Mumbai, India

Having spent two days in Mumbai does not make me an expert, but I have an opinion of this city:  The British left a beautiful crown jewel in this colonial city, but she has become crowded, dirty, and dilapidated.  This is a city of extreme contrasts – fabulously wealthy and the achingly poor; business magnets and beggars; fancy hotels and slums.

The old

The new

The old and new right

The grandeur of the architecture is diminished by the lack of basic maintenance and this once glorious city has fallen into ruin.  Buildings are covered in grime, dust and dirt.  The entire city is shabby looking, dirty and decrepit.  Our guide said the weather and humidity causes pollution and dirt to stick to the buildings – and I have a bridge to sell you.  It is simple -- they do not do any maintenance.

The interiors might be a different story, but if the people keep their apartments like the rest of the city looks with trash everywhere and people peeing out in the open (there is a charge to use public restrooms and many people are too poor to pay for it)….. Apartments on Marine Drive that face the Arabian Sea can go for $20 million dollars!   Mumbai has a supply and demand problem for housing.  Real estate wise it is the second most expensive city in the world after London.   There are beautiful beaches, but swimming is prohibited because the water is polluted.

Mumbai has a population of around 22 million people, and I think we saw all of them on our journeys around the city over the past two days.  It is the most populous city in the country.  Everything about Mumbai is crowded.  The traffic is a nightmare with traffic jams and cars jockeying for position; there are no lanes or lines painted on the bumpy and rutted roadways, and parking is very difficult to find.  Horn honking is constant.  It is a free-for-all.  Alongside the cars and taxis (there are over 2,000 in this city alone), I saw vendors pulling wooden carts filled with an assortment of items, from building materials to food.  There doesn't seem to be much of a local public transportation system except for the train.

Traffic jams are the norm

Crowds of people everywhere

Vendor with pull cart on street with vehicles

We saw the slums, we saw the dobhi ghat laundry, we saw nicer sections of town, we saw new construction of high rise apartments and saw bamboo scaffolding everywhere but there was no one working, and we saw make-shift vendor stalls on the sidewalk and people without shoes.   We were here three years ago, and at that time our guide said that 60% of the population was homeless.  I don’t know what the figure is today, but we saw plenty of the homeless and downtrodden.   

I saw dozens of police everywhere, but they seem to laze about in groups.  Guards are posted at high-end shops and good restaurants (more about this later).  Unions are causing problems for manufacturing, and in our case, the taxi drivers were not allowed to take us past the port gate directly to the ship unless they had the proper clearance, which meant if we left the ship we would have to hire a taxi for many hours so we could return to the ship in an approved taxi.  We had to show a yellow “landing” card when we left the ship and again at the port gate.  I think this was a make work job because there were many people standing around waiting for us to show the stamped card over and over again.    

So why am I going on about this?  Because what we saw was interesting.  The city of Bombay originally consisted of seven islands.  The Portuguese took possession of the trading centers on the western coast and established numerous churches and forts.  They named this city Bom Bahia for its harbor, meaning a good bay.  In 1662, the islands were given to Charles II of England in dowry on his marriage to Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza.   Thus, the British obtained title to these islands in 1668 and eventually joined the seven islands together in the 1860s to form Mumbai’s peninsula.  In 1947, India achieved independence from British colonial rule.  The name given to this city by the original inhabitants was Mumbai, named after the fishing goddess.  In 1996, the name was changed back to the original Mumbai, but many people still call the city Bombay. 

Today, Mumbai is India’s business capital and home to its stock exchange.   The textile industry is important and the entertainment hub, including India’s Hindi film industry, Bollywood is here as well.  An up and coming commercial enterprise is medical tourism:   the British National Health Service sends people here for all kinds of treatment as it is cheaper than at home.  Want to combine plastic surgery and a little vacation?  Come on down!  As well as India has done in a business sense, they still have some old traditions that don’t seem to mix with modern life. They still have arranged marriages, the caste system, and small “entrepreneurs” line the sidewalks hawking everything from sugar cane juice to clothes.  

Street vendor

Street market

We took tours on both days we were here and crisscrossed the city getting a good overview.  We saw all the famous sites, including the Gateway to India triumphal arch, a historically important monument that commemorates the visit of King George V and Queen Mary when they landed in 1911, Victoria Station, and the Taj Mahal Hotel that had been bombed by Muslims extremists in 2008.  We even saw lots of cows!

Gateway to India

Taj Mahal Hotel

Victoria train station

How about cows on the street?

One of the more interesting things we did was walk the streets to the100 year old Dhobi Ghat laundry.  Dhobi means washerman, and most of these men are from northern India and have little or no education.  Over 100 Concrete tubs are laid out over 23 acres, and we watched men scrubbing and pounding clothes to get them clean on the washing stones.  Have you ever heard of stone-washed denim jeans?  Well, this is it folks – the raw material is stone washed before being sent to factories where the jeans are made.  There are over 10,000 workers who wash over one million clothing items per day!  This is back breaking work and after seeing this, I will never complain about having to do laundry again.

Dhobi Ghat laundry

Hanging clothes out to dry

Stone washing

On our first day of touring, we went on the Jewish heritage tour.  There are only about 4,000 Jews left in Mumbai and approximately 1,000 more in the rest of India.  The original Jewish settlers arrived on Mumbai shores some 2,000 years ago due to a shipwreck.  Jews from Spain came here and these two groups merged and migrated to the city.  The first stop was the Magen David Synagogue that was built in 1861, and was the first synagogue built in Mumbai and is the largest synagogue in Asia.  Not many Jews come here now as the neighborhood has become muslim.  The school is government run so the synagogue gets money from the government, school fees and donations.  The school enrollment is 85% muslim and according to our guide, the muslims and Jews get along.  

