Mumbai (Bombay), India

Dear friend,
one of my last posts is for this another great country: India! Sorry, I mean Bombay and not India since I've been only in this city and I'm not planning to travel inside it (no much time left, I need to start working, holidays are over).
Anyway, visiting this city is enough to have a first impression of the country and also to see some main and interesting differences compared with the Western culture!

I don't really know where to start...I'm arrived here on Wednesday and I slept for two nights in a hostel found on internet, thus even if it was considered acceptable to live, it was quite far for the main centre and nightlife....better, it was between the two main touristic centre, but far from both! So I've decided to move to Colaba, in the south, for another 3 days, and then in the north for another 2 (on this way I can see both the nightlifes).
Anyway, with transportation there are no problem: cheap and affidable, so even from this first place (Grand road), you can still move around easily!

India is pretty different from Thailand (of course, what a discover!)....I mean, I believed that this country was pretty much close to an European economic than of any other Asian conutry (this just because right now India is the third most powerful economic in the world!), and instead it reflect exactly the China's moment: the economic is growing pretty fast but the live standards are pretty poor! To be more exactly, people here are more poor than any other countries that I've visited! Compared to Thailand, India is more cheaper (even if not for everything) and people are generally mroe poor! Wherever you go you can see people sleeping in the streets, other living in the streets (yes, whole families live inside a unique container hand-made....hard to explain for my pooring english!), and most of the time you can see people just hanging out the city trying to find something to do (or maybe they are doing something for live but I still don't understand what). If for example you stop someone for ask information and the conversation takes a while, at the end you will be surranded by 10-15 people, just there listening, but because they don't really have anything better to do!
To summarize, the population is really poor, I never expected to find this country like this, expecially after my month in Thailand, where everything was clean and nice, even if the country wasn't considered rich! The first impression when somebody comes to India is to be projected in the past, 20-30 years ago! This is really interesting since you can really learn a lot from that....but it's too hard to explain you, the only way is to come here and see by yourself!!

About my experiences here, I've met some cool guys from Russia and Goa (India), and with them I've passed really good time on saturday and sunday night (this one in a latin club first, and then in a famous house club). During the day I've basically explored the city by myself, meeting all the time different people, most of them from India! People are really nice with tourist, but you also need to be carefull from them since poverty can make the difference...in particular the city is splitted my Hindies and Muslins, the first one are fine since their religion is pretty much similar to the Thai one (based on Karma), but I don't know yet much about th Muslins but it doesn't look good from my point of view.

Tonight, monday, there is no too much to do so I've decided to spent some time here at the Internet Cafe' (anyway, wherever you are, Monday is always like that....ops, not true, Thailand is an exeption!), and tomorrow I'm moving in th north of th city, around Bandra/Khar West, where most of the clubs are, hoping to find something interesting to do over there since here in Colaba I really think to have seen everything.....just to let you know, the city is not famous at all for attractions, it remind me Milan, where all the business and economic things are, but not so interesting like Rome of Venice (translated for Indian cities, Dheli is good for architecture - the monumental Taj Mahal is there - and Goa for the beaches and the crazy nightlife)...next trip in India will be thus directed to Goa first (where my new friend Martins live), and then maybe the south! If you think that people from the south must speak in english to understand people from the north, and viceversa of course, it means that travelling in India allow to see really different cultures and amazing places, even if you're in the same country!

Ok, I'm getting bored of typing, I will write more about India in the next future!

See ya