Thursday, August 21, 2008

Planet Bollywood

After leaving Nepal, Bombay (currently known as Mumbai) was a huge difference.
Upon entering you get the feeling you are in a big city, purely by the differences between the two airports. Bombay looks like our standard western airports: clean, air-conditioned and well organized...and no power-cuts. Did I mention the power went out in the airport in Kathmandu? If you wanted to scare me before a flight in a third world country, there was no better way to do it.
I spent the first few days with my paternal grandparents and was spoiled with all my favourite Indian dishes by my grandmother, God bless her. I'm sure she was slightly disappointed with my appetite however as going from eating two meals a day to eating three huge and delicious meals a day is a lot for my stomach to handle.
I then made my way to my godmother's house where my aunt from Montreal and maternal grandmother were visiting. We made a short trip to Goa, where my family is from and it was amazing. Goa is so different from Bombay. Everything is laid back and has that beach mentality. Speaking of which the beach was great. The monsoons are not a great time to arrive as the water is very rough and quite dangerous so no swimming, but the beach still maintains that paradise feel to it. Little shacks and shops dot the coastline along the beach and one can only imagine how relaxing it must be during the high season. After thoroughly pigging out on delicious Goan dishes including a wide variety of seafood, we headed back to Bombay for me to shop till I dropped. The prices here are just too good not to.
The coolest experience for me has been by far the surgery I viewed. My uncle, a surgical oncologist, took me into the operating theater to watch him perform a lumpectomy (surgical removal of a lump) from a breast. I passed his "no-faint" test by viewing pictures of surgeries without passing out so he let me stand right beside him as I watched him operate. I even dawned the surgical scrubs, mask and hair-net which completed the look. Impressed with my ability to handle the "gore" I'm going to see a throat surgery which promises much more blood...we'll see how I handle that.
I'm heading to Goa again this weekend...I just can't get enough.

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