"Please Horn India" Vs. "Green India" - Interesting Contrasts

That India is a big, extremely crowded and hectic country is something that is not necesarely unknown by many people, in fact, it can be one of the key things that people might remember of the country- specially if you come only for a few days to the country and if you stay in the cities, specially in big cities as for instance Mumbai and New Dehli. As you can see in find myself in the second most populated country in the world and in the most populated city in this country, Mumbai.

World Population 2006·08·20

1. China 1,315,035,692
2. India 1,097,422,660
3. USA 298,816,248
4. Indonesia 245,926,833
5. Brazil 188,346,174
World 6,535,360,25

Indian Most Populous metropolitan areas

1 Greater Mumbai (Bombay) 19,944,372 (here i Live!!)
2 Delhi 17,753,087
3 Kolkata (Calcutta) 14,681,589



Rickshaws

This is the India that so far I will call the "Please Horn" India. PLEASE HORN or HORN PLEASE is something that is written, of course not in all cars (specially not in private cards), but in a big number of rickshaws, Trucks and buses them here in Mumbai. Specially in Ottos, trucks and buses. This can give you an idea how how loud this city is, horning is just an habit, in many ocasions is so not necesary to horn, but from bikes over fancy cars until ottos, here people horn creating a massive, non-stop symphony that can drive you crazy when you go out... until you get use to it, and well, simply makes part of you life. In can't say that it is part of my life today, but I guess I am slowly getting into it.

Mumbai can make you physically very tired, very fast. Going and coming back from work is an adventure, every day. You feel at nights just willing to go to bed, see no matter if you spend 8 hours at work, just the 2 - 3 hours that you sepend movilizing are enought to make you tired ...

HOWEVER ...

In the few days (20 in fact) that I have been in Mumbai, I have had the chance to see a different India ... you just have to travel a bit to get to it, and taking into consideration the size of this country, the travel time to reach a completely peaceful, GREEN and relaxing place is not that long. This is the India that so far we will call the "Green India", specially since the country is right now in the Monsoon. India can be ideal for treking, hiking and all other kind of outdoor sports, India, and actually the biggest part of India is this green lovely area that not many people know. As said in the monsoon it rais A LOT and that makes great waterfalls ba ella round, teh air very fresh and the environment beautifully green. We have been going for two weekend outside of Mumbai and here are some pictures. Feel the contrast, we did.

Javi doing water rappeling!

In the end I guess in about balancing your day to day, scaping at least one or twice of week of the city. If we manage to do it, you shall be able to have a wonderfull stay, while discovering gree places and make your body fit! Namaste!