Mumbai - a melting pot of the flavours of India

Gateway to India

Taj Mahal Hotel - site of 2008 terrorist attack

Rubbish and slums on the beach

Fisherman's slum village

Where do you want to go? - the famous taxis

Waiting in the train station

Bamboo scaffoldng for another high rise

Interesting buildings

Ghandi's footwear

Ghandi museum

Slum children living on the beach

Inside the Jian Temple

Women's study group in Jian Temple

Waiting for the bus on the first day of school for the new year - new clothes and umbrella 

A fan seller

Dhoby Ghat laundry

World's most expensive home

Delicious vegetarian Thali lunch

Due to rougher seas and our slower engines, we were later arriving in Mumbai. The day started with face to face immigration with the Indian officials who came onboard to check our passports and visas - even though we had already been into India in Cochin, we had to do immigration into Mumbai - seems like overkill to me - I don’t know any passengers who were thinking of jumping ship in Mumbai!!! Our yellow landing cards were checked 4-5 times before we even got out of the terminal.

We were very lucky to get through the processing very early and met our Mumbai Magic guide, Mahatrook, in the terminal before heading off in our bus. 
Mumbai was described as ‘Cochin on steroids’, it is a busy, crazy city of colourful contrasts - smells, housing, religions, people, which prides itself on having a growing ‘middle class’. Everywhere, slums exist in front of very expensive housing and even on the main Chowpatty beach and the footpaths and walkways of the city. 

The rubbish is built up everywhere although I thought that Mumbai was cleaner than Cochin and also cleaner than when we were here in 2009 - at least there were street cleaners working along the roadways trying to keep on top of the problem. When asked about the litter everywhere, our guide said that most Indian people are very clean in their own personal space - body hygiene and homes - but don’t see the cleanliness of the outside environment as their responsibility - a shame because it is definitely the way that India is judged by the outside world. Everywhere we saw people open their car windows and throw litter out, as well as dropping food scraps and papers on the streets. The are very few rubbish bins on the streets - they have to be chained down or they are stolen for scrap metal!

Our guide says that the wealthy and the poor coexist and are interdependent on each other - the poor need the work provided by the rich and the rich need household workers. Ironically, she also mentioned that most of the robberies and murders in Mumbai are committed by household workers against their wealthy employers!!

The traffic is crazy everywhere - our guide said that the traffic in Mumbai is the ‘great leveler of everyone - whether you live in a million dollar apartment or a cardboard box on the streets, you have to deal with the traffic on a daily basis’. We had to cross the road a couple of times - a bigger adrenalin rush than any roller coaster, as the horns beep incessantly!! 

We visited all the usual highlights - the Gateway to India with views of the Taj Mahal hotel although we weren’t able to go inside. Chowpatty beach, the fisherman’s slum, Malabar Hill, Jian Temple, the Hanging Gardens, and Towers of Silence. 

I especially liked The Ghandi museum - was very interesting with dioramas of Ghandhi’s life and letters he had written to Hitler, Churchill and Roosevelt. I have included a photo of the wooden thongs that he wore - very uncomfortable looking. He was such a humble man who advocated truth, equality and non violence although he never held public office.

The enormous Dhoby Ghat (public laundry) is an amazing place to visit - it looks so dirty and everything is washed by hand beating onto stones, yet the sheets etc on the lines are pure white.

Lunch was a traditional Indian vegetarian Thali lunch. A large silver tray was placed in front of every guest and then small serves of vegetarian dishes were served into a number of small dishes on the tray - to be eaten with a variety of chappatis, naan, roti and puri bread - it was mildly spiced and absolutely delicious.The service was superb - and ice cold Kingfisher beer and soft drinks were served.

We love to experience the local food - I am always a little shocked that some passengers can’t wait to find Mc Donald’s in every port!! The Indian version of the Big Mac is the Marharaja Mac and is made from chicken or fish, since beef is not served in restaurants.

After lunch, we headed off for a bit of shopping - all the women on our tour wanted to buy an Indian outfit to wear for our next formal night. Some of the men found a coffee shop to wait while a couple had a nana nap on the bus. With the assistance of our guide, we all came away with purchases, watch out for the formal night photos....

We had once again been warned that it is monsoon season, so we should be prepared for very hot weather and heavy rain, but we only had three showers - heavy rain that only lasted a couple of minutes with a temperature of about 28 degrees - so the weather gods are still smiling on us.

 Mumbai is a city of enterprise and the residents will do anything to earn a few dollars - we saw barbers set up by the side of the road with just a chair, a mirror on a tree and scissors, umbrella repairers, shoe repairers, men buying plastic containers, cans etc anything recyclable. We laughed when we found that English language newspapers earn less than Indian language newspapers when they are sold to the recyclers. When we went shopping, the papers bags the goods were put into were made from recycled newspapers, glued together with string handles.

Our guide from Mumbai magic was fantastic - she spoke excellent English and was very knowledgable - I was fascinated when she said that she was a Pharsee - a minor religious group who have an unusual way of disposing of their dead bodies. They take their dead bodies to the Towers of Silence to be decomposed by the elements and animals - their belief is that the body is returned to the environment without creating pollution.

 Previously there were large numbers of vultures around the Towers who fed on the bodies laid out there. The Towers are located in Malabar Hill, in a secluded area of an overgrown forest area well hidden from public view. In the past 25 years, with development around the area - the number of vultures has decreased and so solar panels have been installed to increase the rate of decomposition. There have also been complaints from local residents as expensive high rise buildings are built surrounding the area - not a very pleasant view. There are about 65,000 pharsees left worldwide and this is the only traditional ‘burial place’ so many migrate back to Mumbai in their later years.

In the same area, we also saw the world’s most expensive home costing more than a billion US dollars to construct 27 ugly storeys to house a family of five with 300 servants to maintain the building - it has been completed recently, and according to our guide, there has been a controversy raging in the local newspaper about this obscene display of wealth in a city with so many poor.

Our impressions of Mumbai haven’t changed - it is a frantic hectic overpopulated city - very untidy and poorly maintained, but a wonderful city of contrasts. We didn’t see the street beggars or hawkers in the numbers we had seen previously. Apart from a few mangey underfed dogs, we didn’t see any cattle, goats or chickens roaming the streets, as in other Indian cities.

After a very full day, we arrived back to the ship after 6.00pm., tired but very happy. A quick pizza dinner with Dennis and Anthea and we were ready for a quiet night.