Mumbai, India

Mumbai - Population: 21.3 million
Stay Duration: July 17th - July 19th

Mumbai is the capital city, of Maharashtra. The streets are busy here! I would ask, "How many people live here?"

I kept getting different answers 16 million, 20 million... It is hard to gage a population of a city and to get proper perspective on what that number means. For Mumbai - what paints the best picture?

The population of city proper @ 13.9 million?
Urban agglomerations @ 18.9 million?
Metro area @ 21.3 million?
or population density @ 23,000/square kilometer?

By city proper, Mumbai is the most populated city in the world. If you measure urban agglomerations Mumbai is 4th largest and is now "less populated" than New York (19 million) although by population density Mumbai (23,000/square kilometer) is more than double New York (10,359/km2)..... Mumbai is a bit less dense than Delhi (28,438/km2) and almost half as dense as the king city of density, Dhaka (45,461/km2), the capitol city of Bangladesh. Mumbai is big...

Pune to Mumbai. No more bus for this 3 hour journey - we hired a car. My time in Mumbai was quick but I split from the rest of the group on my second day and as they other three flew to Delhi; Doug went home to Canada, Aman went north to visit his family in the state of Punjab, and Jaipaul spent some time with his family in. Being by yourself is a bit different - but - I'm not the first person to travel through India alone.

Mumbai moments----------------------------------------------------------------------

Juhu Beach

The Taj Hotel

Hanging Gardens

Pune, India

Pune (Former Hillstation) - Population: 5.2 million
Stay Duration: July 13th - July 17th @ hotel Suraj Classic

Goa to Pune - We took a 500 rupee overnight bus ride to to Pune... the sun comes up and we pass by some murals that say - welcome to Pune! The bus pulls over... we are almost an hour early!.. in an odd location... is this a bus stop? Weird, why are those two guys having a fist fight? nice right hook! Yawn... OK, well lets get a rickshaw, find a hotel at city center and get this day started!.... Long story short... we hopped in a rickshaw and half an hour later we end up on the outskirts of Pune city (not city center) and the rickshaw drivers want 4800 rupees ($100 American) -- They back there case with a phony meter and meter card and even though we got them down to 4000 rupees... We got ripped off. But, i suppose that's all part of the experience..........

To fill in the rest of the story, the Bus driver was obviously in on it... he was the guy getting punched out upon arrival. Funny story at our expense - we got served!

Happenings of Pune City ---------------------------------------------

I saw Gandhi! well, a statue of him, his ashes contained in modest urn, and the palace (now museum) where he was kept captive - not too shabby for a prison. The most interesting sight her was the preserved earthly possessions of Gandhi - which all fit in a tiny glass cage = small museum.

We got wet, again. One umbrella for four people is not enough and a raincoat that is not waterproof is not really a raincoat. I got fully soaked while visiting temples, Gandhi, and the snake gardens - worth it.

Osho Ashram/resort - pray, dance, sleep, think, meditate, organic buffet... took a tour. gotta go here someday. http://www.osho.com/


Palak Paneer = 1 days vacation from vacation. Spinach and India cheese was delicious at a very popular Pune restaurant called Rama Krishna. my favorite meal so far!... until I got sick and stayed in bed for and entire day after hovering the toilet all night! Much better now and at least i got to watch my favorite movies like Sweet Home Alabama, She's All That, and of course Cool Runnings.

Very friendly hotel owner - he offered to massage my stomach when i was sick, drank tea with me, and would always be ready to have a conversation - for as long as you would like, or maybe longer!

New Mango - Mangoes are my favorite and I found a new variety! Nice and lemony... I love mangoes, read more @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango and http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mango.html

SGS mall - impressive clean cool comfortable malls surrounded by the dusty hot busy streets provide a true escape for one night. Saw the Hindi movie - New York - Sooo goood!!! (subtitles would have cleared up the storyline a little bit)

Goa, India

Location: Panaji (Capital city of Goa) - Population 65,000
Stay duration: July 8th - July 11th @ hotel Nova Goa



We got wet. "Panaji" translates to "the land that never floods." It is a bit inland and its close proximity to the river provides easy access for runoff. Despite its dry reputation - we where there during monsoon season and less than ten minutes after we stepped outside the safety of our hotel it began to rain elephants and the streets became saturated.



Baby steps. Large catholic churches and christian crosses lined the streets signifying a lasting portugese influence. No snake charmers, camels, or elephants here - Goa is known as a mild introduction to india... and i agree with that - its a great place to start from. Panaji proved to be the perfect hub to travel from - Plenty to see in the city and down along the river and we had a great day trip to the less trampled beaches of south goa.



