunately, when we arrived in Mumbai, we could hardly find any informations available to us, tourist. But special thanks to HangMing, who put in lots of effort in making this trip works and keep pushing us in discussing where to go. He did most research for the trips while i did the least =).
As posted in my
FB,
"If we failed to plan, we plan to fail.
He, who led us in planning, led us in exploring the unfamiliar, foreign terrains."
I strongly appreciate the efforts he put in. Of course, WeiPing did contribute too. Ok, I am just plain lazy. =x
We arrived Mumbai late and rested in the hotel for the night. The next morning, what caught my attention is the old buildings outside the balcony, outside our hotel. Yes, we arrived Mumbai. We couldn't stop our excitement and begin shooting photographs while waiting for our breakfast. The crows, the buildings, the sky... nothing can slipped out of our camera. *laugh* This is what happened when a group of photographers travel overseas. Don’t the building (image on the left) looks like some of the older flats we can find in Singapore?
Mumbai, to my surprise, was not as run-down nor was it prosperous as it appeared in TV shows or movie. (Remember MI:4?) It is common to see this kind of apartments (while Singapore named it 'flats') in Mumbai. We are definitely in for an amazing experience. Being the first time out of East & South East Asia, I look forward to the trip. Especially when we met with a couple of uncertainties before confirming this trip, this definitely be a good trip.
Crows are everywhere. They are like unconventional citizens of India. Making this statement is not trying to be sacarstic, this is just an observation, something i felt. The crows are not afraid of human either. In Singapore, we can often 'scare away' the crows easily. The pace in India are slow as well. The crows reflect this fact by flying rather slowly. Not exaggerating, we can see how crows fly and land, or even stay in the sky! Amazing, isn't it? That is a new experience, at least for me! =)
We stayed near Churchgate Station. Churchgate, a major railway termninus on the Western line of Mumbai Suburban Railway, was named after St. Thomas Cathedral. It is just minutes of walk from our hotel, Chateau Windsor Hotel, to the station. But the tickets to Aurangabad (our next destination) was not available in the station. Soon, we found out that we need to get the tickets in the ticketing office opposite the station....
To be continued...
