India - Step 5.1: the chaos before the silence; arriving in mumbai

I could already guess that it is chaotic in India and especially in big cities like Mumbai. But the reality exceeded all expectations.

To say that the traffic is crazy is a gross understatement. An attempt at verbal description is futile.

Anyway, the 40km drive to the meditation center took 3 hours.

So I arrived in mumbai the evening before the first day of vipassana. The tasks alone: buying sim card and taking an uber to the hostel turned out to be chaotic challenges. (Chaotic is the only word that can even begin to describe my first impressions).

After South Africa and Mauritius, where I visited relatively western looking places - India was really a culture shock. Starting with the hostel, which in itself was clean and ok, but simply a let's say "new experience".

The next morning I went to a café for breakfast and wanted to buy clothes for Vipassana (long loose pants and shirts).

An Indian woman from my dorm said the night before that Mumbai is safe. So I felt ready to search Mumbai's streets for markets and stalls where I could find the clothes I mentioned earlier.

But in the market street I found there was mainly "food". Fruits, vegetables, typical Indian ingredients, chickens in cages and on the counter the plucked, bleeding dead specimens. Everywhere garbage, cats, crows, goats and also their cut off heads in the counter. Great sights and even more intoxicating smells.

On the way back I found some clothes somewhere and started the aforementioned drive to the meditation center.

With this chaos it is somehow understandable that meditation practices and yoga originate from the Indian culture. Without these tools for silence and stillness one would probably go crazy. Whereas the people here are probably just used to it and only know it that way.

Next post will be after vipassana 🧘🏽‍♀️ see you soon.