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Sat, 23.11.2013: Dubai −> Mumbai, sunny, 27-32°C
The alarm clock went off at 7-30am and our taxi arrived on time at the hotel to take us to the airport for 9-30am. Our flight wasn't until 12-15pm so I spent our last Dirhams on chocolate whilst Kirsten worked on photos and videos.
Our Jet Airways flight (Indian airline) only cost $127 for a 3 hour flight and we were even served hot food (Indian curries) with black tea and SUGAR!!!!
On the approach into Mumbai we flew over the slum area which is huge - the largest in the world and the basis for the film "Slum dog millionaire". Mumbai is 1.5 hours ahead of Dubai and we landed at 16-20 hours in the 32°C muggy heat.
We already had our visas so there was no problem getting through the formalities and our luggage arrived too! We needed money so went to an ATM. The first had no money and the second would only let us take out 10,000 Rupees ($150 US). This is the norm in India and whilst we can make several withdrawals at a time, this incurs far more charges and will add up over time.
We got a pre-paid taxi to avoid haggling and a sudden increase in cost on arrival at our destination which cost 560 R ($9) for non-AC. We will have to get used to the heat here anyway, but the cost for AC was only another 120 R ($1-80) on top.
Our taxi was a dented, old Fiat and our bags were put onto the roof rack and tied down with rope. The almost 2 hour journey was an extremely loud white-knuckle ride. Everyone uses their horns continually, a four lane road will be turned into a seven lane road with everyone squeezing in alongside and causing bottlenecks, with even more horn tooting, when the road narrows. The drivers are bumper to bumper, no one lets anyone else in front, if you hesitate it will probably cause a crash because the ones behind expect you to move, and there don't seem to be any rules. All kinds of vehicles are in the mix and pedestrians have no rights! We accelerated and braked our way south for 30km, without seat belts in the back, and were extremely relieved to get to our hotel in one piece!
The Bentley Hotel is on the third floor of a building that looks extremely run down on the outside. Inside, however, it looks a great deal better. We arrived at 7-15pm and were asked to check our room first to see of was acceptable. It was smaller than our apartment in Dubai but had everything we needed - lounge area, bed, table, fridge and a clean bathroom. There was a safe in the wardrobe and a TV. Wifi is in the lobby only and we were brought towels, bath mat and a kettle. It costs around $50 per night which is reasonable for Mumbai and has a good location near to a number of attractions and just around the corner from Churchgate train station.
We partially unpacked our bags, had a luke warm shower, and made ourselves a cup of tea. The horn tooting is ever present from the busy street outside and is something we will just have to get used to. It will be very difficult to find peace and quiet in India!
Sun, 24.11.2013: Mumbai, sunny, rain in the evening, 32°C
We gave ourselves time to adjust on our first day in Mumbai. We ordered our breakfast (included in the price) which is served in the rooms and is the same each day - omelette and toast, butter and jam plus tea.
There is a small supermarket nearby where we got some juice and yoghurts but Kirsten also saw a big rat disappear under one of the shelves! India isn't known for its cleanliness and something we will have to get used to!
After a quick look at the Churchgate train station, which wasn't as busy as on a week day, we found a bakery and bought some pastries and a cake. Next door, and owned by the same people, is the Gaylord Restaurant. We checked out the menu and made a reservation for later that evening.
We spent the rest of the afternoon working on our website and reading up on the various sights in the city to work out what we want to see and then returned to the restaurant for our first real Indian curry - Rogan Josh (lamb in spices), Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower in spicy sauce) and basmati rice along with a sweet lassi (yoghurt drink) and mango juice. It cost $27 US, expensive for India but worth it.
Mon, 25.11.2013: Mumbai, sunny, 32°C
Our priority for today was a visit to the tourist office not far from where we are staying. The government run offices are located throughout India and we were helped a great deal. We had a lot of questions about the procedure for trains and buses and picked up a number of print outs for Mumbai, other attractions within the region, and for a number of other places in southern India.
