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Published: June 25th 2017
The Gates of India
There they are, in their magnificent glory, and this photo was taken from our hotel room window. No complaints.I remember at one point back home, in the early stages of planning this trip, I had wanted to avoid Mumbai altogether, thinking it would be too much hassle trying to navigate one of the world's largest cities, with a population of twenty two million plus. I was so wrong, and I am so glad we came here.
Without a doubt, we lucked out with our hotel selection in the heart of Mumbai, one block away from the Gates of India, the famous Taj Mahal Hotel, and walking distance or a short ride away from all the major attractions. Situated right on the water, we had a view of the bay from our room, and spent our evenings blissed out by the beauty of all the boats sparkling in the water from the hotel's excellent rooftop restaurant, which also had sweet jazz music to add to the already awesome atmosphere. Thank you Trip Advisor reviewers.
Our first evening in the city, for about a buck, we took a forty minute night boat cruise of the harbour in front of The Gates. Nice mellow start to the weekend.
The next day we did a walking tour, along with two
The Bay
This was the bay view from our hotel room. Sweet. other travellers, that was conducted by two University students. The tour promised to give us insights into how the people of Mumbai live. In addition to getting the historical background on some of the beautiful architecture in old Mumbai, we took trains, taxis, ate with the locals, saw the world's largest outdoor laundry service in action, and visited at length the home where Ghandi lived for many years. I found the Ghandi Museum visit to be very moving. Along with a collection of photos and beautifully done dioramas depicting the events of his life, we saw his enormous library, his spinning wheel still in its place where he had worked on it in his room, and a collection of original letters he had written or received, from notable historic figures, including Einstein and Hitler. And we learned, among many other things, that thefamous luxury hotel in Mumbai, The Taj Mahal, was built by this very rich Indian opium lord with a strong social conscience who built schools and hospitals and such in Mumbai with his illicit drug money. At the time hewas around, this other rich British dude, Sir Walton I believe, built this fancy hotel in Mumbai that did
Bev and Stan at the Taj Hotel
Yes, if only we wanted to drop a few hundred a night, we would actually be staying here. Or we could drop $2,500 like Madonna did, and take an entire suite here for a night. Not. not allow people of color to enter, not even the rich cat opium lord. In response to this, the opium lord built the majestic Taj Mahal Hotel, and allowed entry by all colors, specifically to show that Indians don't discriminate. Nice story. And did you know that the University of Mumbai was designed by the same architect as Harvard?
The walking tour was a great intro to this beautiful city, which we followed up with a double decker bus tour later the same evening. We got another glimpse of the fabulous architecture and vibrant energy that pervades this city, as we watched people out everywhere, strolling the massive Chapatti Beach in the heart of the city; the enormous sea wall that extends for miles along Marine Drive, referred to as "The Queen's Necklace" because of the Bay's shape when lit at night; and the cricket fields that were always full of activity.
But I had to go beyond the lives of the middle and upper middle class, and so made a point of taking a tour of Dharavi, the largest slumin Asia, that was made famous by both the movie Slum Dog Millionaire and the novel Shantaram. With
Victoria Train Station
If you look closely you will notice a space in the centre of the building where there once was a statue of the Queen. Somebody apparently removed it one night, some thirty years ago. It has never been recovered. the exception that the movie drew global attention to the existence of Dharavi, there is little else that the slum dwellers appreciate about the film, becauseits depictions of life there are all negative. The tour was presented by Reality Tours, and our young guide, who lived in another slum in Mumbai, kicked off the tour by asking each of the four of us in the group what our definition of a slum was. All of us came up with similar descriptors, like poverty, overcrowding, substandard living conditions, and depression. We were soon corrected, however, when told that the accurate definition of a slum is simply a place where people live, but do not have entitlement to the land. Reality Tours is committed to educating people about the vibrant community that exists within Dharavi - a community that has been there for generations - the infrastructure it has, and the millions of dollars it contributes annually to the Mumbai economy with the various industries it supports within the slum, such as recycling, pottery making, and fabric dying. In addition, a very high percentage of people who work in Mumbai's service industry live in Dharavi. It was extremely interesting and enlightening, and
Dharvi Ghat
This is the Dharvi Ghat, the world's largest open air laundry. good to know that some of the money from the tour goes back to help establish community based programs there.
About the only thing we did not get off the Mumbai bucket list was taking in a Bollywood movie. This is a bit unfortunate, because touristos like us who can't understand a word of Hindi, and there are no English subtitles, only go to watch the apparently hilarious Indian audience that is anything but quiet during the movies. A definite missed cultural experience. But no worries. We will add it to the long list of things to see and do next trip.
Now we are off to the far north, to Kashmir, the Land of Saffron.
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