And so the end.....
Trip Start
Sep 19, 2002
1
129
Trip End
Sep 22, 2003
Bombay (mumbai), India
Friday, September 19, 2003
Our hotel was plush if not totally clean and well kept. We had a huge room with sofas and a big bath tub but we never used it as it was cracked and a bit dirty. In the afternoon we ventured out along the Causeway which is a main road with stalls crammed all along the pavement. As usual the vendors step out in front of you, sometimes for a spot of 'tit cricket' which resulted in me knocking saffron accidentally out of one vendor's hands. They all insist you look at all their dodgy wares and find it totally unnaceptable that you won't buy anything. We were particularly amused by the GIANT balloons and the sellers followed us up and down the streets every time we went out. As cosmopolitan and clean as Bombay is, there are squillions of beggars and people sleeping on the streets. The city has the largest slums in the world and we saw them when we flew over on the way to Goa. I'll never get used to toddlers and small children (and adults) running around the filthy streets with no shoes and often no clothing at all. However, we were immediately aware that this is where the rich people live, even if we wern't in the right area. The cars were sometimes shiny and much bigger and more powerful than everywhere else and the restaurants were more expensive and less 'earthy'. The streets were cleaner although far from clean and the pavements and roads were much better kept. The city is so cosmopolitan that we really struggled to find reasonably priced Indian food! In fact for our last meal we thought we would really go to town and ended up in a bistro eating fusion food! It was one of the best meals I've ever had though and still cheaper than most meals at home.
We spent our final two days shopping and we spent an hour in the supermarket choosing lime pickle for me to take home - I'll miss that when we leave India if nothing else! We also tried to buy some jeans - here comes another LJ shaggy dog story......
It's our last day and 9am we go to the Wrangler shop for jeans. They're too long as it's too expensive for the shops to stock various lengths as well as sizes so it's the norm for all jeans in India to be altered. We really didn't want this as they never look the same but they went into great detail about the processes etc, even showing us an altered pair, and convinced us (begrudgingly) to go ahead stating that they would look exactly the same as the original. Telling you what you want to hear is a very Indian thing and they even have a phrase for it, it's called chum chuggery! Unfortunately we had to pay for all three pairs of jeans for them to go ahead so you can imagine what happened next.
At 5pm we went back and sure enough the jeans were not to my liking as they had two seams. They cut the bottoms off and then shorten them and sew the hems back in so that you get the bleaching and puckering effect still. There followed a lot of shouting by them and me as in typical Indian fashion, the customer is always wrong. They accused me of lying and I accused them of cheating us out of our money and things got extremely heated. They wouldn't call their senior manager as it was a long distance call and the phone was not enabled for that. They wouldn't call the police (I felt they had stolen our money) and they would not give us our money back as it was against company policy. They stated they looked exactly the same as the originals and any man in the street wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Therefore I took them into the street and did a survey and sure enough, people could tell the difference and I promise I didn't lead the witness at all. The lady came into the shop with me to support me but they then started screaming at her! I was so insensed that I pushed the staff (all 7 of them) out of the way and went around the back of the counter and banged on the till to try and open it. This obviously didn't work - anywhere else in India the money would have been kept in a cardboard box but oh no, not here. I then tried another tactic, the calm and ammused approach. As they would not give us our money and we would not accept the faulty goods, I decided to help myself to three new pairs of jeans. I took two pairs and on the third they all rushed over to tell me I was stealing. Oddly enough they still wouldn't call the police (I did have a receipt though...) A rather ammusing tug of war ensued in the middle of the shop and I felt I would have laughed if I hadn't been so angry. In fact I have never been more angry in my life, more at the way we were being treated than the communication break down that had caused this in the first place. By some miracle the telephone was suddenly able to make long distance calls and several phone calls then took place between myself, the senior manager and then the area manager. They tried to tell us that if we tried them on they would be alright. I don't think so. And then they asked us to leave it with them for 48 hours. No no no. They they told us it was our fault as we had asked for them to be changed and of course they looked different as they were now shorter. Stop making me laugh! Eventually the senior manager got the point that we were leaving the country in about 4 hours and we were not leaving the shop without our money and in the meantime all their other customers were leaving as the noise was just too much. By some other miracle, the area manager was in the area and said she would come over. We'd been in the shop one and half hours by this time! You're probably thinking where was Pip in all this? He was right behind me whispering "just keep going, it will be okay, they'll cave in a minute". In fact one of the shop assistants asked him if sir's jeans were okay for him so I replied they were not okay for him at all. The assistant then asked Pip why he wasn't saying anything and before he could answer I shouted "Because I won't let him get a word in that's why!" Just then, the manager of the Lee shop two doors along came in to 'help' and told us that once we washed the jeans they would be okay. I laughed and told him that washing two peices of material does not make them one piece of material, no matter what. Eventually the area manager turned up and said indeed the jeans were incorrectly sewn but anyway they would still have the second seam. She realised there had been a miscommunication and that we were not going anywhere without the money or nw jeans (which we obviously didn't want) and finally gave in and offred us new jeans. I remonstrated further and she threw her hands in the air and 2 full and exhausting hours after entering the shop, we left with our money. Phew! A typical experience to end our Indian journey although we really didn't need that so close to our flight!
About 10.30pm we left our last hotel room for the airport and we knew when we getting close as we could smell the slums. We had to give a lot of our old clothes away to the street people to make room for all our purchases so we did feel we had helped a bit. Entering the airport we shook off the filth and poverty but not the slow service and spent 3 hours checking in and going through security etc. The flight was fine and we got a little sleep and we got the curry we wanted for our last meal in India and eventually arrived back in London Friday morning to a wonderful welcoming party and a perfect English late summers day. In the car park we stood and breathed in the polluted London air which felt to us like nectar. Boy it's good to be back!
Comments
Well written......... but not wisely written i suppose. :P
When in Rome, be a Roman.....When in India, Live the Indian.
I feel sorry for all the troubles you went through in between your little pleasant experiences. But it seems to me that somehow you followed the guidebook too much to allow 'Indian' experiences onto you..... and then very amusingly quip at it.
Typically English...... lol.
No offense but unlike in India, people of North and west are not worth the land. :D