Afterwards, we followed a walking tour printed in our Lonely Planet guide that took us past a number of colonial 19th century buildings and various attractions. Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the Oberoi Hotel and Victoria train station in Mumbai when 166 were killed. There were a lot of soldiers guarding the High Court and University buildings that we weren't allowed to enter. At the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue there were soldiers with machine guns and an armoured vehicle.
We were waved through the security check for the Gateway of India which was built in 1911 to commemorate a visit by King George V and Queen Mary, but the Indian females had to open their bags to be checked. There was also an airline style detector door to walk through at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel but we were allowed to go in without a problem to take photos inside.
We are getting used to the heat and humidity here and have worked out that the best way to cross the streets is to do what the locals do - weave your way through at opportune moments. The heavy traffic won't stop but they do try to avoid you - amid very loud horn blowing of course! The noise is incredible and constant. We can hear it in our hotel room throughout the evening and night and are learning to ignore it. This is India!
We had a very good lunch at Moshe's, a restaurant near the Gateway of India. Kirsten had a lasagne and I had what was described as a baked potato with spicy beans but was actually a potato and bean bake. We will return.
After a stop at Reality Tours & Travel, hidden among a warren of little cubicle offices, to book a tour for Wednesday, we bought a new adaptor, a light weight tripod and some shopping. We returned to our hotel at 6pm for much needed showers (we have hot water for the first time!) and to do some hand washing.
Tues, 26.11.2013: Mumbai, smog/sunny, 33°C
We got a knock on the door at 7am - phone call for us. Oh boy, we'd been woken up and weren't thinking straight. Kirsten got up and went out to reception but the line had gone dead by the time she got there, so she came back to bed.
We hadn't given the hotel number to anyone and no one from home knew the hotel so they'd send us an email. Anyway, ten minutes later there was another knock at the door - phone call for us! Kirsten only just managed to remember to put some trousers on and went out to talk to a man who said he'd met her at the railway station yesterday and if she wanted to go out for a coffee it would have to be today because he was leaving the next day!!!
Obviously a mistake. Kirsten didn't recognise his name even though he was looking for a Kirsten at our hotel! Needless to say she wasn't going to go out for a coffee with him but we spent the next few hours wondering who had her name plus the hotel name and not being able to come with any answer! I told her that next time she should say she is Brigitte from Denmark without giving our hotel name out as I didn't want to get any more early morning phone calls!
We went out into the hot and humid heat and walked to the Victoria Station, now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, is Mumbai's largest public building. It is possibly the world's finest railway station with its ensemble of statues, carvings, stained glass and embellishments that took 10 years to complete.
India's first steam engine left from here when it was completed in 1887 and is now an extremely busy station with at least a thousand trains leaving every day carrying some 2 1/2 million commuters in and out of the city.
We went to see the famous "dabba-wallas" who transfer some 200,000 cooked lunches, prepared by housewives for their office-bound husbands, through a unique sorting and multiple-relay distribution system. The system is so successful that no one gets the wrong lunch. In fact, following a study of this network, U.S. business magazine 'Forbes' gave it a Six Sigma (99.99% accuracy) performance rating, which means that just one error occurs in six million transactions.
We must have been standing in the wrong place because we only saw a few metal pots being carried around. (We saw them two days later at Churchgate train station.)
We walked further to try to see Crawford Market but got hassled by a man who wouldn't leave us alone and who wanted to be our guide. We managed to get into the entrance and decided it didn't look interesting enough to put up with the man. So we walked back out and went past a school that was celebrating 'Children's day' with various activities going on in the playground - marching, a type of aerobics with bells, and smaller children all lining up.
Arriving in Mumbai. Bentley Hotel. Streetlife. Train stations. Crossing the streets!
We got to a large traffic island and weren't sure which road to take to get back so we asked two police officers nearby, one female and one male. We asked which way to Churchgate and they both pointed in two completely different directions! I guess all roads lead to Rome! We followed the man's directions which took us down into a pedestrian underpass, found our way back and stopped at our favourite bakery for some goodies.
We spent the rest of the day researching India and coming up with a plan for our trip.
