April 1&2
We are in Mumbai! For over five years we have wanted to visit India and alas, we are here. What a thrill! Although the temperature is high it is not near as hot as Colombo because of lower humidity. The bad news is we both caught colds from an ICMA committee member. Our first night in Jo’burg I sat between Zarka and Bob, both of whom had bad colds. I have managed to share it with my darling husband.

We had our doubts about India when we arrived. For starters our plane left Jo’burg one hour late. A passenger who was quite ill boarded and was later asked to get off the plane since they couldn’t land once we took off. There was only ocean between Jo’burg and Mumbai. Once he deplaned they had to find and remove his luggage. Once we got to Mumbai we had to circle for a long time (45 MINUTES) because they were working on a runway which reduced the number of available runways and air traffic was backed up. So instead of arriving at 20 past midnight, it was 2:00 a.m. Then we went through customs, went right past the money exchange place so we could go to an ATM. Well the ATM didn’t work so a person took us to a place very far away to another nonworking ATM. We then trudged back to the international terminal and tried to get back in to the money changer and every door was staffed by an armed guard. After whining and pleading they let Ron in and I stayed outside with the bags. We were hounded by numerous people who wanted to help (for a price of course). There were people sleeping on the pavement outside and numerous people begging at the airport.

We paid for a prepaid cab once Ron got some money. We requested an air conditioned cab. The car we were assigned had NO trunk and we had one large suitcase, one carry on and two other small bags. This required another 15 minute delay as the driver went back to the stand to argue. Ultimately we squeezed it all in the front and back seat. It was a 45 minute ride to our hotel and after about 15 minutes the air con stopped working. We got to our hotel around 3:00 a.m. and couldn’t get to sleep so read for awhile. We set the clock for 9:00 because our friend Raju had arranged a car and driver for us for the day and the driver was to arrive at 10:00. We jumped out of bed in the morning and ate a toast and tea breakfast at our budget hotel. No driver so we went about our day without him. We walked over to the Gate of India which is an arch de triumph built in 1924 to honor King George V. Across the way is the famous Taj Hotel built in 1903 by the Indian industrialist J.N. Tata. He had been refused entrance to the “European” hotel Watson’s so he took revenge and built the much more opulent Taj Hotel From there we hired a cab (again we paid for AC and it didn’t work either) to take us to three more spots as we realized we could barely talk, much less function, due to sleep deprivation. We saw the famous municipal laundry (dhobi ghat) where some 5,000 men use open concrete troughs to wash the thousands of kilos of laundry brought from all over the city.

Next we went to a marble Jain Temple where we got blessed by a holy man who put a dab of sandalwood mixed with water on our foreheads. There are many statues of Jain priests (?). The eyes of each statue were diamonds. Next came the Hanging Gardens which were laid out in 1881 and derive their name from the fact they are built on top of a series of reservoirs that supply water to Bombay. We then passed by the Parsi Towers of Silence. Parsis hold fire, earth and water as sacred and therefore if possible they will not bury or cremate their dead. Instead the bodies are laid out within the towers to be picked clean by vultures. Fortunately, none of this can be seen from the road but there were vultures overhead.

Next we went to the Cottage Industries shop. Here were beautiful crafts from all over India. We got lacquer boxes and a beautiful textile that we will use as a wall hanging or on top of the bedcover. It was way past lunch so we dropped our goods off at our hotel and grabbed a great salad at a place nearby that turned out to be Italian cuisine. They had a dessert case to die for so we ordered a ‘gooey chocolate’. Something got lost in translation and we ended up with two with chocolate sauce and ice cream. So we ate it. What can I say? To demonstrate our fatigue, while we were having lunch, my darling husband said ‘You know I have been to every place we have traveled to’. I gave him a look and said ‘yes you have’ and asked if he realized what he had just said. We got the giggles and he explained that what he had meant to say is that most of the places we have traveled to are a result of his association with ICMA. I think we rested after that. We had a nap and went back out to explore the neighborhood. We had a great Indian dinner at a nearby restaurant and Ron talked me into a Punjab sari, the kind with a long over blouse and pants. The tailor said it would be ready in 24 hours. The cost? $25 for material (cotton) and labor.

On Saturday we ate breakfast at the Italian bistro because they had French press coffee. We then came back to the hotel expecting our friend Raju. Instead his cousin’s driver came and took us out to a very active Hindu temple and fruit/veggie market. Ron found a luggage store and got a great deal so bought a carry one to replace our ten year old one that is ready to bite the dust. Our head colds were getting the best of us so we came back to the hotel to rest. We got up around 3:00 and went down the lane to an Indian restaurant and had mineral water, two fancy teas, prawns marsala, chili chicken with rice and two kinds of breads (naan and roti) for a grand total of five dollars. We stopped at an Internet café to check email then went shopping again. I found a beautiful silk caftan and we got more gifts for our kids. Tonight our friend Ragu is driving down from Gujarat to join us for dinner and spend tomorrow with us.

