Take two. I had written the entire blog and was very pleased with it, and then I started to put the pictures in and I accidentally somehow deleted the whole thing. Grrrr....... So here goes and let's see if I can re-create it.
It was a weird day. We were supposed to dock at 11 AM in Mumbai but we actually docked at 7 AM. As you can imagine, the alarm clock went off right on time at 6 AM. Since we both had excursions to escort in the afternoon, we had the morning to ourselves. What to do? Doesn't doing laundry sound like a good idea? No, but that was Michael's idea and besides, we had nothing else better to do so that's what we did.
We only had one bag of laundry but by the time Michael got done going through the closet, he managed to fill up three washing machines full of dirty clothes. Things were going according to schedule and we brought the laundry back to our room to fold. Michael said to me, "where is the rest of my underwear and I only have one sock." I went back to the laundry room and found that there were none of our clothes left in the dryer. Hummmm, where could they be? I decided to look in the washing machine that we had used, but there was a load of someone else's laundry going at the time. I stopped the machine and I looked inside and lo and behold, there was all the rest of our missing laundry: five pairs of underwear, one undershirt, the missing sock, and a laundry bag. Some idiot took our stuff out the washing machine and put it in the dryer and then put his clothes in the washing machine which was still full of our clothes! So doing the laundry took a lot longer than we had planned on, but we know his undies are nice and clean since they were washed twice. Yes people, they walk among us.
Last year when we were in Mumbai, I wrote extensively on my blog about the city and its inhabitants. So instead of repeating everything I wrote from last year, which is pretty much the same, Here is the link to that blog for your further reading enjoyment.
Here are some miscellaneous images I thought would be interesting to share:
A typical street scene
And independent cobbler shop
A doorman at the Taj Hotel, representing colonial British times
There was one topic that I did not cover that I think is pretty interesting to tell you about -- dappawallas, a person who delivers lunch boxes. Workers from the suburbs take the train into the city as their primary means of transportation. The trains in Mumbai are so crowded, that there is very little room to carry anything extra on your person. Six million people per day use the Victoria train station, and this station only serves the east side of the city. There is another train station that serves the west side of the city. Restaurant food is pricey for the average worker, plus they like to have a hot meal at lunchtime.
A dabbawalla is part of a delivery system that collects hot food in lunch boxes (dappas) from the residences of workers in the late morning, delivers the lunches to the workplace utilizing various modes of transport, predominantly bicycles and the trains, and returns the empty boxes back to the customer's residence that afternoon. A collecting dabbawalla, usually on bicycle, collects the dappas from a worker's home. As many of the carriers are illiterate, the dabbas have some sort of distinguishing mark on them, such as a color or group of symbols. The dabbawalla then takes them to a designated sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawallas sort (and sometimes bundle) the lunch boxes into groups. The grouped boxes are put in the coaches of trains, with markings to identify the destination of the box (usually there is a designated car for the boxes). The markings include the railway station to unload the boxes and the destination building delivery address. At each station, boxes are handed over to a local dabbawalla, who delivers them. The empty boxes are collected after lunch or the next day and sent back to the respective houses. This system has a 99% rate of effectiveness and Harvard business school has come here to study this system.
As I mentioned previously, Michael and I both had excursions to do. I received an excursion to the Caves of Elephanta and Michael received an excursion for the marvels of Mumbai that both of us have done twice before. The excursion to the caves involves climbing 125 stone steps. But it also involves climbing down 125 steps, for a grand total of 250 steps. A person with bad knees, would be foolish to try and attempt this, so being of sound mind, I traded excursions with Michael. My excursion would just be getting on and off the bus several times, and it seemed the more prudent thing to do. Needless to say, I was not excited about this.
Ha ha ha, the laugh was on me. I thought I was getting away from climbing stairs and that was not to be today. I have been on many buses across the world and this is the first time I ever had to get on the bus that had spiral stairs that were so narrow that a normal sized foot could barely fit on the step. And then you had to do a little maneuver to get through the door that separates the driver's compartment from the passenger compartment. But at least the bus had good air conditioning.