Magen David Synagogue

Next, we visited the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, built in 1884 by Sr. Jacob Sasson.  This structure features interior decorated pillars, stain glass windows, and beautifully carved wooden doors.  We also visited the Tiphaereth Israel Synagogue, built in 1886, which has beautiful Belgian glass fixtures.  None of the synagogues have a dedicated rabbi; there is a visiting rabbi that makes the rounds.  Each of these synagogues has been lovingly maintained.  And outside of each of these synagogues sits an armored assault vehicle with dozens of police guards and barricades.  As you may recall, terrorists have targeted these sites. 

Tiphaereth Israel Synagogue

Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue

Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue

Armored vehicle outside of the synagogue

We asked our guide for a dinner recommendation, and the restaurant she told us about was two blocks from the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue.  It was very hard to tell if this was a nice place from the outside, so we walked over there to check it out.  Crummy outside, very nice inside.  We made reservations to return at 7:30pm for dinner.  We finished our tour of the city with a too short shopping stop (and can you still hear the groans from the guys?).  Christine and I managed to find a shop where we each bought two caftans each made of “faux silk” for a ridiculously low price.  When a woman comes home with a shopping bag of goodies that she got at a great price, fellas, you should rejoice. 

After a short respite back at the ship, we took a taxi to Kyber Restaurant (reference item above about taxis).  Our guide also told us about a clothing shop right near the restaurant that we had to check out.  After the obligatory stop at Cousin Amir’s carpet shop, our driver took us where we wanted to go.  Can you image four large American bodies crammed into a space that is smaller than a VW Beetle?  We were quite cozy with me squished in the center between Christine and Michael; Barry got the front seat because of his bum knee.  We were barely able to shut the doors.  It made me think about the diet I am going to have to go on when we get home. 

We stopped at a local clothing shop and wanted to buy a typical Indian outfit for the deck party for the next night.  Women usually wear either a tunic/pants or a sari.  I wanted a jeweled sari, but when I saw what I would have to wear and buy, I figured for one night I would get the all purpose tunic.  Even Michael got into the spirit and looked in the men’s section.  Well, let me tell you about this store – there was no way I could choose something to wear.  The selection was overwhelming and it was way too hot in that store to even want to shop.  So we left empty handed and walked to the restaurant, passing street people and beggars.

I do believe the children are taught from an early age how to beg.  One has to turn a blind eye to this because you cannot do anything to help, and if you encourage it, you are going to be mobbed by more beggars and possibly freed from anything you didn’t want to contribute.  We entered the restaurant and saw many of our fellow passengers there. 

Indian food is spicy, very spicy, and uses a lot of curry.  Curry is a mixture of ground, dried spices known as masala.  The spice is blended and ground according to the desired flavors.  Cooking varies by region, and here in southern India, the coconut is popular.  We ordered an appetizer for two, and when it came, it could easily have fed four as a meal.  By the time our entrée arrived, I was stuffed.  My three dining companions (Barry, Christine and Michael) had the spiciest stuff they could find.  I had Tandoori chicken, the least spicy dish the restaurant offered.  It is chicken that is marinated in yogurt and masala and with a few drops of saffron added to give it color and is cooked over hot coals or in a clay oven.  Needless to say, we had a doggie bag to take and give to our driver.  As we left the restaurant, a little girl of about seven, swooped in to try and get the doggie bag but was shooed away by the guard posted outside just for this purpose.  She followed me all the way to the taxi, just begging and not in a pretty way; I handed the bag to our driver who quickly put it in the car.  I got in the taxi and closed the door and she started to claw at the window.  I was getting annoyed by this because her mother urged her on and frankly, this was no starving kid if you know what I mean. 

Our return trip to the ship was uneventful until we got to the road across the canal.  The roadway was in the up position and there was no way to know how long it would be that way.  So we left the security of our taxi and in the dark, hoofed it across the lock gates and finally made it back to the ship.

Our second day of touring was driving around the city. We saw many of the same sites as the day before but enjoyed it nevertheless.  We passed by Mahatma Gandhi’s house, which we had visited on our last trip here. One stop took us to the Hanging Gardens, which was very beautiful and unexpected given how crowded the city is.  They were built over a reservoir in 1882 and renovated in 1921.  These are terraced gardens that stand at the top of Malabar Hill and offer a panoramic view of the city and the Arabian Sea.

Gandi's Home, now a museum

Hanging Gardens

Flower from the Cannonball tree

Panoramic view from the gardens

When we returned to the ship, we were surprised to see the razor wire hanging down from deck 5 just below the railing.  They are getting the ship ready for pirate mode, although I thought they might wait until Dubai to do this.  We have to sail through the Strait of Hormuz to get to Dubai.  Here is a copy of the letter each passenger was sent regarding the ship’s preparations to go through pirate alley, the Gulf of Aden.

Razor wire added to ship

So that is our two full days in Mumbai.  Would I want to come back here again?  NO.  There are so many wonderful places to visit and explore.  But I do want to go and see the Taj Mahal one day so I guess I’ll be back in India someday in the future.