Colva beach
Trip Start
Jan 27, 2008
1
3
Trip End
Feb 07, 2008
Where I stayed
Goa, India
Monday, February 4, 2008
I travelled back to Mumbai by train and you may ask why spent 12 hours in a train when a plane takes just over 1 hour. The reason is that as much as I dislike airtravel I like trains and the Indians have their long distance trains well organised. For starters you can book seats online (www.irctc.co.in/) and with a credit card payment and well in advance (60 days) and only a small penalty for cancellation. With the reservation you also enter your passport number and this simple measure discourages black ticket trading. The Margao train station is only 10 minutes from Colva. As a reminder of the countries public transport ambitions but not always fulfilled an abandoned light rail track is on display. My train has no security checks whatsoever and although this train was a day train the local Indians all go into sleeping mode. I was a fun ride through deserted hills with the train getting in and out of tunnels and crossing over countless rivers. The wagons have one serious design fault: most windows are very dirty from inside the double glazing but luckily mine wasn't that bad and in any case the doors of the wagon are left open anyway so you can admire the view at your own peril.
The re-entry into Mumbai is eerily empty by day and pitch black in the evening except for the now familiar makeshift fires to keep warm and for the local trains whizzing by. Do not expect any illuminated wide mumbai-by-night panoramas. At the approach into Victoria station you are reminded that 60% of the 16 million Mumbaiites live in slums. Makeshift housing creeps right up to the track and standing in the train door you can almost shake hands with the occupants. In the cracks of the walls you can see families watch television or people doing the dishes.
My slum tour (the one around the corner at Leopolds, see http://realitytoursandtravel.com) was cancelled at the last moment because the police had impounded the car for some reason (the guide alluded to a police racketeering scheme) . The guide offered to doing the travelling by train up north to the airport but even he was taken aback witnessing the rush hour traffic at victoria. My sister recommends the tour as it focuses on the many businesses like recycling located in the slums. Begging has been encountered only in three or four occasions, child labour is widespread not only in shops but also curiously when it comes to digging holes. For over a week you could see an entire family every 100 meters so busy digging a hole on Marine Drive boulevard with often the wife or child doing the digging. Only much later trees started to appear as well solving that riddle. Families were also spotted fixing potholes on Malabar hill. I suspect municipal jobs like these are not handed out to regular companies but to individuals (who subsequently take the whole family along) as part as an unemployment scheme.
If you want to experience this stretch of India just as I described it you better hurry. The rate of change (for better or worse) is large considering India's annual 10% growth and taken together with buoyant politics information gets outmoded pretty quickly. have fun!
