Mumbai

Week 1 of travel in India brings me to Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. This densely populated city has definitely garnered some unwanted attention recently. In November Pakistani nationals stormed the Taj Mahal hotel and a few other hotels/bar in Colaba district and opened fire, killing American, Canadian, Japanese, Australians and British tourists. Many Indians were also killed near Chhatrapati Shivaji Central Train Station. A fellow traveler asked me in Addis Ababa if I’d be carrying my passport with me at all times during my stay in Mumbai. I was curious why he asked. Turns out the shooters were asking tourists to pull out their Passports. If they were British or American nationals, the terrorists shot them on site.
As with any disaster, once you visit the affected area you feel as if the roll of the dice has left you in the clear, but the shadow still remains in the psyche of most travelers I met. Most are happy about the drop in tourist levels; however, I couldn’t find a room anywhere when I first arrived. Seems people are still flocking to this city.


I ventured into Leopold’s, a local bar made infamous by Gregory David Roberts book “Shantaram”. Having just read the novel before arriving, it was eerie seeing all these landmarks in the book devastated by bullets and fire. Some glass windows are still covered up and I’m sure they haven’t fully cleaned all the stains (the bar reopened 3 days later). A portion of the Taj’s hotel façade is still under repair and the police presence on the street is very noticeable. Sandbag bunkers are strategically deployed on street corners with 3 soldiers apiece, and many plain clothed officers roaming the alleys have brought relative safety to the city.

Mahatma Ghandi Road

The Police is so active here and trying to look busy that they’ve even turned their sights on one of their own. An officer was just arrested yesterday for possession of 12 Kilos of Heroine. I’m sure the cops knew that something was up long before this arrest. I hung out with some French tourists for a few rounds of kingfisher. One of them was telling me about the procurement situation

« Alors l’année dernière c’étais facile de se procurer du désastre mais cette année Ill sons partout ! Ill faut être discret ».
« Last year was easy to pick up some good stuff but this year the cops are everywhere! One must be discreet»

The French will find this one funny!

Bombay Harbour

Chillin

Latest fasions

It’s time to move on to Goa for a little Portuguese influence. I hope they’ve still got some good chai down there! Happy Republic day!

Oh yeah and here's some more Zanzibar!

Beach

Love the colour

Yep

Snorkel trip

No more captions...

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Full album available near you!

I've started uploading all of my pictures from the countries I've visited so far...one album at a time. Each blog post tends to feature about 10-15 photos which I feel give an accurate look. For those of you whom are more curious as to what I've been up to... check it out! This uploading process will likely take a few Indian hours (months) to complete. For now drop by....

http://picasaweb.google.com/pocketshards

New project!

As some of you may know, I've decided to raise some additional money for the orphanage in which I spent time at in Kenya. Located on the outskirts of Nairobi, Gathiga Childrens Hope Home and Rehabilitation Center or G.C.H.H. is a place where kids get a second chance at life. The home is run by Lucy Njoki Ndegwa, a great woman who has taken it upon herself to take in street kids and orphans and provide them with basic care and an education. Her husband, son and daughter also actively involved.

When I arrived in late 2008, the children there had irregular access to dirty drinking water. Their tank was damaged and thus contaminated. With the help of contributions from friends and family, we were able to build the hundred or so children a water tower consisting of a 2300L tank, a sturdy 15ft steel structure, a new pump, sink and a deeper well.
Having achieved all this, the kids are still have poor nutrition as they only eat Ugali (a mixture of maize flour and water) and greens. Inflation in the country has forced Lucy to cut down on all other basic foods (i.e. beans, rice, meat, vegetables)

I am hoping to provide them with the funds to build a chicken coup, buy chicks and provide enough feed for startup. This should serve two purposes. First a sustainable food source in the form of eggs, meat, plus a small additional income from the sale of chickens and eggs.

The coup will require a constant water source, which I believe, we have accomplished with the tower. Now all that remains is a basic shelter for the chickens, a stock of feed (enough to get them started) and the birds. I am Raising $1000 CAD for this project. Through the sale of “I İY Kenyan Orphans” bracelets with help I’ve raised over 300 dollars so far, yet as I am out of the country, raising the remainder will be difficult. I need your help in raising awareness for this small project. If you are interested in donating to this project, or know anybody who is, please go to http://www.ilovekenyanorphans.com/.

Thanks for all your help!

Dom

If you have any questions you can reach me at pocketshards@gmail.com

Zanzibar!

The Zanzibar spice tour was wonderful. I was able to see indigenous spices as well as the ones brought in from various countries. It was great to be able to put a face to a name. Most of the spices I was familiar with back home consisted of the powdered variety. In addition to spices, I was able to see Jack fruit, Star fruit, Cacao, Pineapple and others that produced a red pigment like paint.

Back in the day, the Omani Sultan owned the Zanzibar archipelago and Cloves were the dominant export and cash generator for the sultan. This island was also the last outpost of the slave trade, which was abolished in the late 19th century. Even after trading was abolished, the merchants continued to maintain secret underground caves to hide and ship the slaves. For an extra 1000 shillings we got to see an old slave caves. The sultan used to keep 200 hundred plus slaves in here. You can barely find a flat space to stand, let alone lie down. And the bugs down here were huge! The tour cost about 13 US which included lunch, the half day was enough for most of us, as we got dropped off at the beach. Yours truly stayed in the shade under the coconut trees due to massive burns from a rookie-no-sunscreen-on-3-hour-ferry-ride-mistake.

I met a young American who had been living in Malawi for four months. He’d just returned from New York City and was making his way back to see his girlfriend. After the spice tour we enjoyed a couple of Kilimanjaro beers and Jameson’s at Mercury’s, just down the street where Queen’s Freddie Mercury was born. After an hour shared taxi ride up the coast of Zanzibar, I arrived in Nungwi , a small dhow boat making village. Situated at the northern tip of the island, this village has been transformed into a tightly packed resort chain. The good news is you can easily side step these bigger resorts and focus on the village and the beach.

Just in front of my cabin I counted 52 women dressed in colourful traditional Muslim wear. They were standing in the water with buckets in hand and waiting for the days catch. Four men in their dhow boat would catch a load of small sardine like fish over an hour and return to shore. The women would scramble to meet them halfway and the bargaining would begin. As demand greatly outstripped supply, the lucky few would get a bucketful of fish to be hauled off and sold at market, while the rest would have to wait for the next catch. With unwavering persistence, the women would sit on their overturned pails for as much as 4 hours, for the chance of leaving with something to sell. To add to the trouble, the wind was particularly strong thus making it difficult to secure their headscarfs. With one hand protecting their dress and one on the bucket it gave the more agile ones a small advantage in the seaweed.

Spice tour!

Chocolate or Caccao!!

Pinacollada!

The Sultans slave caves! Last place on earth to abolish slavery.

Umm... Cool looking flowers? I was spacing out a little.

Starfruit!

"Pepper, I put it on my plate" - Canadian PM

Alien Pod or Nutmeg?

Monkey brains or Zanzibar Almond?

Vanilla beans.

Cinnamon bark. Tastes great.

Mini star fruit. Tastes like lime but texture is like an apple.

Anti-Malarial Plant. Eat it or boil it. Makes a bitter tea. Good thing because I decided to take a break from my pills for a few weeks.

Combination of jetlag, damp sweaty quarters, malaria pills and sleep deprivation, caused alien abduction themed nightmares. Should've switched the bathroom light off!

Young cocconut .

Women buying bucket loads of fish from the fishermen out at sea.

Dhow boats.