Wed, 27.11.2013: Mumbai, sunny, cloudy pm, 32°C
We went to the tourist office to see how we could register for the online train booking system which needs a correct mobile phone number otherwise we can't register. As we don't have a phone this is not possible. They recommended that we buy a phone as they are not very expensive, we will get our tickets by SMS which we then show the conductor on the train. Sounds easy, so we'd go and buy one the next day.
For the afternoon we went on a very good tour with Reality Tours & Travel. Sunny, our tour guide, met us outside the office and got us a taxi to take us to the various stops on the tour. The first was a drive through the red light area where we saw groups of women, who looked no different to any other women, standing or sitting on the pavement. None seemed under age and Sunny told us that condoms are distributed to prevent AIDS and it costs 200 Rupees ($3). Apparently 60,000 prostitutes work in Mumbai.
We could have told him to skip that destination but it was on the way to Mahalakshmi Dhobi Ghat - a unique laundry in Mumbai. Spread over 23 acres, row upon row of open-air concrete wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone, are used by men called dhobis who relentlessly pound the dirt from the city's garments in a timeless tradition.
The land is owned by the Government and the workers pay rent and taxes. The ghat is over 100 years old and each of the concrete pens is an heirloom passed down from one generation to the next. Over 3,000 men wash by hand and hang out to dry, some 200,000 pieces of clothing each day. The laundry is collected from all over Mumbai, and returned for a very small fee. We would pay 5 Rupees per piece (7 US cents).
We were there in the afternoon so there wasn't much washing going on but we could see everything hanging out to dry on various roofs and in the narrow walkways. Sunny told us that the men wash 10 times more clothing than washing machines could, over the same time period.
Our final stop was at Dharavi Slum which was stereotyped in the 2008 film 'Slumdog millionaire'. 55% of Mumbai's population live in slums and Dharavi is the largest in Asia. Originally inhabited by fishermen, it is now 1.75 km2 sandwiched between two major railway lines and is home to over 1 million people including hotel workers, engineers, waiters, taxi drivers, most of the city's police force, teachers and tour guides. Our own guide Sunny lives in a different slum further north with his parents, brother and sister.
Dharavi is the only slum that includes a commercial business area that has around 10,000 businesses owned by 1,000 business people, overseen by managers. 98% of the workers are men and the slum produces around $650 million in goods exported from here.
During the monsoon season (June/July) many of the workers return to agricultural areas to work as the amount of rain brings production in the slums to a halt.
We spent 2.5 hours walking around the slum with our guide. We started in the commercial area. Originally the businesses and residential part were all mixed up in the same area but due to the toxic substances and conditions, the Government separated the two and built temporary housing. The people still have to pay rent between 3,000 and 10,000 Rupees per month ($50 to $100). The residential area was split into the Muslim and Hindu areas in 1993 after riots broke out at the end of 1992 in northern India between the two factions that spread throughout the country. 900 people were killed in Mumbai during the two months of riots.
We saw recycling areas where we saw the only women workers sorting various plastic articles collected from all over India and the world. After being sorted according to type and colour, it is then cut into small plastic chips using self-made crushing machines (there are businesses here that make the crushers and sharpen the blades), and put into 25kg sacks which are sold to smelting businesses outside the slum. The end product comes in the form of pellets that are sold on to manufacturers for re-use.
Per month, 25 tonnes of plastic chips are sold for 100 Rupees per kilo ($1-50). The owners, therefore, make around $40 per sack but the workers only earn $3 per day. The workers don't have to pay for electricity or water but have to pay for their own food - each group will choose a 'cook' who is given money for doing the cooking.
We also saw aluminium smelting and oil based paint barrels being cleaned and fired for re-use. The conditions are highly toxic and no safety clothing is provided or worn. It really is slave labour and yet they earn more than agricultural workers and anyone who goes to the slum will get a job.
Between the commercial and the residential area, there is a canal that really does smell. All the toxic waste and other waste water runs through this canal directly into the sea. There are no sewage or waste water plants in Mumbai and no one goes swimming in the sea. Sunny told us that children go into this canal to pick out anything that can be recycled or re-used.
