Our backpacking trip: Dia 251 / Day 251

En la mañana fuimos a la Puerta de India para tomar un tour por Mumbai. Ayer negociamos el precio y los detalles con un señor, asi que hoy llegamos al mismo lugar y hablamos con el y compramos los tiquetes. Cuando estabamos en el bus empezamos a ver que eramos los unicos turistas, le preguntamos al guia que si el tour era en ingles y casi no nos entiende y luego dijo “poquito ingles”… ahi nos dimos cuenta que nos habian tumado una vez mas. Fui a la oficina y hable con el señor e inmediatamente me devolvio la plata. Desafortunadamente esta es la manera como ellos trabajan aca, tumbando los turistas… si nos hubieramos ido en el bus nos hubiera tocado hacer un tour en Hindu donde no sabiamos ni donde estabamos.

Empezamos a caminar buscando una “segunda tumbada”… porque con seguridad habra una segunda o mas! Hablamos con un señor y acordamos un precio por un tour de 3 horas en taxi. Durante el tour le preguntamos cuanto costaba que nos llevara a Dharavi, un barrio de invasion muy popular en Mumbai… nos dijo que era muy lejos (mentira) y que era muy costoso pero que podiamos caminar dentro del barrio y tomar fotos. Le dijimos que parte queriamos ver y acordamos un precio. Llegamos alla despues de manejar 10 minutos (no muy lejos de donde estabamos) pero no nos pudo mostrar la zona que nosotros queriamos ver, asi que a los 10 minutos le dijimos que nos queriamos ir; no nos estaba mostrando nada y no sabia donde quedaban los lugares. Incluso en el tour de Mumbai no nos mostro lugares que habia prometido mostrarnos. Cuando fue la hora de pagar fue problema, el estaba esperando la plata completa de los dos tours, pero no le queriamos pagar completo porque no nos habia mostrado los lugares que acordamos y el tour de Mumbai habia estado muy corto. Despues de peliar muchisimo acordamos un precio, le pagamos y nos fuimos… nos volvieron a tumbar! Estamos listos para irnos de esta ciudad, nos ibamos a quedar otro dia pero no vale la pena todo el desgaste y agotamiento de peliar con esta gente… solamente ven al turista como una bolsa de plata caminando por las calles! Esto no es lo que queremos experimentar durante nuestra visita en India… hemos conocido personas encantadoras y lugares fascinantes pero lidiar con este tipo de gente y situaciones es muy agotador.

A pesar de todos los inconvenientes se conocio un poquito!

En la tarde estuvimos en el museo Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya donde habia una esposicion y pelicula en 3D de una momia prestada por el Museo Britanico.

Despues fuimos a la playa Chowpatty donde habia mucha gente, todos disfrutando de su paseo dominical. Mucha comida callejera pero solamente comimos algodon dulce, no le podemos seguir pegando tan duro al estomago!

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In the morning we went to the Gate of India to take a Mumbai’s city tour. We had negotiated the price and the details last night and came back to the same place and talked to the same guy. We bought the tickets and got on the bus, however we started noticing that we were the only tourists on the bus. We asked the guide if the tour was in English as promised and he said “little English”… this clearly showed us that we had been cheated once again. I decided to confront the ticket guy so I went to the office and talked to him… withouth hesitation he refunded the money. Unfortunately this is the way they operate here in Mumbai… it we had left on the bus there was no way but put up with 8 hours tour in Hindi without knowing where the hell we were.

So we walked around looking for “a second punch”… be sure you will get a second one! So we agreed with a guy to take a 3 hours city tour by taxi. During the tour we asked him how much it was to take us to the Dharavi slum… he said it was too far (lying) and it was expensive but we could walk around with him and take pictures. We told him what we wanted to see and agreed on a price. He took us there (it was only 10 minutes drive from where we were) but did not deliver on his promises so we asked him to leave after 10 minutes. Even on the city tour he cheated us and did not show us some sites he promissed… when it was time to pay he was expecting the whole amount, we did not want to pay him because we did not get what we asked for and even the city tour was short. After a heavy argument we agreed on the amount and told him that he was a cheater and left… we got our second punch! We are ready to leave this city… they just see the tourist as money bags! This is not what we want to experience during our visit to India… we have met great people and have seen fascinating places but dealing with these types of situations is annoying and exhausting.

Despite all the obstacles we did get to see some of the city!

In the afternoon we went to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum where we saw an exhibition and 3D movie about a mummy lent by the British Museum.

Late in the afternoon we went to Chowpatty Beach. There were lots of people there enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon. Lots of street food… we only had sugar cotton, cannot keep hitting our stomachs that hard.