Friday, March 27, 2009

Mumbai

Well, we finished at Cochin with a sunset cruise around the harbor and got pictures of the sun setting behind the Chinese fishing boats which seems to be "the picture" for Cochin advertisements. We flew to Mumbai this morning and OAT arranged a city tour for us of Mumbai. We saw the Victoria Terminus Railway Station and the Taj Mahal Hotel that was hit by terrorists in November. The Taj already has a monument for the people who were killed. At a result of those attacks, all hotels now have tight security, which is a good thing. Mumbai is and is not what I expected. I did expect a big city (33,000,000 people) and I did expect slums (per the movie Slumdog Millionaire) What I didn't expect is that Mumbai is more of a European city architecturally wise. They do have the small little shops jammed together but they also have larger drab concrete apartments like we saw in China with the laundry hanging out the windows. The buildings have a more European feel. Driving in the city is just as "adventurous" as the country - not as exciting as in watching semi's head right toward you but as in a very confusing street design. Driving in India is not for the faint of heart. RIDING in India is not for the faint of heart! :-) We did see the slums that looked just like in the movie. I can attest to the fact that the movie was accurate as far as the slums although forturnately we only saw them from a distance but they cover huge areas of land - some are two story and all crowded together. All in all I guess we have seen three different aspects of India. North, South and Mumbai.

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