On the other side of the canal is the residential area split into Muslim and Hindu areas. There are also a lot of businesses here but none that produce toxic gases or are dangerous to the inhabitants. We saw only men using sewing machines to make all kinds of clothes - jeans, children's clothes etc. Several bakeries produce 3.5 tons of goods every day. There were carpenters making furniture, leather manufacturers making belts, handbags etc, and potteries. There is also a busy road where there is a market with fresh fruit and vegetables and a supermarket.
The children go to a government run school for the first five years and then to a partially or fully private school. Reality Tours put 80% of the profits back into the slum by way of various projects for women and children in the slum. These include sports programmes - football for girls, cricket for boys - dance courses, theatre groups, and various health care projects.
We met Peter, a sport teacher from England, who now lives in Mumbai and is in charge of various sport programmes. There was an English camera team there who were making a documentary which may be shown on the TLC TV channel.
30% of the population are children and many speak English. Sunny told us there are problems with gangs and drugs just like anywhere else in the world and said the crime rate was about 4%.
It didn't really look like a slum - I have seen far worse living conditions in other parts of the world. Most of the houses here have concrete walls, have two floors and locking doors and windows. They look like normal houses and most have tiled floors and bathrooms. The government ensures there is electricity 24 hours a day and 3 hours of running water per day. Drains are covered by concrete blocks and there is only a smell in a few places. It was also a lot cooler in the narrow alleys than out on the streets in the city.
People work hard and were friendly, greeting us as we walked by, particularly the children. Photography is not allowed out of respect for the people. There are schools, hospitals, sport areas, temples and mosques, and supermarkets - a city within a city.
We can certainly recommend the tour which was well organised, informative and very interesting. It gave us an insight into the real lives of people here and throughout India. The tour cost 1,400 Rupees each ($21) and was worth every penny.
Afterwards, we were taken to the tour office within the slum to fill out forms and give our email address so that we can be sent some photos. Then another guide got us a taxi and accompanied us back to our hotel.
The taxi ride only took 45 minutes on the way back and we went on what we were told was the longest overpass in the world. We went out for a late meal and on the way back saw a taxi with its bonnet open. We couldn't resist a peak. They run on gas and there is hardly anything under the bonnet! There's an engine, radiator, large battery, a filter for the gas and very little else. Certainly nowhere near the usual amount of tubes, pipes and wires.
Thu, 28.11.2013: Mumbai, sunny, 34°C
We went to Churchgate railway station to take a look at the "dabba-wallas" who transfer some 200,000 cooked lunches, prepared by housewives for their office-bound husbands, through a unique sorting and multiple-relay distribution system.
There were lots of men carrying bags and pots loaded onto metal frames which they carried on their heads. They were transferred from the trains to taxis or men who were going to deliver them by hand.
Then we bought a mobile phone! Yes, us! Up to now we are probably the only people in the world who didn't possess one and for the first time we actually needed one so we could get an online account for booking trains. The phone cost $20 and then we crossed the road to Vodafone and got a deal that included 400 Rupees of calls using a pre-paid SIM card that can be topped up anywhere, and a USB plug so that we can get an internet connection using the SIM card from the phone and plugging it into the computer.
Phone calls within this area will cost about 1 US cent per minute and 1.5 cents per minute within India! We had to phone up 2 hours later to activate the card and then wait an hour before we could use it.
After following the procedure we went onto the internet to get an online account for the trains. But when we tried to book online my credit card wasn't accepted. We tried everything but it wouldn't work. I even phoned up England (on Skype) to check that my card had not been blocked - which it wasn't, but when we tried booking online again, it still didn't work.
So now we have a phone but we still can't book trains! Very frustrating! So we looked up the train for next Wednesday and went to the reservation office to get our tickets. When we returned, we booked the next hotel online. At least we managed to achieve something today even though the whole thing took us hours.
Fri, 29.11.2013: Mumbai, sunny, 32°C
We were up at 7-15 am and got a taxi down to Sassoon docks for the fish market. We weren't allowed to take photos and made our way through the throngs of people, out towards the docks. The smell was highly pungent on the way so we breathed through our mouths. It got better once we were on the docks. We had to pick our way through all the people sorting, gutting and filleting fish, shrimp and other varieties of seafood. We weren't going to buy anything and just wanted to look, although the sights and level of hygiene were enough to put us off fish and seafood! Perhaps that's why no photos are allowed!
