Fat Lips and Smelly Armpits

Chowpatty beach. Would you like some corn?
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Ok, so I totally lied about going to Panvel.  I didnt actually mean to lie, but after I quickly weaved my way through the cars to get back to the guest house after writing you all a goodbye yesterday, we got the news that Panvel has been flooded and the power was out and trains were not running, so we had no way to get there, even if we wanted to camp out (quite literally) there.  But so we created our own little adventure right here in Mumbai (oh no, not another!)

Little girls begging for money. I gave them a rupee coin each for their picture.
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So first of all, I am crazy because my lip is totally fine now.  Like basically GONE.  Thankfully.  I was a bit of a freak about that, but wouldnt you be if you had no way to do anything about a lip the size of a jawbreaker?!  And you all know I do not flip out very easily.  Maybe it was just because it was so early in the morning.  Yeah, I like that excuse =)  But its fine, my strong antihistamines are awesome.

So, the adventure.  No jumping off trains this time, but we did some cool things.  We took a train (Kate's first time, if you have her blog, that will probably be entertaining to read.  She did not like it one bit.) to Chowpatti Beach.  There were these strange kind of scarey movie type kiddie rides, kind of like the ones you can find outside of Walmarts. And no one was on them.  There was a great view of Mumbai's skyline, but through a thick cloud of smog (Im sorry, the pics will come soon!) and men selling corn husks on the beach (no thank you!).  There were lots of men just standing around, a few women with those men, some stray dogs, crows, and homeless people.  I thought I had a new system, where I would take a picture of them and give them rupee coins for it, but this just makes them follow you even farther, so this plan might have to change.  Oh, also, we say a baby (maybe one year old) just laying on the ground at the train station sleeping, all alone.  It was crazy sad because thats just the way it is and there is noting you can do.

Distracting little snail.
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After the beach we trekked up Malabar Hill and went to some childrens park called Kamala Muhru Park.  Then we took a round about way back and forth to get across the street to the Hanging Gardens.  Both the park and the gardens were nice, peaceful, and quite pretty.  There was a cow tied up in one of the parks, like you might see a horse at a barn in America.  Apparently those guys are sacred and more valuable than another humans life.  He looked at me like he was bored tho.  Poor cow.  Let the little guy roam!

Reminicent of Kate's favorite place besides the ice cream place, Barista (Indian Starbucks)
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On the way down the hill we saw (hidden by trees in the distance) the Temple of Silence, where they leave their dead.  I dont know too much about that.  I was too distracted by the cool little snails on the wall.  Got some pics of those!  Then we went to the bottom of the hill where its almost like a downtown area.  There are no rikshaws and lots of stores..Monsoon Discounts everywhere!  So the rain does bring good fortune.  But so here is the only way I can describe walking around this area: imagine being in a crowded bar, but in that crowded bar not only are you weaving in and out lots of people, but also with taxis, cars, buses, trucks, and mules.  Yeah, mules.  I cant remember the last time I went to a bar with a mule!  Man.  Its a crazy system the way they weave in and out like nothing around here, but man does it work.  After a day you can grab a hold of how to do it and get comfortable with being inches from a moving car.  Its quite fantastic. But if you are claustrophobic, disregard anything I just said. =)  To kind of escape the chaos and heat for a minute, we stoped at a Barista (coffee shop) which is much like an American Starbucks.  Yes, they even had AC!

The crowded train. Just go with the flow and do as the Indians do.
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After the coffee shop, where apparently they have good donuts according to Ross, the donut conossouir in our group (oh by the way my group for rotations is Kate, Ross, Alexandra, and  Susan...not the one who didnt get on the train, another one), we went back on the tightly packed trains to get home.  BUT....we didnt manage to miss rush hour.  The trains get so packed her are that time that people are literally hanging off!  Like I have mentioned, they have women's only cars, and thank god they do because those are some TIGHT quarters.  Susan actually once got on a mens train at this time and one guy used her boob for leverage and another her butt to push by.  Needless to say, we used the ladies only.  Imagine two people hugging...now imagine trying to fit through them to get off the train.  Yeah, you become quite intimate with the smell of sweaty arm pits here.  My trick is, because I am taller than the average Indian (including men) I grab onto the top bars (other poeple hold on to the saddle like bars that hang from it) and stand on my tip toes, so that people's heads just kind of fit right under my arms, leaving just a bit more space for poeple to squeeze by.  If I dont loose weight from this food and all this sweating and walking around, then I will probably look skinnier from all the sucking in I am doing to let people by! Honestly though, its the way of life here, and they are so awesome at it that it makes you wonder what we are doing wrong.  They can get in and out of a train like it's nothing.  It's a crazy push and shove system (literally) that works.  You hop on that train, grab the rail, squeeze to the left of it, people push you in and others out.  Its just nuts.  And trains dont wait, and once you grab, they pull and you get on. Whats really nice too tho is that people on the train are incredibly helpful.  They will find the one person that speaks English, ask you where you are going, and then tell you what side of the train you have to push through to and how many stops you have to do it in.  Im quite in love with it.  But we all know I like chaos and craziness.  And if you didnt, now you think Im just nuts.  I am.

Fact of the day:  The country code for India is 91. (My cell phone number in India is 91 99873 99407, thats a lot of numbers!)

Lesson of the Day:  Stay tall.

Crazy thing of the day: Men dressed as women pretending to be beggars.  Lipstick, nailpolish, saris and all.

Tummy talking:  "You are doing very well Shannon.  And I am actually quite content with the odd pretzel shaped almond/apricot flavored things you had this morning that tasted like hardened duck sauce.  Keep it up."

Oh, and we really are going to Panvel today, so talk to you Friday!  Hopefully we get to talk clinical =)