Last stop in India: Mumbai

Well, we have arrived at our last stop in India and Asia: Mumbai! We have covered (literally) a lot of ground during our 9 days in India — Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur and now Mumbai (roughly 950 miles, with about 60% of it by automobile!) Arrival day was fairly uneventful, but we made up for it today with a variety of spots with a tour guide.

Airport: The airport isn’t much to write home about, but the irony of our two first images struck me:

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Skyline: Mumbai is a MUCH bigger, more developed, and seemingly interesting place than the simpler desert state of Rajasthan (Jaipur/Udaipur).

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Contrasts: There are striking contrasts everywhere — even on our drive from the Airport to our hotel, we saw everything from slums to a 27-story single-family residence of one of India’s richest men (Mukesh Ambani)… it cost more than $1 billion to construct and, apparently, it houses a single family of 4. No words describe the income/wealth disparity. (some video & photos below)

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Food: Mumbai has great food and we have received a number of suggestions from friends and family. On night one, at the suggestion of a friend from LA (thanks, Andy!) we went to Trishna — a place famed for its seafood. It was excellent (if a bit rich!).

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The sights: Through pouring down monsoon rain, we toured quite a bit of Mumbai: The hanging gardens, the Gandhi Museum, Dhobi Ghat open-air laundry, Victoria Station, and India Gate… we also had lunch at Leopold’s cafe, one of 5 spots where terrorists attacked Mumbai in 2008. A few photos of each is below:

Hanging Gardens: so, umm,… Mumbai has a garden dedicated to “friendship.”

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Mahatma Gandhi Museum: It was actually a fairly interesting museum and did a nice job of presenting information — in the form of about 20 dioramas portraying the various stages and significant events of Gandhi’s life. The museum is converted from the home of a close friend of Gandhi’s, and the room where he slept when in Mumbai is preserved.

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Mumbai Dhobi Ghat (Laundry): Super fascinating, our guide took us to an open-air laundry where 3000 people clean clothes and linens of hotels and hospitals in small concrete open-air cubicles with a stone they wash the clothes against. They dry on clotheslines that hang throughout the open-air “neighborhood,” which looks very much like a slum. Apparently, the workers “rent” their washing cubicles from the Gov’t for 300 rupees per month, and earn about 300 rupees per day. They live in the shacks also pictured below (right next to the washing areas):

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Victoria Station (renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus): A beautiful train station building, built between 1878-1888. All major trains come through this station, and it is a place that seemingly never sleeps. Our guide told us that the local trains don’t close doors and people jump on/off while they are still moving (with roughly 3000 people dying each year as a result). The structure is beautiful gothic arhitecture:

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Gateway of India:Built Started in 1913 to commemorate King George V visit to India in 1911. Right next to it, also pictured, is the Taj Palace Hotel.

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Leopold Cafe: We had lunch at Leopold Cafe, one of the sites of the 2008 terrorist attack (5 places were hit, and over 200 people were killed). Unlike other sites that were hit (e.g., Taj Palace Hotel), the restaurant decided not to repair some of bullet holes. It is still a popular place and the food was pretty good.

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Goodbye, India! Tomorrow we leave India for South Africa and our first stop there — a safari near Kruger National Park. As AT&T doesn’t have coverage in South Africa, we may not be able to post much over the next week or so (our safari runs from June 30 to July 4). If not, we’ll be back and post at the following stop (Zambia’s Victoria Falls)!