We started out going through the streets from the pier to a flower, food market and temple.  The streets were pretty filthy and not a drop of cement for sidewalks any where.  It was a little shocking at first to see the filth and the poor living conditions but the people didn't seem to mind it at all.  As usual there was construction down through the streets which needed to be wrapped up in less than two months due to the rainy season coming.   I'd hate to see this place in the rainy season even without the construction.  The streets had cows sitting on the side of the roads and people would bring them grass and lentil tortillas to eat.

My number one stop on our private Mumbai tour was the slum area which we visited next.  Things were dirty but there seemed to be order in this messy looking area.  Nothing is thrown away; everything is recycled.  The people live in the top part of the buildings and work in the lower floors.   Most of the workers in this area were men but there were a few women.  Most of these people are immigrants and it was mainly the men who came looking for work while leaving their families behind.   To my surprise they had satellite dishes on the roofs too!  Good for them!

We took pictures from the above highway and saw dogs and kids down in the garbage pit which had an open sewer running through the middle.   Believe it or not you couldn't smell it but Candice said she could as she waited in the car (she didn't want to go down into the 'pit' with us).  

We climbed down into the area via a straight stairwell that was about twenty five feet down.  The alley street ran parallel to the sewer we saw from the top but was out of sight due to buildings being on both sides of the alleyway.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  As a matter of fact I found nothing revolting about it.  Yes it was dirty but the people were nice, mild mannered and hard working.  Funniest thing I saw was Oreo plastic wrap covering the ceiling of one business which is funny because I didn't even see Oreo's in the grocery store we visited.  As a matter of fact soda was the only thing we recognized besides some Kellogg cereals in different packaging.   

Our guide told us that some of the designer named goods are made right down here in these slums.  We saw some UK designer jeans being made, cardboard being salvaged, bars of soap being recycled and big steel drums with dents being pounded out, cleaned and repainted.  The people were all too happy for us to step inside and check out their operation.  They were very proud of their work.   We had to take our shoes off in order not to dirty the work area which made me think to myself that my shoes are probably cleaner than their workers feet, so go figure.  

Now we had partnered up with the people we met from Liverpool, Keith and Colette, and took a private tour.  We had and an air conditioned minivan with a woman who spoke excellent English as our guide and a driver who spoke very little.   We felt very safe everywhere we went since we had our guide right by our side.  Without her we wouldn't have been in any danger but I think we would have been hassled by the street vendors even more.  Nineteen million people living in the area and at times it felt like everyone of them was trying to sell us something. 

We next headed over to another part of the slum area and walked through the streets.  We went in the back alleys and saw the clay pots that they had made curing in the short, outdoor ovens.  Somewhat smokey and cramped but the people were fantastic.  Little kids who wanted their pictures taken and then they wanted to see themselves on the camera.  There are so many kids that the school works in shifts.  Older ones go in the morning and the little ones go in the afternoon.  

We headed over to the dobi ghat where they do all the laundry.  Only men work down in the laundry area.  Hotels, manufactures and the wealthier people send their garments and clothes for cleaning.  The trains ran above and along side the entire wash area.  They were filled with people who were hanging out the doors due to them being so crowded.  Our tour guide told us that people loose their lives by falling off all the time.  While we were here I decided to give out my bag of chocolate candy to the beggars and kids.  I had been saving my chocolates that they put on our pillow every night and I was also taking chocolate mints from the dining room so I was loaded with about 3 pounds of chocolate squares.

After getting out for pictures at the wash area, we all got back in the car and cracked the windows about two inches and we handed out the candy from the safety of the inside of the van.  I even had our driver handing it out after giving some to him for his kids.  Now these kids knew the word chocolate and all kinds of hands were reaching inside the car for a piece of it, even the adults.  It felt good to give them a little taste of the sweet life and I could have done this all day.  I took the bags and held them upside down to show them that there was no more.   Once the chocolate was gone one kid started asking for 10 rupees.  After we drove away there were more fingerprints all over the windows than you could imagine which the driver later wiped down at the next stop.  I can just imagine the scene after we left.  Cunard candy wrappers all over the streets!  Ha, ha.  Don't worry, somebody will come along and recycle the paper!

After this we headed over to the Taj Hotel, the one they shot up and started on fire a couple of years ago.  The Gate of India which was completed in 1911 was right across the street.  This was truly a wonderful area that I wished we had more time to just hang out in.  So many vendors coming up to us saying they would print out our picture of us at the gate immediately.  We tried to explain that we didn't need one but it was almost futile.  Lots of little boats in the harbor area and very picturesque.  I only wish we had walked across the street to see the inside of the hotel but the traffic was chaotic with horns honking, vendors trying to sell and lots of people around so instead of being able to think all you found yourself doing was trying to keep an eye on your car and your tour guide.  

