Jeremy Lim Wen Jie.
26th April 1986
and blah blah.

cowfun@gmail.com

From all the rumours l've heard that mumbai is such a metropolitan city and that its bustling with people and that it being the financial capital of india. It being modern i have to agree.. well some parts of it.. there is still the old mumbai and the new mumbai. One thing for sure is that mumbai is certainly very very crowded.. and expensive. =(( lol

okay.. anw.. about my first trip to mumbai. (well its technically the first trip because the last time didnt really count.)

So our journey started on Friday night. Right after work we went to College Road to book a bus down to Mumbai. It was a 5 hour journey and it was going to leave at about 11. From there we hurry rush back home, bathe, pack and change and we were out and ready to go. Usually on the bus rides you have to get on and tell the conductor where you want to stop and if he agrees, you can head to you seat, catch a nap and he would wake you up when you arrive. However this time, the conductor did not inform us when we went past our stop so we ended up taking the bus till the last destination. Thankfully the last destination for the bus was in Mumbai, sometimes the bus might carry on to different cities and that would be real problematic.

We got down from the bus at about 5am.. The first sight we were greeted with was this flower market. It was already filled with people at 5am in the morning.

I was feeling very tired from the bus ride then so i didnt really feel interested to stay long there. I just wanted to check in to a hotel to freshen up. Moreover i was quite upset with the bus conductor for not stopping for us. We were near the near the metro (train station) and so we decided to catch the train up to where we were supposed to go to book our hotel.

Here's a little on the trains first. The train stations were like very open and there were people walking along the tracks to get to the other side. We manage to purchase our tickets and when we got on the train i remember saying "well the trains are not as crowded as people make them out to be" little did i know that i would be made to eat my words later.

alright for the rest of the trip it will be illustrated with pictures =)

So here we are at the train station at about 5 plus.. kinda empty still =)

This is the queue for us to buy the train tickets. which no one came to check..

Top view of the tracks.. its about 6am and the station is starting to fill up bit by bit...

Inside of the train.. still looks empty =)

me! still tired from the train and bus ride. going to make our way to the hotel to check in..

Our hotel was located far away from the city centre. along this deserted street..

Alright.. after checking in.. we decided to make our way down town by train and this would be the start of my first real train experience in india.. this is really an experience.. because.. you really need skill to actually get on the train because there will be people pushing and kicking you while standing in the train. and its really a mad rush to get in.

As you can see.. The people waiting to get into the train.. the experience ones stand on the tracks itself so that they can rush in from the other side..

Here comes the train.. as you can see there are no doors and its filled with people..

i've even seen people sitting on the top of the trains.. (not in this picture)

We really used all our strengh and body weight to push ourselves in..

here's the view inside the train...

The Mad Squeeze Part 1

The Mad Squeeze Part 2

The Gateway Of India..

The Taj Hotel.. (still under renovation..)