Mumbai India!

Thursday, March 26, 2009 – MUMBAI, India
92 degrees and humid and sunny on the Arabian Sea
“For the traveler, Mumbai is both disturbingly eye-opening and incredibly exciting.”

Mumbai is built on a series of seven islands. A reclamation project now links the archipelago into a peninsula. By the 16th century, Portuguese troops had established trading centers along the Arabian seacoast. They took Mumbai by force and gave the city its European name, Bom Baia, meaning good bay. Since 1996, the city’s official name is Mumbai. Mumbai held the world’s record for the largest cotton market in 1857, which ended when the U.S. Civil War ended. Gandhi National Park takes up 1/6 of the city and within the city limits. Forbes magazine listed the city as #7 in the world for billionaires. Trains carry six million people a day and there are separate compartments for men and women; 4.5 million people ride the bus daily; half of the population live in slums.

Mumbai is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation’s financial center. It is the most populous city in India with 13 million people and the 5th most populous metropolitan area in the world. Mumbai is the birthplace of Indian cinema. Bollywood, the Hindi film industry, is the largest film producer in the world. More than 1000 moves in 12 languages are shot annually (twice as many as Hollywood). Masala films are filled with symbolism, do not show blood or sex and always have a happy ending.

Gateway of India: This momentous monument was erected to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Bombay. The Indo-Saracenic style gateway was built in 1924 and incorporates Hindu, Muslin and Buddhist architecture. It also ironically proved to be the departure point for the last British Troops in 1948 after India finally gained its independence in 1947.

Elephanta Caves on Elephanta Island: The island was Gharapuri (idol dwelling) before Portuguese colonists renamed it for the large stone elephant that was found at the landing stage. The elephant was later moved to Victoria Gardens. The caves were sculpted between the 5th and 8th centuries and its magnificent carvings are dedicated to Shiva, creator and destroyer.
The outside of the main cave has a columned veranda 30 feet wide and six feet deep, which is flanked by sculptured elephants. The entire temple, carved out of the basalt hillside has four entrances. The central recess in the hall contains the most outstanding sculpture, the unusual Mahesamurti, the Great Lord Shiva – an 18-foot triple image. Its three faces represent three aspects of Shiva; the creator, the preserver and the destroyer. Other sculptures near the doorways and on side panels show Shiva’s usefulness.

Foreigner Ticket Tax: As is common throughout India, admission to many of Mumbai’s museums and sites is often ten times higher for foreign tourists than it is for locals.

The best buy of the day! Men’s socks for $0.33 a pair!! Gene found them in a street vendor while our friend was inside buying a saree for $90. I bought some little purses and necklaces – all of which involve bargaining. You could very easily fill suitcase after suitcase of goodies! Silks, textiles, semi-precious and precious jewelry…Shop at the Central Cottage Industries Emporium near the Taj Mahal Hotel for fixed priced textiles, carvings and Indian handicrafts.

For $20, we hired an air conditioned taxi for 3.5 hours to take us where we wanted (air conditioned vehicles charge 25% more than a regular taxi). He was a very patient driver as the traffic was congested and slow moving which made us miss a few sights…but we had a great time. The un-air conditioned taxis have their meter outside the car (their steering wheel is on the right side of the car) and the meters and cars are so old you have to calculate the current fare by multiplying the meter rate by 14! The views out the window are fascinating. While on Marine Drive, we drove past Chowpatty Beach. An extremely wide beach, only a handful of fully clothed people were walking on the beach. We understand most people show up at sunset or nighttime to enjoy the area.

We continued driving on the city streets (for an hour in heavy traffic) headed to Mahalakshmi Dhobi Ghats – to see the oldest and biggest human powered washing machine! I know it sounds strange to us, but it is an incredible site. Each morning, for 136 years, washing from all over Mumbai is brought here to be thrown into soapy piles in 1026 open air troughs, soaked in concrete vats of caustic soda and thumped by the resident DHOBIS on the flogging stones inside the compound. The next day, after being hung out to dry in colorful rows, pressed with charcoal irons, folded in newspaper and bound with cotton thread, the bundles are returned to their owners.

Markets: Mangaldas for silk and cloth, Zaveri Bazaar for jewelry and Colaba Market for fruit and vegetables and jewelry

Sights: Prince of Wales Museum: The city’s finest Victorian building and principal museum was completed in 1911 and named for King George V.

Victoria train station (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) was built in the 1880s and is one of the most elegant imperial buildings in India. It was inspired by St. Pancreas station in London and is an extraordinary amalgam of domes, spires, Corinthian column and minarets. It looks like a palace!

Mani Bhavan: This was the residence of civil rights leader and peace activist, Mahatma Gandhi from 1917-34. The three-story Gujarati house/museum illustrates his simple life. There is a library and Ghandhi’s personal effects are reverently displayed. It was here that he formulated his philosophy of satyagraha (truth, non violence and self sacrifice) and launched the 1932 Civil Disobedience campaign that led to the end of British rule.

We did not get to Dharavi, the home of Asia’s largest slum. This is a “maze of dilapidated shacks and narrow, stinking alleyways home to more than a million people. An average of 15,000 share a single toilet, infectious diseases such as dysentery, malaria and hepatitis and there are no hospitals.” Yet it was recently described by the UK’s Observer magazine as “one of the most inspiring economic models in Asia” (which makes it even more intriguing to want to visit it when you read that comment on a slum…). “Hidden amid ramshackle huts and open sewers are an estimated 15,000 single-room factories, employing around a quarter of a million people and turning over a staggering US$1.4 BILLION annually! The majority of the small businesses are based on waste recycling. Residents of all ages scavenge materials and haul them back in huge bundles to be re-processed. Cans are smelted, soap scraps from hotels are reduced in huge vats, leather is re-worked, oil drums are restored and discarded plastic is re-shaped and re-molded. Wages are well above the national average and there are even a few banks and ATMs in the slum!” www.realitytoursandtravel.com

Lunchmen! The other sight we missed was seeing one of the 5,000 dabbawallahs! These men provide a service similar to our Meals on Wheels concept. Women make the hotel meal for their family member/office worker and place the various courses in stacked tin containers called dabbas or tiffin containers. These are handed over to the army of simply clothed men hurriedly shuffling flotillas of dabbas who travel by bicycle and train to relay the meal so it reaches the correct person. They handle approx. 200,000 meals a day, have a 99% rate of delivery to the correct person and return of the tin at the end of the day. International corporations have come to study their efficiency. By the time we returned to the city after the ride to the island, it was past lunch time and the meals had been delivered…

We visited the Taj Mahal Hotel after we passed through their two security points. There is also a high fence around the entrance.

We also had vendors outside the ship and we were onboard by 5:30. We enjoyed dinner in the specialty restaurant with friends and then to the magic show – Stephen Garcia. I was able to get assistance with my computer account and it is all fixed!!! I can now receive emails again! We set the clocks back a half-hour again.