We went for breakfast at Moshe's restaurant and had great blueberry pancakes and then queued up for the ferry over to Elephanta Island which is in the middle of Mumbai harbour. It cost 150 Rupees each return ($2-40) and was a very peaceful ride for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Elephanta Island is a UNESCO World Heritage site where there are Hindu temples carved into the rock and believed to have been created between AD 450 and 750. The original name was Gharapuri but was changed by the Portuguese in the 17th Century to Elephanta because of the large stone elephant near the shore. This collapsed in 1814 and was moved by the British to a museum in Mumbai.
We got off the ferry and walked, rather than hopping onto the very slow miniature railway train and then climbed the 120 steps up to the entrance - 250 Rupees per person ($4). There are 5 caves but the first is the only one worth seeing.
There was supposed to be a free guide who we met on our way out!! A very nice lady who gave us information about the caves and also about other places in India. On the way back to the ferry Kirsten bought a new base ball cap to shade her from the sun ($0-70). The ferry ride back was only 45 minutes long and we went to a Belgian patisserie for potato roestis with vegetables and a spinach quiche.
Mumbai 27.-29.11.13: Mahalakshmi Dhobi Ghat. Dabba-wallas at Churchgate. Elephanta Island.
Sat, 30.11.2013: Mumbai, sunny, 33°C
After working on the website in the morning, we spent almost three hours on the slow and intermittent internet looking up trains and times etc. to plan our trip. As we couldn't pay online we would have to go to the reservation centre which meant filling out forms and knowing the correct number and name of each train journey beforehand.
Afterwards we bought a kettle, mugs and an adaptor to use for Indian appliances abroad and went out for a meal at the Gaylord Restaurant. Kirsten had a sizzling platter of pasta and vegetables which really did sizzle! I had chicken and bacon with gravy, mashed potatoes and veggies. I ordered chips to go with it because, when I asked, it sounded as though the meal wasn't served with anything. So I ended up with mashed potatoes and chips! We also bought cakes from the bakery next door and then went to the reservations office at the train station.
Last time we booked a train here we only needed one passport so I took mine. We filled out the forms which we had to get from the foreign tourist counter and the lady there started checking to see if the seats we wanted were available.
We wanted to pay by credit card which meant we would have to go to a different counter to book and pay, but as she checked the first train she told us there was only one seat left and the other one would have to go on a waiting list. She carried on checking the other trains but we already knew that if there was a problem with the first train we would have to change our entire plans and therefore get different trains. Then she said we could only pay for two of the journeys by credit card and we would have to pay cash for the other two.
It started getting very complicated because she wanted to know how we would pay and we were trying to explain that if we couldn't get on the first train, we would have to find an alternative and possibly change all the others trains!
It took quite a while as we didn't understand the waiting system and, in the middle of it all, she told us we would need both of our passports! So Kirsten ran back to the hotel to get hers.
We were trying to book 4 different train journeys including two overnight trains. Our first choice was the 2A class which is second class in a four bed compartment with air conditioning. The first of the four was an overnight train. We eventually understood that if we booked the one final seat available on that train, we would both be allowed to get on. If we didn't book it and both went on the waiting list, we wouldn't be allowed on unless we both got a seat. However, we wouldn't find out until we got to the train to see if our names were on one of the compartments! Confused? Definitely!
She told us that we would probably get the second seat but, if not, we would be allowed to share the bed! We would still have to pay for two beds though! Hmm!! What happens if everyone does this. That means that the 4 person compartment turns into an 8 person compartment along with everyone's luggage!
When I was told that there were only seats available in the 3A class for the other overnight train (6 bed AC compartment) and asked if that could turn into 12 people because of this waiting system, she asked me if I didn't like Indians!!! I don't think she understood the implications of her own system. I knew that we might end up sharing a bed on the first overnight train, meaning there would be 5 in the compartment instead of 4 and that if everyone did that, it would double the number and make everything very cramped.
