Mumbai Muggies

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Until I got here, I didn’t realize how much hotter and more humid Mumbai was compared to the other Indian cities where I have been. Elsewhere, air conditioning was not necessary - not so in Mumbai. Although it gets a little below 70 degrees at night, the humidity continues on…

To bring you up-to-date on my trip, the air flight from Kolkata to Mumbai when without any incident. Air Deccan (the Indian cheapo airline) gave me good service. They had me worried as it seemed impossible to call them on the phone. Any way, I made it to my hotel (Residency Hotel) about 11:45 PM on Tuesday. For some reason or other, there are no prepaid taxis from the domestic airport here in Mumbai. Thus, my taxi driver tried to insist I should pay him off-hour fare (from midnight to 5 AM). But it didn’t work as I knew that was another one of the many schemes they try here.

The Residency is just what I imagined it would be, that is, a nice hotel in the middle of the city. My room is almost like a small private apartment as I am in the new annex. It is nicely decorated and furnished. The only possible complaint I have is that the room should be a little larger if two people were using it.

Yesterday, Wednesday the 30th, I took the city tour of Mumbai. As you know, I thought the city tour of Kolkata was great but this tour was not very good at all. It seems the Government stopped doing the tour so it is (outsourced?) now done by a private company. First off, they told me the bus would have 2X2 seating and the tour would be in English (as the Kolkata one was). Instead, I found myself on all old bus seating with the driver as all the other passengers were Indians who spoke Hindi. The tour was entirely in Hindi but occasionally, the guide would come and tell me something in English. Nevertheless, I did allow me to get between sights, such as they were, rather quickly. So I did get to see Nehru Park (which for some reason has the big shoe but no Mother Hubbard), the hanging gardens (sculptured gardens built over a 30 million gallon water reservoir) and the Nehru Science Center (a nice modern science center with lots of interesting displays). Probably the worst aspect of this tour is that we drove about 1 hour and 45 minutes to see a Hare Krishma Mandir and a beach (Juhu Beach). Either of these sights were especially noteworthy, then we turned around and drove back into the city. Any way, I had good food yesterday as I had a great breakfast buffet ($4.50) at a high-price hotel and dinner ($4.00) at a fanaastic upscale seafood place!

Today, I dropped off my nylon travel pants at a laundry to have them repaired. It turned out that I ripped them in two places on the overnight bus trip from Jaisalmer to Agra. It will only cost me about $1.00 to get them darned (supposedly mostly invisible) here. I surely will miss these service and food prices! I intend to look around the shopping places for my remaining time here in Mumbai. I will be flying home tomorrow night - actually Saturday morning at 1:50 AM.

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