Scylla

As our concert with Imran and Hanif Khan was cancelled last minute because of medical emergency in the promoters family, we made new plans, to go spend a few days in Goa, as Mumbai is a pretty loud and dusty place.
We had to pack our bags and get ready to go to the airport, but we also had to pick up our new threads from the tailors in Santacruz.
Peter, Mark and Jeremy arrived at the Townhouse Hotel and wanted to move into our room.
It all worked out fine and after paying for overweight one more time, we were on our plane to Goa.

A friend from Bremen had recommended to go to Agonda Beach in the south of Goa, and to stay at his friends place called Tutti Garden.

The driver, that was supposed to pick us up, was not there, so Raj, a guy who had started talking to us while we were trying to find out, if our scheduled driver was going to come after all, lured us to his car. It was no official taxi, and also parked outside of the airport, so with all our luggage we rolled down the road.
He had a nice, big car, putting all our suitcases in was no problem, and he offered to take us to Agonda for 1800 Rupees instead of the 2000 the taxi company wanted.

After 20 minutes the first 600 Rupees were due, as he had to get fuel.

We arrived in the dark, Ashe, the guy running Tutti Garden was there, we put our stuff in the Bungalow, sat down at the bar, had a beer and ordered some food.

Well, aren’t we 50 meters from the beach? Let’s go have a look!

We immediately met part of a film crew from Hyderabad, who were having their after work celebrations on the beach and wanted to know where we were from. Nice guys, but communication was limited.

The food was nice and spicy, the beer was cold, and barkeeper Trevor was trying his best to get us to try his special Fireball shot.

It all started with an innocent train trip towards downtown. Difficult enough to find the right train, as most of the writing was in Hindi. Immo was on a solo trip to film some more details of Mumbai and to record some sounds.

Immo got off at Mumbai Central and walked towards the western coastline, ended up at Tata Garden, where a taxi driver took him to the Hanging Gardens for a fix rate of 100 Rupees.

You can have a nice view from up there over the back bay, the garden itself was not that spectacular.

The next taxi driver switched on his meter without discussion and took Immo to the Gateway of India.

Pretty busy place it is, lots of Indians from all over India and also Tourists getting their selfies on…

Walking back north alongside the Oval Maidan Park, where lots of Cricket was being played, passing a flea market with clothing, shoes and all kinds of stuff.
Time for a little snack, sugarcane juice and a chai.

Then on towards Maharaj Terminus Station, where there were loads of people running towards loads of trains, again lots of Hindi, little english.

Well, Immo knew, he had to with trains at Dadar, so asking the locals helped. Getting on the train was easy, getting off in Dadar was impossible, as loads of new passengers just smashed their way on to the train. Even the next stop he could not get off, because he was on the wrong side of the wagon, no way to get through.

So within minutes, the train had taken him way to the east to Kurla. Got off, waited for the train in the opposite direction, managed to switch trains in Dadar, but arriving in Khan Road Station he was again caught on the wrong side of the train and had to hang on for another stop, as he was literally hanging outside the train with his camera bag sticking out even further, in the dark, not knowing how much space to the closest poles would be left.

Exciting stuff! So from Santa Cruz Station he had enough of train hopping and took a rickshaw to Khan road and was happy to find Haase and Buttlar at the Hotel, who had explored Juhu some more.

As well as the two Johannes play together, they also take synchronized naps.

So while those two were recharging, Immo sat on Dolally’s deck and wrote some blogs.

We wanted to get some clothes made in Mumbai, so it was time to look for the right tailor. We went to Santacruz and found two different tailors to get shirts and pants made.

Measurements were taken and so it would take a few days until the new threads would be ready.

Day 16: Khar West and Santacruz

Looking for some new clothes to wear on stage…

Gepostet von Scylla am Dienstag, 22. Januar 2019

Waking up on a sunday on Linking Street it was incredibly quiet. People were playing badminton, where before there was constant traffic, the shops were closed, the market not open. Does that mean, there is something like a sunday in Mumbai? By lunchtime it was clear: it is only during the morning hours. Some stores stayed closed, but all of the street hustle was back.

