Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 10648R/$213
It was the best start to the day we have had in a long time! I was feeling about 80% of my best, but that was a huge improvement and definitely the best I have felt in a long time. Our breakfast of Mortadella and toast, and vanilla yogurt with muesli cereal, and banana and peanut butter almost made us feel at home and boosted our spirits, I think. We were hopeful that things were looking up for us. But as Jeff has been saying, what India gives, it will almost always take back in some form and then take some more. But maybe things would be different this time. We were hopeful.
There were some stores we wanted to visit today and they were all fortunately in walking distance of our hotel. The first store we went to is a large retailer with locations all throughout India called Fabindia. The location near our hotel only sold homeware and décor type stuff. It was a nice branded store with good quality stuff and reasonable prices. Of course all items had fixed prices. We spent some time looking through their Ayurvedic products, which are basically homeopathic/organic medicines. Many medicines made claims about helping with all kinds of things ranging from stress and anxiety, to diet pills, to pain and arthritis, to the most tempting of them all for us - digestion. India is very well known for their Ayurvedic medicines. Our book has many recommended places all throughout India that provide Ayurvedic services. This was our first time seeing anything Ayurvedic-related close up, so we were kind of intrigued, but our skepticism kept us from buying anything. We did however walk out with conditioner and face wash. Always good to have those!
We continued on down the street. We came across a couple more stores Lonely Planet recommended, but found nothing of interest. I was hoping to find a tunic that was fashionable enough to wear at home, but we weren't having much luck. A tunic is similar to a kurta, but a little shorter, ending about mid-thigh. Most of the tunics I've seen so far have been a little too “Indian”, if you get my meaning…they just don’t look right on me! We turned the corner and began walking down the popular Linking Rd. There are tons of higher end shops all down the long street, including Guess and Calvin Klein, both of which we skipped. I found a couple pairs of shoes I loved, but I held out hoping for something better.
Then it was like déjà vu. Jeff got stopped by a little boy offering shoe shining services. This time I wanted nothing to do with his decision, since the last time we were in this predicament in Vietnam we ended up fighting for several hours when the kid turned his perfectly fine Nikes into what are now affectionately known as his “Frankenshoes”. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when Jeff told the kid he could shine his Frankenshoes. I think I heard his shoes even yell, “but why?! Don’t you remember what happened the last time?!” Jeff ignored them (and me, for that matter) and let the kid proceed with his service.
The boy opened up a can of a brown mucus-y substance that he said was “organic polish”. It could have very well been simply cow dung. Who knows? The boy promised it wouldn't make Jeff’s shoes brown. Jeff didn’t look concerned at all though. I was totally confused by the whole thing. The boy then proceeded to tell Jeff his life story and about how his mother and sister are beggars, but that he prefers to work rather than beg. He then said he was working in Mumbai because he owed his father money. He said he was hoping to save up to buy a real shoe cleaning box so that the authorities would allow him to work at the train station where he could make more money. Two minutes later, after completing his less than mediocre shoe shine of Jeff’s runners, Jeff gave him 100 rupees out of the kindness of his heart. The boy originally asked for 5 rupees. But the boy was not satisfied with 100 rupees. He began begging Jeff to buy the shoe polish box for him for 350 rupees. Jeff was adamant that 100 rupees was more than generous and that his shoe box was out of the question. The kid followed us for a minute or two, begging for a shoebox until we walked into Theobroma, which is where we had decided to eat lunch. There are so many beggars in the Bandra area. They flock there because Linking Rd and Bandra is one of the most upscale areas in Mumbai.
In Theobroma we shared a Mediterranean omelette and Jeff had a latte and a lime soda. For dessert we shared their delicious blueberry cheesecake. It was so creamy and tasty. Jeff preferred its texture to the usual cheesecake at home, though I like my rich, thick, and cheesy cheesecake better. It was still really good. During lunch we laughed about Jeff’s runners and the fact that they were so disgraceful. We came to the conclusion it was time to put them to rest for good and find Jeff new shoes to wear for the rest of the trip. Jeff was on to new and better shoes! We almost couldn't believe it.
As we walked out of the restaurant we were naturally greeted by the shoe shiner kid who proceeded to follow us to the next store begging. He kept telling Jeff he didn’t care about the money, so Jeff turned around and asked the kid for the 100 rupees back, more to see how he would react that actually wanting it back. The boy basically just ignored him, though, and repeated how it was not about the money and asked for a shoe box. He was persistent that’s for sure, although he did eventually give up.
We walked into several nice shoe stores, still not totally sure what kind of shoes to buy Jeff. It soon became clear we needed something very practical and versatile so we decided to go with another pair of runners. One of the last stores on the Linking strip was Nike and it was there we found Jeff’s glorious new shoes. Although they weren’t that comfy at first, Jeff threw the insoles of his old shoes (which we had bought separately from his old shoes, but at the same time) into the new shoes and that worked perfectly.
Now, we thought, what to do about Jeff’s old shoes? At first we told the people at Nike they could just throw them out, but then we decided we’d rather just give them to someone on the street, so we asked for them back. Jeff walked our wearing his new runners. He seemed like a new man… he walked out with his head held high…. No longer would he have to hide his feet from the world.
It was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel. We didn't find anyone to give the shoes to so we just left them on the sidewalk in the open shoe box for someone to pick up.
We decided that night we wanted to experience some of the nightlife in Mumbai. Lonely Planet recommended a place called “Olive” for drinks and entertainment, so we headed there. It was very close to the beach and our hotel. We took a quick trip in an auto-rickshaw to the coast and decided to walk the rest of the way to the restaurant. About 30 minutes later, and after some bad advice from one local and some good advice from another, we found it. Turns out we had actually walked right by it. The sign was tiny and placed behind some tree branches…smart advertising.
The place was indeed a bit snooty and the host at the front definitely checked us both out from head to toe before he allowed us in. As he led us to our seats, he looked disappointed with himself for deciding to let us in. We had a good laugh about that. The service from there on was decent though - very professional. We enjoyed a glass of wine each and shared one of the nicest meals we have had in a long, long time. We debated whether it was the best meal of our entire trip. It was definitely among the top 3!
Unfortunately though, the entertainment and nightlife we were hoping to see was non-existent. It was a pretty relaxed place but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves anyway even though it cost us an arm and a leg to eat there.
We took a taxi ride home and arrived full, tired, and happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment