Salaam Bombay

OK. So. Let's start with all the cliches. "The first thing you notice about India is the smell." "India is chaos, for all five senses." All that crap.

Come on, people.

Maybe it's the 21st century talking. You can book hotels and train tickets online, get rupees from the ATM at the airport, listen to your iPod in the immigration line.

Maybe it's because I'm a New Yorker. I see crazy stuff all day, and always have to assume that someone is taking me for a ride.

Maybe I over-compensated after hearing all the horror stories.

But my arrival in Mumbai has been completely 100% uneventful. OK, it's been eventful. Eventful in a good way. Eventful in only the way that everything being completely fine and normal and under control can ever be.

Airport -- slightly confusing, but nothing too frustrating. To be honest I was more out of sorts during my layover in Zurich.

Taxi -- the operative word here would be "pleasant", or maybe even "fun". My driver decided that if I was going to have any fun at all in his city, I was going to have to know some Hindi. And then he remedied the situation. Even though I was so jetlagged and exhausted and overwhelmed that I've already forgotten most of it. Aap ka naam kya hai? (What's your name?)

Hotel -- not the Taj, but definitely better than I feared. Clean sheets, ceiling fan in good working order, complimentary bottled water and newspaper. Minimal wildlife.

Breakfast, day 1 -- wandered around scoping out the early morning scene till I found this old Parsi bakery I'd read about. Proprietor an absolute sweetheart. Yummy cakes and chai. Actually, this was my first (and one of the only) disappointments so far, because I was really hoping to start my day with a dosa but didn't see anywhere exciting to get one. I think Parsi bakery man wanted to give me the most "proper" thing on the menu (I seriously just walked in and asked for "a really good breakfast"). Some kind of pound cake type thing. It was still good, and the chai made up for it. Which reminds me I haven't had any yet today...

Oh, did I say this was NOT going to be No Reservations, Starring Sara C? Well. Hm.

Mumbai School Children -- 100% adorable, I think I might steal one.

Indian TV -- heck yeah. Too bad as of tomorrow I'll be staying in some little shack in a village somewhere and won't get a chance to enjoy it for a while.

My First Thali -- HECK yeah. A thali is basically a set meal, somewhere between the classic French five course dinner and a the best all-you-can-eat buffet on the planet. Oh, except you don't even have to burn calories getting up and refilling your plate, because the restaurant has a staff of like 20 dudes wandering around the place just handing out refills. I got 5 different main dishes (weird Rajasthani sort of pasta-style thing, saag paneer, 'brinjal' aka eggplant, and 2 different kinds of daal), 2 different breads in addition to this weird Rajasthani bread called Bati which I swear was the inspiration for those magical cakes they carry around in Lord of the Rings (I started to feel full after one tiny bite), AND a big plate of spiced yogurt, some pakoras, and last but not least, a gulab jamun. I am NOT going to lose weight in this country.

That's pretty much the lowdown on my first day. Today is more bumming around Bombay, then tonight I take a train down to Goa. I'll try to blog again when I get to Margao, the big town where I'll catch a bus to wherever it is I decide to call home for the week (lots of little beach towns to choose from).