We had a private tour for 15. Most of the people had been on several of our tours already, the same people stick together. We all got along fairly well. But it seems like there is always one person or couple who just ruin it for the rest of us, I will get to that later. We had to go thru the same procedure to get off the ship as we had in Cochin. Two different states, two different customs. By the time we all got thru, it was almost 10 so a late start. Our guide was excellent and told us what we were passing the entire time. Mumbai used to be a group of islands but is now one peninsula, joined with land fill. Many of the buildings we saw were originally on the water. We passed by a lot of Victorian buildings built by the British during their rule. The university was gorgeous as was the parliament building, our first stop for a photo op. Of course the guards were telling us no pictures, which was kind of funny. We took some anyway. We reboarded the bus and went to the largest train station in Mumbai. It was a bit crowded but nothing like it must be during commute times. We have seen pictures of people hanging out the doors of the cars, they are so crowded. There was a pedestrian underpass to cross a very busy street in front of the station. Another group said their guide took them across the street then had an argument with a policeman about opening the barrier they had put up so people would use the underpass. The group was in the middle of the street witnessing this. Cars do not stop for pedestrians in India. The train station was run down but beautiful inside and out.
We then drove past the famous Chowpatty beach and along the Queen's Necklace. They call the shore blvd that because at night it sparkles like jewels around the bay. It was a nice beach but the water was filthy. No one was swimming. We passed by a number of cricket fields and a beautiful Muslim hospital. That was one of the prettiest buildings in the city. Next stop was the Gandhi Museum. When he was in Bombay he always stayed with friends at the house that now houses the museum. They have an extensive library with books he wrote and read on the main floor. Next floor up there are many letters he wrote to and from such people at Einstein and Hitler. The top floor held his original bedroom which was very sparse. Then the rest of the floor was dioramas which measured about 3' x 2', each one depicting a memorable event in Ghandi's life. They were very well done and fascinating to look at. We had been to the museum on our last trip but it was nice to get the chance to go back.
After Gandhi, we went to the Krishna Temple. We all had to remove our shoes but socks were allowed. I wore my Jasmine socks, seemed appropriate at the time. :) We had to walk up a flight of stairs to the main temple. The floor had several inlaid medallions made with mother of pearl, tourquoise and lapis lasuli. I was taking a picture of Mel and the floor when someone in our group asked him to move because he was in her picture. Nice. A lady at the temple told us the story of Krishna and the meaning of a lot of the statues there in the temple. It was quite interesting. But of course I got the Hari Krishna song going on in my head and was singing it for the fellow travelers. I got a few smiles including some from the locals. Didn't the Beatles sing that? There sure were Krishna missionaries all over back in the 60's and 70's. Our guide said they were popular with the hippie movement. It was nice seeing the Krishna "headquarters" as I have literally seen the monks all over the world. We went next door to the Krishna vegetarian restaurant for lunch. When we were here before the vegetarian meal was awful. This time it was delicious. There were 4 different dishes with 2 different breads. They all had a slight kick to them but not too spicy. It was served with what almost looked like Rice-a-Roni but with the longest rice I have ever seen. The yogurt drink was awful, the fried dough ball soaked in honey was excellent. It was a very good meal, meat not missed.
There were many signs in Mumbai both billboards and LED. The LED mostly refered to not honking your horn, which was not adhered to. There were horns everywhere! One billboard had a huge picture of a wheelchair on it. It read "Introducing the all new Four Wheeler for drunk drivers. And their victims". Very to the point. Along the Queen's Necklace there was a huge Nike campaign. Each billboard read #bleedblue and had a picture of a famous Indian person, former sports star, chef, etc. The national cricket team's jerseys are blue. Cricket is HUGE here. Of course also along the roads were cows. Beef is outlawed in the state of Bombay. The cows were well taken care of. They were not out wandering in traffic like they used to be though, they were always tied up.
After lunch we went to the hanging gardens. In the late 1800's the British built a large covered reservoir for water on a hill. They beautified it by putting a garden on top so it used to appear that the garden was hanging in the air. Now the city has been built up all around it so it is just a garden. The soil is only 6" deep so no trees. From there we could see the most expensive home in India. It is 26 stories high. A man lives there with his wife and 3 children. They have 600 employees. It cost $1.2 billion to build! It took 11,000 workers 3 years to build. They were squatters around the construction site during construction. The squatters are still there so right next to the most expensive house are slums, welcome to India.
On the drive back down the hill from the hanging gardens we passed by the Tower of Silence. We could see steps going up in what looked like a jungle area. Certain religious people feel that their last act of charity is to give their body to the birds so bodies are laid out for the vultures. Someone in our group said that at one time something was happening to the vultures so there were only about 6 left. The bodies were stacking up, it was not a good situation. This place is right next to the water reservoir, yuck. They collected some chicks and hand raised them to help the vulture population. Now there are more vultures to take care of the bodies. Our guide said that they are using some solar system to speed up the decay but that it doesn't work well in the rainy season. Strange concept all around!
We drove past another beach with a long jetty out to an island mosque. The jetty is under water during high tide. There were a lot of people out there when we passed. Our guide said there are a lot of beggars so not a vey pleasant walk to get out there. We went from there to the laundry. We had been before but this place is so interesting. The water we could see looked filthy but the clothes are always sparkling when returned to their owners. The men pick up and deliver the laundry once a week. They beat the clothes against a rock to get them clean. They have a better record for getting out stains than any of the dry cleaners or laundry services in town. Our port guide says they beat the the fabric until the dirt gives up! At every stop there were street vendors and the laundry was no exception. Someone on our bus would get something for a good price then we would all run off the bus again to get the same thing. It was pretty funny.
