Marvelous Mumbai – Tues Jan 29

It turns out that we are in a suburb of Mumbai – it is about 1 ½ to 2 hours to get to downtown. The little 3 wheeler auto rickshaws are only allowed in the suburb, so you know when you get to the city limits – they all disappear. Thus, we all signed up for the tour that was provided. (The really great thing about this conference is that several tours are being provided for FREE.)

The van picked us up at 9 am. There are only 5 of us here at the moment, so it was sort of an SUV. The driver and the guide sat in the front, 3 people in the next row and two facing seats in the rear. I was one in the rear and was having a hard time getting in and out until the driver put down a little step attached to the rear.

The rear facing seat was both good and bad. We could take pictures quite easily but only saw things that we passed. Deena and I spotted an elephant (just walking down the street), but the others couldn’t see it in time. We also had a fabulous view of all of the vehicles bearing down on us and coming up to almost touch our bumper. We have all said that Hefei was good training. After riding in the cabs there, we have nerves of steel.

First we went to the laundry village (Dhobi Ghat). It is almost mind boggling to realize that all of this laundry is picked up and delivered back clean and pressed. They have customer codes on each piece. These are family businesses passed on from father to son. (Only the men do this.)

Then on to Haji Ali, a Muslim temple built out in the bay. It can only be reached by a walkway during low tide. We were obviously there a low tide, but only took pictures from the shore.

Next, we visited the house that Gandhi lived in when he was in Mumbai. He had been assassinated 60 years minus one day ago. Recently his ashes had been returned to this museum. (His hosts had kept the ashes and given them to their son who lived in Dubai. He wanted to give them back. The museum decided that the ashes should be strewn in the sea so that they would not become an object of veneration.) We visited the day before this was going to be done – so were among the last people to see the urn that contained the ashes.

Flower designs are used a lot here in religious circumstances.

This was the room where he worked and received guests.

At the Jain temple, we had to remove our shoes (glad I wore socks without holes). These people are strict vegetarians. Many of them wore masks so that they wouldn’t inadvertently hurt an insect or microbe by breathing it in and causing its death. (They wouldn’t appreciate my mosquito killing.)

Most of the building seemed to be made of carved marble:

Obviously, they don’t subscribe to the “less is more” school of decoration.

Some of the worshipers made designs with rice:

We walked through the Hanging Gardens, which were constructed on top of a reservoir.

Then, on to what must be the most elaborate train station in the world, Victoria Terminus.

Finally, it was lunch time. We went to the famous Khyber restaurant. I had read many descriptions of it and when we walked in, I knew that was where we were.

It is really hard to take good food pictures in India. Many of our meals have been buffet with everything inside of covered dishes. Here, we each ordered a dish and then shared them around. We are (from the left): Deena, Mary, Me, Lucille and Carol.

These were pickled onions and other pickles:

A cheese and veg ball in sauce:

Saag (spinach) chicken with naan.

This young man was making street snacks. He took leaves and spread all kinds of things on them (with his fingers) and then folded up the leaf and passed it over. The customer ate the whole thing.

The Gateway of India was sort of a disappointment. There was a car bomb incident 4-5 years ago, so it is really blocked off. We just stopped and took pictures from a distance.

We stopped at a Pharmacy. You told a clerk what you wanted and someone climbed around to get it. I needed to get razors for Chuck, because he forgot to pack them. Several other people had things they needed too. Carol is looking for hearing aide batteries for her husband. He forgot to pack his (after she asked him if he had them!) I think he only has about 2 more days of hearing if she doesn’t find them.

We returned home by way of Marine Drive and Chowpatty beach. There was a gigantic traffic jam. Mary had just said, “Everyone keep a lookout for elephants, we don’t want to miss any” when we found the cause of the jam:

There was a picture in the paper the next day. (A front view) These elephants had been in a religious procession and had been arrested for creating the traffic jam. They were being put on the beach until later when they were moved to the police station.

It took us 3 hours to get back to the conference site. We called the only husband with a cell phone to tell him that we were on the way, but didn’t know when we would be there. He was to pass the message on to the others.

This was the evening of the “Cultural Program”. It was supposed to start at 6 and we were sure that we were going to miss it. Luckily, the meetings were late too, so when we got there at 7, we just had time to go to the bathroom before it started.

It was an hour of Indian singing and dancing. The performers were very good, but we had been sitting already for 3 hours. My little sitter was screaming by the time it was finished.

We got back to the hotel at 10. Everyone hit the dining room for a late dinner. Luckily, the hotel does buffet and we could eat with waiting.

Off to bed. Most of the mosquitoes have been killed, so I’m sure that we will sleep well.