Mumbai

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Our flight from KL was 3 hours late leaving and eventually left at 11.30pm making our last day in Malaysia very long and by the time we arrived in Mumbai at 3.30am Indian time (5.30am Malaysian time) we were very tired! Our luggage took ages to arrive and we actually thought that one piece had gone astray but it did eventually turn up. After booking a taxi we were given the taxi number to find on the street which again took ages as there were literally hundreds of them parked outside - all the same - black with yellow tops - and most looked pretty battered. Our 45 minute trip into Colaba (the suburb we were staying in) was sobering to say the least. The streets were very dark and a lot of the drive was through the slums Delhi is known for. Very sad! The shacks were made of anything they could find - plastic, corrugated iron scraps, old signs and sacking. What was more terrible however were the hundreds of pavement dwellers that were sleeping on the footpaths. These people didn't have as much as a sheet of newspaper under them and actually made the people living in the slums appear wealthy. We have seen plenty of poverty in our travels but we were still very shocked by the sight of all those people asleep on the footpaths. And we would only have seen a very small percentage of the total population of pavement dwellers. Mumbai actually has a population of 20 million, one third of whom are desperately poor.
There were also hundreds of the yellow and black taxis parked along the sides of the streets with their drivers fast asleep on the bonnets or roofs. There was nothing open which surprised us because in Malaysia you could always find a food stall open during the night - though always run by Chinese who seem to operate businesses 24 hours a day. Arriving at our hotel we woke the man on the front desk, filled out the pages of documentation which we have since found happens in India at all hotels when you register. They have enormous thick ledgers which are all hand drawn into columns where you enter all your details - Aussie addresses, phone numbers, time of arrival etc. Eventually we were given our room key and had a very welcome shower before a few hours sleep.
Next morning, feeling slightly hungover, we had a great walk around Colaba (the suburb we were staying in) and discovered the imposing structure which is the Taj Mahal Hotel, the site of the terrorist shootings and subsequent fire took place last year. It overlooks the Gate of India, an enormous archway built in 1927 to commemorate the visit of George V and Queen Mary. There were many people there but the area was sadly looking very dirty. Boats leave from there to go to the caves on Elephanta Island - we considered a visit but 10 klms out to sea in one of the very overloaded boat decided us against it. This whole area is a causeway out into he Arabian sea which is one of the reasons the British settled here many years ago and left the legacy of the many old buildings, most in a sad state of decay, which line the streets of Colaba and Central Mumbai. This area did have a pretty relaxed feel about it - we had certainly visited much busier streets elsewhere in the world.
The remainder of the morning was spent wandering, checking out the tourist office and Churchgate Railway Station where we watched the Dabbawallahs sorting out the tiffin boxes ready for delivery. 2,500 dabbawallahs everyday go around the suburbs of Mumbai collecting home cooked lunches from suburban housewives which are packed in multi layed metal stacks called tiffin boxes. These men each collect about 40 tiffin boxes, thread them onto long sticks , bicycle to the nearest railway station where the next group of dabwallahs take them into the center of Mumbai and then repeat the process by delivering them by bicycle to the various city office workers. Amazing to watch but unfortunately due to sleep deprivation I had totally forgotten to bring my camera. Soon after headed back for an afternoon nap!
A very full day of sightseeing was organized the next day, starting at the Hanging Gardens which are built on top of the large tanks which supple Mumbai with water. We hired taxis to take us between all the sights - incredibly cheap - the whole day cost about $AUD5. From the we went to Mani Bhauan, the house where Mahatma Ghandi lived for 17 years and which was the headquarters of the Indian National Congress. Very interesting and well presented displays of the life of this very great man. From there we visited the Dobi Ghats where laundry is all hand washed and hung out to dry in lines of stone tubs. An absolute hive of activity and very visual as all the clothes were hung out in groups of colour. Next stop was a supermarket - or at least where we though a supermarket might be in India - a very new shopping mall full of designer clothes shops but no supermarket. It did have relatively clean toilet however and a cool area for a biter to eat. We have since found it impossible to find supermarkets or even any shop that even slightly resembles a 7/11 and even this upmarket shopping center had really poorly and not well maintained toilets. We are very used to using dirty toilets but am still surprised to find places where you would expect toilets to be fairly acceptable and then find them dirty. It's almost as if they are only tacked on as a after thought! We walked down along Marine Parade, a very long road which borders the Arabian Sea to the floating mosque but couldn't visit it as it was Friday, the Muslim Holy day. And so ended another great day.
Next morning we headed back to Churghgate station to book our train tickets to Pune in the Western Ghats. It was so easy to buy tickets at the foreigners counter - the staff were really great. If only it had been as easy to buy rail tickets in China when we lived there. That afternoon we spent in Colaba at the Prince of Wales museum, full of of the most amazing bronze and marble statues and a very large collection of ivory carvings. Thoroughly enjoyable but the heat got the better of us in the end as it wasn't air conditioned. The temperature was 38* but the humidity was intense.
Our last day in Mumbai was spent at the Chor Bazaar, which is nicknamed the Thieves' Market. It was in a very poor area but the people were very friendly . They kept wanting us to take photos of them and then show them. Very dirty with goats everywhere and rain the night before made it very muddy underfoot. Nothing was wasted and the young boys seemed to be expert at dismantling things to separate all the tiniest of parts. Recycling on a grand scale. Again it makes you really appreciate that you were lucky enough to be born in Australia.
That evening we visited the Taj Mahal Hotel as we planned on having coffee there. The security was intense - we went through 3 separate radar checks and were hand frisked before we were allowed in. The hotel was very upmarket - their toilets were great - but we couldn't afford even a coffee there. They did have a great bookshop though which sold a fabulous range of postcards. The memorial to those who were killed during the terrorist shooting was beautiful - a wall of moving water behind a large marble stone and a tree of life statue in bronze.
We had really enjoyed our 5 nights in Mumbai - the traffic was pretty crazy but catching taxis made it easier and they were certainly a bargain. Also it was a great way to watch the street life as the taxis spent more time stopped then they did moving most of the time. We found a couple of great places to eat, plus some great book shops. No pressure was put on us to buy and though the beggars were upsetting to see we know they are a part of the travel experience through most Asian countries. We did regularly buy food for the street kids there but it could easily get out of hand - one kid suddenly turns into six!
Anyway our introduction into Indian life has been easy so far and hopefully will continue that way. Next stop Pune on the edge of the Western Ghats and in the center of the wine growing region of India. I may just taste some......

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Photos

The utensils used in chewing tabacco
Each little pot has different flavours eg one white paste used was calcium.