Calangute (famous beach town) - Population 16, 000
Stay Duration: July 11th - July 12th

Just a short walk to the arabian sea from our hotel, Calangute was less busy and a bit abandoned during monsoon season. A thick concentration of resteraunts and busy shops (and more white people) signified a change from business capital to tourist destination. Only had a couple days here but i realy liked calangute beach.

Top Bits From Goa----------------------------------------------------------------------



Bring your flippy floppies - you will get wet in monsoon season. Big rain and big waves. It is impressive how hard it rains... It leaves bruises... fortunately it lasts but a few moments



Be a guest - When drenched with sweat/saltwater and miles away from your hostel - use the 5 star resorts shower - its very nice and you will feel much more refreshed when you are walking down their beautifully kept beaches and laying by their poolside.







Don't climb the trees - no matter how tempting - no matter how adventurous the picture will look. I'm just saying... there might be a swarm of ants inside the tree... and you don't want to anger them (not that that that happened)!



Paloala Beach - My favorite Beach located in southern Goa. We hiked down the beach and for miles saw abandoned shacks with palm leaf roofs... apparently during tourist season they fill up with restaurants and all other sorts of vendors.



I saw a flourescent blue striped bumble bee!



stray dogs and bold cows roam the streets, beaches, and just about everywhere else.

Location: London Heathrow airport.



Day 1 - Awkward/ nervous/ Exciting/ Jumbled. I wish you could all come with me it is very strange traveling alone this far. But i guess new things often are all of the above. So far i do not think i have left anything of to much value/importance behind. All in all i am on track - cross your fingers for me/say a prayer, or at least knock on wood.

I've met a few of the London locals and they seem very nice. On my first plane i sat next to a man who often does business in the US. He was very interesting to listen to and he seemed surprisingly happy with America and our style of living. He wants to move to the east coast! During my wait in Heathrow i talked to a man over a cup of coffee who has been to India many times, speaks 7 languages, travels around the world for business and he had a lot of good advice about seeing the real goa.

I love the accent, everyone sounds incredibly intelligent in London.

I helped an older couple find paperwork at a tricky Internet cafe for a last minute visa... They said i would be a very good teacher... I think i will be some day.

I almost did not log on today... but i had a bit a wait so i did and my old MSUM teammate Troy McFarland popped up on facebook and said he was in London and that he would be here for a while. This weekend his friend that he is working with is opening for flo rider the rapper. What amazing timing! I will see him when i am in London first thing in August... Amazing

But I've got to jet. i will edit this later... sorry for the errors...

Cheers!

me in Oregon... testing picture uploading...

Testing... a one two one two!

First Blog.
Location: Caribou Coffee downtown Minneapolis, MN

I'm new to this... Hello everyone! I'm still in the US and I'm just testing this process and laying down some foundation for my trip. Caribou brews a strong cup of coffee which makes for a nice jump start before embarking on this blogging adventure...

ME - Eric Roseen the blogger, Age 24 - not a top tier writer by any means so bare with me through spelling errors and random ramblings. All in all, I hope I can send a message back to the states while I'm traveling abroad. My next journey, the inspiration for this freshman level blogging experience, is to India and London. On Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday (yep three days) i will fly from Minneapolis to London to Delhi to Goa, India and head north by foot/bicycle/train/taxi until i arrive back in Delhi, India (3 weeks). From Delhi i will fly back to London and i will be there for another week (= 4 weeks total).

Keep the elephant saddle warm India, I'm almost on my way! I rise into the clouds on Monday; I am excited! I am ready - equipped with my bag packed in advance (repacked it for the 6th time this morning), all things separated neatly and aligned precisely. All that order, an open mind, and the confidence of a new hair cut will surely get me there safely (fingers crossed tightly ); once i arrive the structure falls off a bit. My travel mates (Jaipaul, Doug and Aman) and I have not much more than a starting and stopping point connected loosely by a set of hard to pronounce in between cities like Ahmadabad, Jaipur, and Mumbai. Hostels have not been booked. Activities have not been committed to. The timetable at each destination is unset but we have three weeks to travel a route which is roughly 1300 miles direct...

Traveling in India does not = traveling in America/Canada/Australia. This will be a new experience... an obvious truth that will bless and change my life. I've been told my trip will shift my perspective and change the shape of the world as i see it. I hope in this blog i can capture all the high and low points that fall between the certainty of landmarks A & B. I hope memorable stories includes elephant rides, spicy fish curry, and a truly authentic Goan monsoon. What could happen excites me more than anything i have read or heard about. In a country that is so richly diverse in everything from culture to geography anything is possible. From mountains to beaches, rain forests to deserts, rich skylines to rural poverty i will _________. I'm not sure how that sentence will finish... But, i will be sure to fill it in as i discover each one of those chapters.

Hope all is well, thank you for reading, Cheers!