Our last stop of the day, and a place we had not seen before was Dahravi, the largest slum in Asia. We picked up 2 student guides who actually lived there then crossed a pedestrian bridge into the slum. Over a million people live there. They have schools thru high school, hospitals, clinics, churches, temples, anything a major city would have. They do not have a university so our guides were going to school in Mumbai. We split into 2 groups to make it easier to get around in the narrow passageways. Raj, our guide, told us that when he was little he was embarrassed to have to say he lived in the slums. Now he is proud of his community and is a guide to get others to have a better understanding of their life. He said he plans to marry and raise his children there, he would not think of living anywhere else. We toured the industrial section. They recycle 60% of Mumbai's garbage there in Dahravi. We saw where they were sorting plastic and aluminum, melting the latter down into blocks. In another space they were making an aluminum part for blenders for a major company. Many Sony parts are made in the slum. The passageways were very narrow with people going back and forth with huge loads on theirs heads. We frequently had to get out of the way or be hit. There were also areas full of sewing machines. They were making beautiful and colorful clothing. We went into a batik workroom. To get in we had to walk thru a puddle of filthy water. Not until we returned to the ship did I realize that that water was full of dye. My white soled sandals were now blackish up to water level. Good thing they are already old and well worn. The batiks they were making were beautiful. Raj tried to explain the difference between their batik and that of Indonesia but from what I could see it was the same. We went into a tiny space to see another recycle area. The same woman who asked Mel to move for her picture tried to squeeze in. I told her if she would just wait a moment I would get out and she could get in. Strange woman. We passed by 2 barber shops set up right in the alleyway. At one someone from our ship was getting a trim. Bet it was a lot less expensive than on the ship! It looked good too. At one spot we were stopped to listen to Raj. An older man came out of the building behind us and squatted on a pile of dirt watching us. I asked if I could take his picture, he said no. He was such a contrast in that dirty place as he was dressed head to foot in bright white. I missed getting a picture of the large rat that went from one building into the next too. Each building housed a business on the street level with the owners or workers home on the second floor. Raj said most of the recycle business owners were millionaires and lived in Dahravi. To the people it is home, they would not live anywhere else. It was a real eye opener and not as depicted in Slum Dog Millionaire. We said goodbye to the students and headed back to the ship. We arrived around 4. We had a night tour at 6 so not a lot of time to clean up and relax a bit.
We were supposed to be having dinner at 8 during a night tour. Mel and I went to the Lido to eat something before we left. I would not make it until 8 for dinner! We were back in the bus at 6, headed to see the sunset over the Arabian Sea. We went back to Chowpatty Beach but the sun was behind some buildings, not over the sea. We all got off the bus to walk on the beach. Compared to the afternoon, it was downright cool with a nice breeze blowing. Our guide, one of the students, said it was difficult for the bus to turn around and get back to us so we would just walk to the temple where we were supposed to see some ceremony. There was a brick wall along the walk next to the road, bordering the beach. It had many holes in it and in each one were rats. There were a lot of dogs everywhere and of course crows. They were different though, they had brown necks! One area there were about 8 dogs spread out, sound asleep. It looked like they had had a big party and were sleeping it off. Most of these dogs were boney and filthy. We were told that they have all been picked up and sterilized at some point though. They were everywhere. I only saw one very scrawny cat in the 2 days we were there.
We walked the length of the beach then along a very busy street for about 4 blocks to get to the temple. With the traffic and narrow sidewalks, none in a few places, it was quite a harrowing journey. We arrived at the temple to be met by steps, LOTS of steps. One man in our group has had 2 heart surgeries so steps are really not good for him. But we all started up, our guide was on the phone most of the time. We later found out he was talking to the tour company because he had no idea what we were supposed to be seeing. We finally reached the top of the stairs. There were over 100 of them. We were told to take off our shoes to go into the temple then told that no pictures were allowed. The ceremony we were supposed to have seen had happened 15 minutes before we got there, the next one was in 45 minutes. We decided that we did not want to stay. One couple was still in the temple while the rest of us had our shoes on and were waiting to leave. A lady guard looked at me and said "Leave!" Then she asked for money! I looked right at her and told her we were not leaving without our guide and that we had no money. I don't think she understood a word I said but she quit telling us to leave. After climbing all those steps we were told that there was a lift. Not sure if anyone took it down or not. At the bottom we waited for sometime to get on the bus. The woman who had arranged our tour was on the phone with the tour company. They had forgotten to make dinner reservations for us so were going to give us all our money back. We had reservations at a different restaurant. Someone from the back of the bus came up to tell us that no one wanted to go to dinner. What!!?? The purpose of going out in the evening had been to enjoy an Indian dinner. I guess where we were supposed to have eaten was a very special restaurant, they didn't want to eat just anywhere. I was the only one wanting to go eat, I gave in to the majority. Good thing Mel and I had eaten something earlier. I did ask if we could at least go to the Gates of Imdia to see it lit up before going back to the ship, which we did. It was beautiful with pink and blue lights illuminating it. The beautiful Taj Mahal Hotel was next door. It was a nice evening but not what it was supposed to have been. When we got back to the ship we ordered salads from room service, the only option at that late hour. It had been an interesting and disappointing day, but good overall. Even with the confusion of the evening, I was glad we went.
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