India Part 1

January 24, 2017

India Part 1

Not even sure how to start... such a wonderful magical day! Everything is so different here than back home. My flight landed around midnight and a guy from the hotel was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it 😁 It took me a minute to find him because there were about 100 people holding signs with names on them. The ride to the hotel was shocking. There are stray dogs everywhere! They drive on the opposite side of the road here... they don't really use lanes and honk all the time! 😂The hotel staff were super nice when I arrived. They showed me to my room and I passed out for a couple hours.

I met up with my tour guide (Pranav with Grand Mumbai tours - Day tours) early in the morning and we set off to see Mumbai! Naav (Pranav, the owner) was absolutely amazing! Super entertaining and animated 🤗 We had a schedule of things to see but we stayed at each spot as long as I wanted to and he helped me take tons of pictures! I highly recommend his tour if you visit Mumbai! He's one of the top rated tours on TripAdvisor and I definitely see why!

Saw the gateway to India and the Taj Mahal Palace. Ran into a group of triathaloners so I had to meet them! The older man to the left of me was just setting out to do a super long bike race! We saw a lady feeding some of the stray dogs and turns out she feeds about 40 stray dogs every morning and every evening! Such a sweet woman and fellow animal lover 🤗 She has my dream job 😍Visited the train station then headed to the outdoor laundry mat. This was the highlight of my day! There are over 5,000 people that live here and they do the laundry for the entire city including hotels and hospitals! They said they work seven days a week and work 14 hours a day! There were a bunch of adorable little kids running around because we went there on a Sunday and they were out of school. I got my scarf cleaned here! It was less than one dollar and it was done in less than 24 hours!

We went to several beautiful temples and even got to see a little parade! Went to a few markets where they had tons of fresh vegetables and other food. Ended the day with a train ride that was a little terrifying but so much fun! The doors stay open while the train is moving and you can hang out of the side! Of course I tried this 🤗 The food here is so yummy but very spicy! I have to remember to ask for 'very mild' lol

Ladies... if you come here, bring toilet paper! The only place that had toilet paper was my hotel and it was some weird paper towel kind lol Everyone uses 'water' here after they pee and poop! There's a small shower head thing coming out of the wall in all the bathrooms and you're just supposed to spray everything off and have wet pants for an hour 😂 Thankfully I brought toilet paper with me! I tried it once and will continue to use toilet paper lol

Everyone I've met here is super sweet! I have felt completely safe the entire time I've been here and haven't felt uncomfortable once. As long as you use normal precautions (females don't walk around at night alone and keep your purse close in crowded areas) then you'll be fine! I do these things living in Atlanta anyways. Women are definitely respected here more than I thought they were. There's a special part of the train just for women to ride when it gets very busy just to avoid anyone harassing them. AND if a man harasses a woman in public then they go to jail! Men let women walk in doors first here and they open doors for women! And it's not just me (might be thinking it's because I have pale skin and look weird here) but the men did this for all the women! So neat!