We had looked on the internet, if we could find a nicer hotel, but as the Photos for the Linkway Hotel looked nice on the internet as well, we decided to look at them in real life.

Getting a rikshaw to drive us with the taximeter on still wasn’t possible, as the drivers waiting on the street corner quickly discussed, what they would charge us, for our planned route.

In the end we went with Sam Sam, a young guy, taking us to Khar Road Station first. But not so fast: a policemen stopped us, as we were going the wrong way down a oneway street, but Sam Sam did some talking and we could continue. A hotel that Haase knew was freshly renovated and incorporated into the omnipresent OYO group, a huge chain of indian hotels.

Buttlar and Haase checked out the room, while Immo waited in the rikshaw.

Next stop was a different hotel from the OYO group, but it was not as nice as the first one.

So on to Juhu Beach, where a good looking hotel was waiting, but as we then found out, they do not rent out to foreigners, as it is still too new! Only Indians can rent rooms, but no unmarried couples!

So after being discriminated for not being indian, we had to fight our hurt feelings with food, and a cold Pepsi.

In front of the store a young man was preparing Paan and Haase had to try.

A variety of ingredients was put on a leaf and finally folded together and after Haase put it in his mouth, he looked like he had been beaten up!

Our rolling tobacco reserves were almost gone so we were trying to find a kiosk that sold some. Not so easy. Every Kiosk was selling long rolling papers and cigarettes, but no tobacco. What do they do with the papers then?

We were told, there was a kiosk at Kings Hotel, which we finally found after asking two more times. We bought what we needed and were still standing

there, when two Motorcycle Cops arrived on one motorbike, waived at the salesman and took of with two single cigarettes in their hand….

Daily Video Part 1:

 

Imran Khan had invited us to come see him and the Khan family play at a big fat Indian wedding at the Renaissance Hotel in Mumbai east.

The taxi ride there was exciting, as the sun was setting , and we finally made it through the gates, as all the cars were checked for contraband or explosives.

Bride and Groom were sitting under a Cannopee made out of roses, pretty much everything was covered with roses.

A big buffet was open, with all types of tasty food, but we still had not found the Khan family, were we at the wrong wedding?

Then we heard familiar sounds from a little further away in a different area. We went there, and the whole theme changed from red to green, a area the size of a football field was filled with tables, seats and couches, a big stage with a single couch was set up and the Khan family was just finishing up their soundcheck.

There were somewhere between 1000-2000 Guests, astonishing to see something like that.

We hung around with the Khans for a little while after their Gig, but the took a walk towards the street, to find a cab. Turns out it was going to be a rickshaw.

After a hell of a ride, we arrived at Khar Road Station and called it a night.

Daily Video Part 2:

Daily Movie:

 

Bobby picked us up at the hotel and we returned to the Goethe Zentrum, to meet with the Boss, who is also Honorarkonsul for Kerala, to talk about future visits, and also bringing along Imran and Hanif Khan, to present the german/indian fusion on stage. It was a very friendly meeting, and now they are open for our concept to be sent after returning to Germany.

And we even made it into the newspapers!

Percussion shopping was on top of the list, as Buttlar was looking to buy coconut shakers, a friend of his had recommended. Bobby picked us up and we drove to the shop, where a friend of Bobby, a guitar player who was at our show yesterday , and his father opened the door for us.

Time for lunch, which is when Bobby showed us a videoclip of him acting in a Mollywood Comedy, yes, there is not only Bollywood, but also Mollywood, the Malayalam version of film industry. Funny stuff…

Bobby was a very nice host, fun to be around, but we had to say goodbye.

After two more hours of hanging out at the Hotel, a driver took us to the airport and we checked in without further problems. The flight was a little bit delayed, but we landed in Mumbai after about 2,5h flight time.

Another prepaid taxi took us to Bandra, a part of Mumbai, where Haase had already been before and we managed to find the Hotel Linkway on Linking Street.

The rooms were indeed different to the ones we had for last night in Thiruvananthapuram, but we new, Mumbai was going to be loud…

Quarter Canteen was the bar next door, and we managed to drink one welcome beer before they closed down at 1:00h.

Good night in Mumbai!