Next we visited the gothic style building of the Victoria Train Station and went in to see the train platforms.  This building dates back to 1880's.  Most of these trains travel south of Mumbai with a few heading north.  It is so extensive that the train system is the largest employer in India.   Lots of beautiful Victorian and Gothic buildings in the city.  One sight we did not get over to was the hanging gardens but more interesting than that are the Dokhmas, which are the Towers of Silence, in which cadavers are hung on seven columns for vultures to devour in accord with Parsee tradition.  Parsee is a small religious sect in India and they believe this is the ultimate sacrifice.  It would have been a sight to see but apparently the public is not allowed to see these Towers of Silence which is probably a good thing!  

Our last stop was a shopping area in which textiles were sold amongst the many other items.  Believe it or not our driver dropped us off in the middle of the intersection since there was no place to park.  Now this intersection was an area where four roads converged at the top of the shopping area and everything from hand carts to buses to old taxi cabs from the 50's were trying to maneuver through.  Horn honking was a must for each driver.  It was chaotic but picture perfect so I had whipped the camera out for some wonderful movie taking and captured the sights and sounds of the city.  What an experience; the sun beating down on you, cats walking on the roof of the shops a couple floors up, horns honking non stop, people pushing carts with goods on them and non air conditioned old cabs crowding the streets.  It was almost a sensory over load.   You could actually feel the heartbeat of the city moving all around you.  There is no describing this place.  You really have to experience it yourself.  

One other thing we saw was the lunch box system.  Our guide told us that nobody eats anything cold.  They always eat hot food and nothing is dry; it's always cooked in sauce.  So meals are cooked at home, a delivery guy comes to pick up the lunch box and he takes it to the train station where he puts it on the train for the ride across town.  Once across town another carrier picks it up and delivers it to the person at the office.  Once eaten the container makes its way back to the house it came from.  It's hard to believe that people have full time jobs delivering meals they don't even make but hey, there are plenty of people to put to work over here, so I guess it works for them.      

India was magical for sure and a great adventure in and of itself!  Lots of lovely, resourceful people, lots of chaos and lots to experience with all five senses.   I really don't see myself coming back any time soon but if it was along the way to another destination I wouldn't mind visiting again.  The slums were an eye opener and a far cry from what I had envisioned; not sad or depressing but hopeful, optimistic, and promising.  Given half a chance I think these people could run rings around us.  I'm glad I got to experience it and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Sandy

Bombay Appendix from Candice:

I'm sure Sandy filled you all in on the pertinent information on Bombay, but here are a few little nuggets from me. 

Private tours are totally worth it, especially in a country like India. A little pricey, but considering we would have paid 2/3's of it for a Cunardian tour, we got a better deal. You're only there once (at least that is what I say now, things could change), better do it right. I think I would have been a complete mess without our tour guide. She was like my security blanket; people really didn't mess with us since she was there.

I was a little skeptical about visiting the slums, but they were nothing like I had imagined. The whole area was teeming with activity. It was a little shocking to see people pop-up out of dumpsters, but it was recycling in its purest form. This I can relate to. I recycle aluminum cans only because someone will give me money for them (not for any environmental reasons). This was what the slums circled around, an industry of recycling everything. We saw broken clocks being "cannibalized," the glass, the plastic, and the metal all headed off to different parts of the city. Everywhere you looked people were hauling around bags of accumulated items back to their homes. When they had enough for it to be economical to hire a push cart, they would take it to a recycling center. Sandy must have a little Indian in her.

Sandy almost got wounded by a cow outside a temple. We were taking pictures of them on the sidewalk; they were happy campers eating their grass that people feed them on their way to the temple. Sandy "Take my picture with him." Next you know, the cow is starting to ram its head into Sandy. She jumped out of the way before any real damage was inflicted. But Keith bought some grass to feed him; he was only too happy to take the grass. No photos though.

I loved all the architecture in the fort area, seemed bizarrely like Europe with palm trees. The Victoria Terminus train station was what I was really interested in seeing. It didn't disappoint. We had to cross a couple of very busy streets to get to the terminal; I felt like George Castanza in the Seinfeld episode with the frogger machine. There didn't seem to be a lot of ticket monitoring; everyone just seemed to be getting on the trains and hanging on anywhere they could. There weren't any doors or basically any windows on any of the trains. So no announcements of "Please stand clear of the door while they are shutting," assuming they even had an intercom system, highly unlikely. Outside the station there was a used book stall. This little operation had quite a few good books: Atlas Shrugged and New Moon are the two that stick out the most. Someone over in India has a good taste in reading material.

The Taj Hotel was a surreal sight, after watching the terrorist attacks on television a couple years back. The hotel was beautiful; there was very little damage left from the attacks. The only downside was that this area was where all the tourists go, therefore this is where all the hawkers go to sell their goods. 

crj

Housekeeping. Sorry there haven't been any pictures. Internet and time are hard to come by. We will post a lot of pictures when we get back to the states.