Mumbai

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So today is the last day of a busy, diverse and very Indian tour. It would be great fun to continue, but the other places to see will have to wait. I am sure I will be back in India, perhaps back to Ladakh. There was plenty of inspiration for other trips in the museum today. On the trip with our guide this morning it was a mixture of culture and architecture. The architecture included the university and the main station. We couldn't do the guided tour inside the admin block of the station because it wasn't available due to government holiday. We saw the outside and the ticket hall. The cultural side was the laundry, the tiffin boxes and the fishing village. These are like you see in the documentaries. The laundry was the best, to see all the men working hard slapping the clothes and ironing huge piles of clothes. There were many pairs of jeans, so this method of washing is probably good for jeans. We drive up to Malabar hill for the view down over the beach and marine drive.

We were dropped at the main museum. This has a very good sculpture collection and a well displayed and explained indian miniature painting collection. The exhibits here were much better displayed and lit than most of the museums.

Dinner was at the Taj Palace hotel. This is a 5 star luxury hotel, so it was not what we are used to. It was bigger than I expected. Near our table was a sophisticated New York former dancer travelling on his own. He was interested in talking about his trip, but not very interested in ours.

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