It’s now Sunday and our friend Raju had to fight traffic and didn’t arrive until after ten p.m.. We got to meet his handsome 16 year old son and his lovely wife and we had a Indian feast at a nearby restaurant. We finished eating at midnight! Unfortunately Raju and his family had to return to Gujarat last night due to the death of his uncle so we parted with the promise to meet next in Gujarat.

Things I failed to mention about Mumbai. There are many more homeless here than in Colombo. Every night there are many people sleeping on the dirty sidewalks. We saw neighborhoods yesterday with hovels for housing that are right on the sidewalk. Our first morning out we had a charming 4 year old (I’m guessing on the age) who followed us for two blocks chatting away asking for rupees. Yesterday there were many children beggars some quite aggressive, banging on the car windows at traffic lights. We saw children with no clothes on the street. We also saw beautiful British colonial architecture, and porters with huge (2 ½ ft across and 8” deep) flat bottomed baskets. They would stand around waiting for someone to ask them to carry their load. We witnessed a taxi drive up, the passenger get out and unload three heavy cartons from the trunk. The porter loaded them into his basket and three men lifted it onto his head. His knees buckled slightly when the load was placed on his head. My guess is the cartons contained printed materials such as magazines or books.

We saw vendors who were selling garlic, that’s all they were selling. In the famous Crawford Market (food mostly) we spied vendors who sat crossed legged in their stalls that were tiered surrounded by their veggies. So if you walked up to the vendor, he would be about head/shoulder height to you and he was seated. On the street we saw vendors who would refill your disposable lighters for you. There is much less trash here than Colombo and no where did we see garbage on the streets. Given the poverty level here, if you put garbage on the street there would be people running to get it to see if it was edible. I saw two instances of people going through dumpsters. We saw people who live on the sidewalks, cooking a meal, visiting with neighbors and living in squalor. We saw hand trucks about 20 inches wide by about 10 feet long. We were surprised at how many things are loaded onto these ‘lorries’ and moved about town. Sometimes the loads were so heavy it took four or five men to move the load. It is interesting that it is cheaper here to move goods this way with four or five laborers than using a motorized vehicle with one person.

The roads in Mumbai are far superior to Colombo. Drivers aren’t quite so crazy although our driver loved his horn. Sometimes he would be two or three car lengths away from anything and blow his horn. He would blow his horn when we were stopped at a red light. Well you get the picture. Today we got up at 8:30 since we had gone to bed at 1:00. Had another French press breakfast and when we got back our driver was here. Since we weren’t feeling up to snuff, we cancelled the aquarium part of the itinerary and went to the Haji Ali Tomb/mosque. This mosque is in the ocean about 200-300 feet off shore. During low tide you can walk out to the tomb on a concrete walkway that is lined with beggars of every description. They don’t ask for anything as you go out to the mosque. Near the mosque are money changers who take a small fee and will give you one rupee coins in exchange for your bills. That way when you return you can give a rupee to many of the beggars. So to make this work easily since there were so many, we alternated with me giving a coin to the first person and Ron giving a coin to the second, me to the third, Ron to the fourth and so on. Two or three times we got swarmed by children who were the most aggressive. All the adults simply sat on the concrete and extended their hand or bowl. In all we gave out close to two hundred coins, not a lot of money but a lot of beggars. It was an interesting experience. From here we took a long drive to Juhu Beach, a ritzy resort. Since Ron wasn’t feeling all that well, we cut this short and headed home. This afternoon we are just cooling our heels until time for the tour. This evening at 7:00 we have booked a city architecture tour. Our plane leaves at 3:20 a.m. so we will leave the hotel around 12:30. Oy, just what we need, more sleep deprivation, with our colds. We will get home at 6:00 a.m. Monday. So until next time Mumbai bai.
Post script: Our friend, Jon Bormet who hired Ron, describes India as “an assault to your senses”. Tonight while we were taking the tour of Mumbai, I was sitting in the top deck of a double decker bus. There was no roof so I got a panoramic view. We were stopped at a traffic light and I looked down and saw a homeless girl of about four years old squatting in the street by the curb and playing in the sand on the sidewalk. She was very busy. I then realized she was doing number two on a busy thoroughfare with hundreds of pedestrians walking by. This didn’t assault my senses, it broke my heart.