I am exhausted. We have just come back from a 14 hour day of touring the amazing city of Mumbai. My belly is full from the vegetarian feast we just had. The restaurant we went to served an all you can eat Thali. See plate full of food below... and it just kept getting refilled.
You can see strawberry basundi in the bowl on the left (strawberries and cream pretty much), then a yogurt curry, the sweet dal, then some good potato and pea dish, then something I didn't eat much of, then spicy dal. The green bowl off the plate is spinach soup which was delicious. The bowl in the middle of the plate was a dessert, it was some bread thing that was soaked in sweet syrup. It was also very good but I could only handle a small bite. The breads include chapati and something made with cumin spices, and all the other stuff on the plate I can't remember the name of. But it was all very delicious. We got two varieties of rice with this too. The glass in the upper left corner is filled with spiced buttermilk... yuck. I did not enjoy it.
To fill you in on yesterday, my cousin Sandra and her three friends, Carleigh, Kathryn, and Lindsay, arrived from Kuala Lumpur early in the afternoon. The four of them have been teaching in Bangkok for the past year and are now on summer break and travelling around Asia. We spent the day eating more crab curry, taking care of errands nearby, and doing a short road tour of Mumbai. We went for dinner and spent 110 rps a person... about $2.40 for a full meal. Yay, India. We spent the rest of the evening at Dean's and he called in an order of chilled Kingfisher beer from the beer store (they deliver ANYTHING in Mumbai, even McDonald's).
Now, back to today...
Our long day began at 8am when a car picked us up and drove us into downtown Mumbai. Our first stop was at the Dhobi Ghat, a massive outdoor laundromat. Men wash clothes by hand all day. Each one does a specific thing then tosses the clothes to the next person. It's a very physical task as we saw men whipping clothes in and out of the water to wash and rinse. As you can see below, there are just rows and rows of clothes hanging out to dry. There is apparently a textile company behind the Dhobi Ghat that has a lot of its items being washed there. This was on the Amazing Race one year, so you may remember it if you watch that show.
Stop number two was at Mani Bhavan, Mahatma Gandhi's house from 1917 to 1934. It is now a museum to tell the story of his life, and his room is also preserved.
We then arrived at the Gates of India to board a ferry to the Elephanta Caves. The caves are a UNESCO World Heritage site that were carved out of stone in a mountain to honour the god Shiva. We passed many oil rigs and ships on the way to the caves, as the navy base isn't too far away. Once we arrived at the docks, we had to walk down a long jetty to finally reach the island. The air was thick and hot and completely stagnant. No reprieve from the heat by a wind, just the air from the speed of our walking. Once we reached the gate, we had to journey upwards on slippery stone steps. Those who didn't want to make the climb could hire four strong Indian men to carry them in a chair attached to two poles. We saw a couple of people going up and down in them though the ride seemed pretty bumpy.
There were five caves. The main one was the most impressive. They date back to the 5th and 8th centuries, but had to be restored in the 1970s. There are carvings of gods in the walls and columns throughout the cave. You can see some of it below.
Wall carvings in the main cave
The outside of cave 2. The names of the caves aren't very interesting: Main Cave or the Great Cave, and Caves 2, 3, 4, 5.
The view of Taj Palace (left) and the Gates of India (right) from the boat to Elephanta.
We stopped at Leopold's cafe after the caves to meet with our tour guide for our upcoming trek in northern India. Dean led us through about 7 blocks of pure market shopping to get to the cafe. It was torture for us girls who have yet to spend a penny on purchases in this city. Dean then took us around to see Mumbai University and the High Court, then to the Victoria Terminus train station.
I've already mentioned the over-stuffed trains that I see passing by on the other side of the field in front of Dean's house. Well we went into the busiest train station in Mumbai. It was a constant blur of people going in every direction. When a platform was announced on the screen for a particular line, a rush of people headed in that direction. We had to hang on to each other to avoid getting lost.
Central Station from the outside. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
People going everywhere.
One of the platforms inside Mumbai's busiest train station, Victoria Terminus.
There are 18 million people in Mumbai... well that's registered people. Dean estimates it to be more. The real estate is ridiculous. Property is so expensive that young people cannot afford to purchase, so they are forced to live at home for a long time or they have to rent a condo from someone else. There are no real apartments or any one-story houses left. It's all condos here. A full floor unit like the one I am staying in now is very hard to come by these days. Most floors have several units and can be quite small. Something like where I am staying now would easily go for $1 million, and we're about a 35 minute train ride to downtown (longer by car, depending on traffic).
I'll let you know about another kind of real estate in Mumbai after we visit Dharavi tomorrow, one of the largest slums in the world. Population: 1.2 million. Area: 1.7 square km.
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