Bill's Bloody Brilliant Backpacking Blog : 3 Things I Learnt From Mumbai

1) Us English use far too many words.

Watching the locals communicate made me realise how overly polite we are. A 'yes', 'no', 'please move over', or 'one of those please' can be conveyed with a simple nod, head wobble (which I bloody love) or gesture, without being considered rude. It must save so much faffing and energy.

This is Barampipi (spelling?), a charismatic stall owner who asked for a picture and spent about 30 seconds preparing his pose, which turned out pretty great.

2) Never jump sideways off a moving train

Whilst on the Churchgate line (apparently the busiest and also most deadly trainline in the world, with 4m passengers and 6000 deaths a year), the train got to the station we wanted to disembark at but slowed down rather than stopped. So me , Steven (an American sustainable agriculturalist) and Pedro (a Portuguese actor) were saying 'should we? Should we? We probably should!'. So Steven and I jumped in the direction the train was going, and had to run to slow ourselves down. Pedro on the other hand, had jumped directly facing the platform, so his feet were taken from under him and he fell flat on his arse.

Needless to say, a few locals were watching us, shaking their heads and most likely thinking 'bloody foreigners'.

These ladies waiting on the platform gives a bit of an indication as to how unbelievably busy the trains are. Also, the board looks like it says 'Boob'.

Not the best picture but shows the lack of personal space in the trains!

3) Slums - they ain't all that bad

My visit to the Dharavi slum was an eye-opener, but not in a negative way. I thought a guided tour round the biggest slum in Asia, with a population of around 1 million people in an area the size of 11 football pitches, would be a shocking experience, but it was actually quite inspiring.

It is in fact not technically a slum, because people have lived there for over 30 years, meaning the government must recognise it as a legal place to live and supply it with running water and electricity (though this is only the case for 82% of Mumbai's slums).

Dharavi is based on a strong community spirit, and it seemed like every family had it's own business. The districts segregate Hindu communities which speak different languages, with the Muslims in their own district. And although there is this segregation, they all do business together, which is regarded as much more important than allowing frictions to arise or bubble over. Our tour guide, Bala, was a lovely chap who grew up and still lives in Dharavi, and the tour company (Reality Tours, www.realitytoursandtravel.com) is a great charity which reinvests its profits into community centres in the slums, providing locals with education and recreation.