India Awaits: Mumbai Madness

Finally, I am back to finish my blog on Mumbai…..

The second day of sightseeing in Mumbai took us to a very local part of town where many people are out and about early on a Saturday morning going to work, kids going to school etc. I started the morning with a cup of chai on the side of the road. I now know where all my sugar goes in the house - Lydia's tea....... Wow they like it sweet. We then walked on to the Banaganga Water Tank - which is a 5,000 year old mythological water tank sacred to the Hindu's. The water here is the same as the Holy Ganges river and this too is a place where many Hindu's come to immerse ashes and do religious ceremonies. It doesn't look like much but there was a special feeling at this place - sombre yet peaceful. It was interesting to stay and watch the locals visit and bathe and prepare for 'ceremonies'.

From here we went on to visit a Jain temple - the Jains religious beliefs are that there should be non-violence to all living things. With this, is their belief that you should not eat anything grown below the ground as this interferes with the microorganisms in the soil. It was a beautiful temple, but I was quite taken with their rules for entry. The first being that "Ladies in monthly period are strictly not allowed in the premises of the temple." Not sure how this can be monitored…… bizarre.

We went to a huge flower market with more then 400 vendors selling flowers on a wholesale basis. Mostly the flowers are used for garlands and other celebratory purposes - very few stemmed flowers. With Mumbai being on the coast, we also walked by the fish market - wow was that an experience. I thought I had been smart wearing flip-flops this day due to the number of temples we were going to visit (you have to remove your shoes) but not when we were walking through all the fish juice and guts - yuk !!

Our next stop was 'Antilia' which is the home of the richest man in India, Mukesh Ambani. It is a huge house with 27 floors, over 600 staff and is located on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean. It was amazing to see. Next stop was the Chor Bazaar - The Thieves Market. This is where you go for all things to do with spare parts. We wandered through here and were amazed at the 'businesses' running here - along with hundreds of goats which are raised as pets by the Muslims until its time for a celebration. We also visited a Cow Shelter in the middle of Mumbai - with cows being sacred it was amazing to find a 'herd' in the middle of the city and they are SO well looked after. We did a drive by of the famous 'Slumdog Millionaire' slums but did not go in. There is a real business there now with many of the inhabitants not actually even being that poor. Some of the slum houses are actually very lush inside - it is a just the facade that is made to keep the appearances up of the now famous slums.

It was then time for us to go on a quick train ride in Mumbai in non peak hour. There is no way I could do the peak hour ride - it is crazy. The trains have no doors, everyone jumps on and off the moving train, and there are no rules or regulations. Also, I was the only woman in our carriage. The ladies carriage was at the front and I was happier to stay with Mike, the boys and our guide, rather than go on my own. It was a real experience - albeit a bit scary.

We managed to eat some street food and survive !! Many people think we were crazy even trying it but it was all vegetarian, so we felt a bit safer with that option. Peanuts were a concern for Jack but we were all good.

We also visited the Temple Of Shiva - one of the oldest temples of Shiva the lord of Destruction. He is one of the most popular gods - on a par with Ganesh, and Pranav was quite impressed with our boys knowledge of some of the Indian Gods.

On our next day we visited the Prince of Wales Museum and had some very deserved relaxation time by the pool - and they boys were even allowed in now !! The hotel even had a visit from Santa at breakfast - however he was 'brown' and Jack was not sure that was quite right….. trying to be politically correct in this country is so hard !! We really enjoyed Mumbai and highly recommend it as a place to visit if you ever make it to India.