We still managed to breakdown today, and we only Ubered around Mumbai the whole day. Our light was on all last night so the battery is dead. So we have to figure out how to get it starting again tomorrow morning.
This morning and last night are just about how much I can handle this. Indians will not speak to me unless I speak to them or they are hitting on me. At our hotel in Goa, I called for the wifi and the receptionist asked if he could speak to “sir”. This hotel in Mumbai, which I paid for and booked, set the wifi username as “Soulard”. All the uber drivers think that Antoine had ordered them, even though it was me. However, not all these occasions are bad. The street marketers always approach him first, all the questions go to him, and I’m often told to sit down, which is great because I am exhausted most of the time. Also, Antoine gets swarmed because he is white. The amount of people who have taken pictures of or with him is insane. Apparently, they just don’t think that I speak English.
We took a ferry to see the Elephant Island to see some ruins, which was cool and all. But the monkeys that were all over the place was even better. Another thing about this island is that the Indians have managed to trash the whole place. The mangroves were tangled in trash, in their branches and leaves. Dogs run around the bits of trash looking for food, and crows watch from a high ledge. I can see why anyone wouldn’t like it in Mumbai.
In the evening we went to one of the street markets to buy Indian pants. We bought 10 pairs and a shirt for 2000 rupees, 4 traditional dresses for 6500, and one traditional shirt for Antoine for 800. That’s about a total of 150 dollars. I’d say we did pretty well.
We are halfway through the Rickshaw Run and we found out that someone has already reached the finish line. Part of me wants to be part of that team and another part of me doesn’t. I can’t wait to be back in my own room, knowing where I’m going to be the next day. I also cannot wait to eat food without worrying about how safe the food I’m eating is.
-Jamie