We ended up only getting what we wanted on one out of four trains. We only have one ticket but have paid for two, on the first overnight train, we have a 6 bed compartment on another overnight, and the final train will be a sleeper class which means 6 beds and no AC. That could get really hot and sweaty - we might be boarding at 6-30am but we don't arrive until 2pm, the hottest part of the day. This is going to be quite an adventure. We'll keep you posted!
At the end of the day the trains are really cheap. We actually saved $30 because we couldn't get the seats/beds we wanted and it only cost $85 for the two of us for 36 hours of train travel! Of course, we might get thrown off the first overnight train because we only have one ticket!!
Back at the hotel, Kirsten took a video of me being a "Dhobi Wallah" (washer woman) - doing our washing in the shower and we got it all hung out by 11-15pm!! What a day!
Life is hard sometimes!
Sun, 01.12.2013: Mumbai, sunny, 32°C
Kirsten worked on photos and then it took us 5 hours to book 4 hotels!!! The internet is slow and very frustrating and it makes online booking a bit of an adventure. It's a good job we've bought a mobile phone here because, half way through an online booking, we got a phone call to tell us that we would receive an email to proceed with the booking!!
The first time I answered the phone I thought it was a wrong number and they were speaking in Hindu so I ended the call! They phoned back and then I realised that we would be sent an email to continue. What a strange way of doing things!
We also tried phoning up the hotels directly - Kirsten failed completely because she just couldn't understand a word. I had a slightly better time but only just. It's a good job the phone calls are so cheap as the language barrier, even though they are speaking English, makes each call a great deal longer!
During one of the phone calls, we were told that we would be sent an email with a link to book online. So that meant we had to go back out to the lobby and set up the computer again! We managed to get through the booking procedure eventually and should have received a confirmation by email which we never got. So now we will have to phone up. What a palaver! Well, we weren't going to phone today because we'd had enough!
We are really happy that we extended our time here as organising the trains and hotels is turning into a long drawn out and frustrating nightmare - and we've only booked 9 nights!! Needless to say we'd had other plans for today rather than spending so much of our time organising the next part of our trip, but they all fell by the wayside and now it was time for food!
We walked down to Indigo's which is listed in the Lonely Planet. The meal was good but expensive for what it was. Kirsten had a mushroom and Brie sandwich and I had a baked potato with a green salad. We also shared a yummy piece of banana caramel pie that cost $5!!
We walked back along Marine Drive to take some night shots of the bay and then returned to work on the website for the rest of the night.
Mon, 02.12.2013: Mumbai, sunny, 32°C
I phoned up a hotel in Goa to make a booking for us and to confirm a booking with another hotel. It took a while as I really have difficulty understanding the English spoken here. Then we packed a bag and went off for a day of sightseeing.
Our destination was the Golden Pagoda which turned out to be the least interesting part of our day! The journey to get there was far more fun. First we got a train to Borivali which took 85 minutes. We queued up at the ticket office in Churchgate station and paid $1 for two return tickets!
We got on the 'slow' train which stops at every station along the way and got into the ladies compartment. There was plenty of room as the trains run every 4 minutes and we weren't travelling at rush hour. The train doors are left open the entire time and the men's compartments get quite full. We could see men standing in the doorways holding onto the door frame as we passed (very) close to other trains.
Our train stopped only briefly which gave people the chance to hop on and off whilst it was setting off! There were voice messages telling us the next station names and also a digital display in Marathi (the local language in this region), Hindu and English. Various sellers also hopped on and off with their goods which reminded us of the metro in Mexico City. We arrived in Borivali and walked out to the road where we flagged down an auto rickshaw - a three wheeled vehicle that we know as Tuc Tucs from other countries.
The 10 minute journey cost $0-70 cents and was extremely loud due to all the honking which we are getting used to by now. It's also best not to look ahead because every driver on the road will squeeze into the smallest place to get ahead on the road, including buses! A 'don't look' policy is the best way to avoid having a heart attack!