So we saw the usual touristy type stuff -- the Gateway of India, the Taj Hotel, and the Dhobi Ghat laundry -- and stopped for visits at the Gandhi Museum and the Prince of Wales Museum. Oh boy, you know how much I love museums. I had planned to sit on the bus during the museum stops, but I was informed that the bus driver would turn off the engine and therefore there would be no air conditioning in the bus. One does not sit on a hot, unair-conditioned bus for an extended period of time, so using some sound judgment I went to the museum, which of course, was not air-conditioned. And in order to see anything in either one of the museums, what do you think one had to do? Why climb stairs! The entire reason for me not taking the caves excursion was to avoid climbing stairs! At least in this case, I don't feel like I missed anything too much since I had already been here before.
Gateway of India
Taj Hotel
British colonial architecture
Modern Mumbai
Dhobi Ghat laundry
I have to mention the crazy driving in Mumbai. Our bus driver thought he was driving a race car because he would go was fast as he could when traffic allowed and then slam on the brakes causing us to fall off our seats. He did this over and over and over again. I do not remember ever having a bus ride this bad.
Many people have told me how much they like India. Well, I for one, would be very happy if I never see Mumbai again.
MICHAEL
Well, I escorted a most interesting excursion today to Elephanta caves. Actually, Beverly was assigned to do this one but when she read about the 125 stairs that you had to climb to get there she opted out. The tour began with a 15 minute ride from the pier over to the gateway of India. From here, we boarded a private ferry for the long, slow ride over to Elephanta Island. This was an old, slow boat but since it was a private tour, we only filled up about half of it so there was plenty of room to move around. At long last, we arrived at Elephant Island. The first thing you need to know is that this whole place is incorrectly named. A couple of thousand years ago someone spotted an elephant here and so named it Elephanta Island. In reality, there had never in recorded history ever been an elephant on the island.
After walking up a few flights of stairs from the landing, we found ourselves at the end of half-mile long pier. However, and of all things, they had a train here to take us to the other end. This looked more like a kiddy train then a grown up train but it did the job.
After walking up a few flights of stairs from the landing, we found ourselves at the end of half-mile long pier. However, and of all things, they had a train here to take us to the other end. This looked more like a kiddy train then a grown up train but it did the job.
After a short walk, we stopped to go to the toilet. Our tour guide paid for all of us so each one of us was armed with two sheets of toilet paper, and off we went to this rather primitive installation. Now it was time to climb the 600 feet up to the caves. This involved 125 stairs as well as a ramp. It was grueling.
On the way, you had to dodge cows, sheep, dogs and monkeys. They all seemed to be after you. I managed to miss them all except for the one bird who decided to take a dump on my leg. By the way, if you didn't want to make the climb, they had bearers, who were happy to lift you on top of a palanquin, or sedan chair. One fellow, who was carrying a baby, opted for this treatment, which cost only $15.
So now we were at the caves and this really was most interesting. Carved from rock, the caves, or temples of Elephanta Island are believed to have been created between 450 and 750 A.D. Of course, this depends who you talk with. One of the signs around the caves said they were built around 300 BC, so who really knows. The caves, and the art within them, are truly fascinating. The images were mostly of the Hindu gods, and particularly of Shiva. Other, but lesser images, represented Brahma and Vishnu as well. In any event, these were powerful representations of love, strength and spiritual peace. The caves, which were much bigger and deeper than they appeared at first, and held up by imposing circular columns, and were painstakingly hewn from solid stone. It was now time to work our way down the 125 stairs, and again dodge the cows, sheep, dogs, monkeys and birds, take the train, ride the boat, ride the bus, and ultimately return to our home away from home.
So now we were at the caves and this really was most interesting. Carved from rock, the caves, or temples of Elephanta Island are believed to have been created between 450 and 750 A.D. Of course, this depends who you talk with. One of the signs around the caves said they were built around 300 BC, so who really knows. The caves, and the art within them, are truly fascinating. The images were mostly of the Hindu gods, and particularly of Shiva. Other, but lesser images, represented Brahma and Vishnu as well. In any event, these were powerful representations of love, strength and spiritual peace. The caves, which were much bigger and deeper than they appeared at first, and held up by imposing circular columns, and were painstakingly hewn from solid stone. It was now time to work our way down the 125 stairs, and again dodge the cows, sheep, dogs, monkeys and birds, take the train, ride the boat, ride the bus, and ultimately return to our home away from home.
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