We managed to get to the ferry in one piece and queued up for a ticket which cost us $1-50 return for two people. The ferry journey only took about 20 minutes and we chatted to 2 families who were going to the Esselworld and Water Kingdom amusement parks for the day which are on the same island as the Pagoda. One of the sons who is 10 years old is learning English and spoke very well. We ended up being invited to stay with them when we visit Ahmedabad in Gujarat next January or February!
The ferry goes across Gorai Creek which is extremely smelly and filthy but was better once we got out into the open water. On the other side we had a short walk to get to the entrance to the Golden Pagoda.
We very nearly were refused entry because we didn't have our passports with us - we didn't even know we needed them and the tourist office hadn't told us we needed to take them when we were asking about how to get here. In any case we wouldn't bring the originals with us. The security guard made a quick phone call and then let us through.
The Golden Pagoda is a replica of Myanmar's Shwedagon Pagoda and is still under construction. There are various buildings around the 89m high Stupa which are being built so we could see that they are made of concrete and painted gold. The dome is designed to hold 8000 meditators and was built entirely without supports using an ancient technique of interlocking stones.
A crystal from Brazil which has been cut into the shape of a lotus blossom has been mounted on the top and is said to glow so brightly in the sunlight that it can be seen from afar. Well, most days it is hazy here so we didn't see it shining.
The interior was concrete so maybe it's not yet finished. There was also a food court, souvenir shop and a multi media centre which are also concrete buildings. Not exactly inspiring.
Less than an hour later we were back on the boat and met a group of women from Poland who had been on a Yoga course in Goa (further south in India) with a male guide and who were in Mumbai for the final two days of their trip. One of them spoke German so we chatted to her on the ferry. Kirsten was also asked to be photographed with other Indian women on the boat. We have been asked several times to have our pictures taken with others since we have been in India - are we that photogenic?
Anyway, we got back to the other side of the Creek and haggled with an auto rickshaw driver to get the same price we'd paid on the way there - 50 Rupees and the German speaking Polish woman joined us. We didn't ask her for the few cents for her share of the ride!!
We got on the 'fast' train to Churchgate for the return which didn't stop at every station and only took 55 minutes - 25 minutes less. Back at the hotel we needed showers after our hot and sticky day out. The journey and the people we had met along the way, had been the most interesting part and more than made up for the disappointing Pagoda.
On the Mumbai train and rickshaw to the Golden Pagoda.
After washing clothes we went out for a superb meal at Moshe's - chicken and mustard vol au vents, veggie wrap, salads, a portion of chips and drinks. We also got three pieces of various cakes to take with us. Whilst waiting for the bill a rat ran passed our table with toilet paper stuck to its bum!! It had obviously come upstairs to use the toilet! This is the fourth time a rat has virtually run over our feet since we've been here. We're getting used to that as well!!
Tue, 03.12.2013: Mumbai, sunny, 32°C
We got onto the slow train for two stops to Charni Road. The cost was ridiculously low - 10 Rupees, $0-15 for two! We walked along Chowpatty Beach and then to Walkeshwar Temple which is in the middle of a residential area and looks run down. We realised later that we were at the wrong temple!
We walked up the steep Malabar Hill to the Hanging Gardens which were a lot cooler and then got a taxi back down to the beach. We wanted to go to the New Kulfi Centre where, according to the Lonely Planet, you can get the best Kulfi ice-cream in Mumbai, if not India. We were expecting a new building, which was bright and clean, selling this ice cream which is an Indian delicacy. But it turned out to be a whole in the wall and not exactly clean! Maybe it was a different place but it certainly had a sign with the right name on it. Anyway, we decided not to risk it as we would be on the train tomorrow for nearly 7 hours and didn't want any stomach problems.
We got the train back, bought some Tupperware style containers, stocked up at the bakery, and went for our last meal in Mumbai which included Banoffee Surprise for dessert - yummy! The waiter asked us how it was and I said "Terrible" which is my typical joke. The serving dish had been literally scraped clean!! The waiter's face dropped and I hurriedly explained it was a joke!
Our last day in Mumbai.
We returned to our hotel to do some washing, use the internet and start packing.
