Gateway of India

At the Gateway of India.

Yesterday two of the girls we are teaching (Heena and Vedali) volunteered to take Steve and I on a tour of Mumbai. This was quite an interesting day! Since I am working NA time it is actually night time here in Mumbai when I am awake and daylight while I am sleeping. This provided interesting today as I needed to be awake during the tour. The two girls came to the hotel along with the driver I had been using all week at 2:00pm today which was 3 hours earlier than normal. Everyone loaded into the SUV and the day of touring began.

The train station.

Heena was already in the car when the driver came to pick up Steve and I. We were then off to pick up Vedali at her home. Heena described the area Vedali lived in as “upper class India”. It took about an hour to drive from the hotel to where Vedali lives which would probably have been about ten miles. In India you sit in a sea of cars moving about three car lengths and stopping for five minutes. This is constant wherever you go and is probably due to the fact that Mumbai has a population of around 19 million people. As we drove Heena was an excellent tour guide. She was able to tell us which counties of Mumbai we were in and described areas which were working class, middle class and upper class. Throughout the day they placed a big emphasis on class and your place in society. This must be a big deal in India.

Mumbai coastline. Notice the poverty and beautiful buildings behind.

Once we picked up Vedali we were off to our first stop of the day, an art museum. The museum did not cost anything to enter and consisted of just one room. The room had brass and soap stone sculptures along with beautiful paintings on the wall. After going through the museum we had been out for about 3 hours and I needed to use the restroom. Thinking about where we were going the rest of the day I did not think there would be an opportunity for a restroom break. India is very different from the US when it comes to public restrooms. Almost anywhere you go in the US you can find a restroom to use, this is not the case in India. When I asked the girls if there was a restroom in the Museum that I could use they both looked puzzled. We did ask a guard and he pointed us in the direction of a restroom. This was probably the worst restroom I have ever seen. There were three doors each containing a hole in the ground. Gulp….I held my breath and went for it, glad for the Charmin to go I brought with me as there was no TP. The bathrooms had no sinks, soap or towels to wash your hands. Also glad I had my Purell hand sanitizer with me! With that out of the way there would be no way I was going to drink a drop of water to have to endure that again while we were out.

The Taj Mahal Hotel. You can see on this corner where windows are boarded from the fire.

After the museum we were headed to the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel. The Taj Mahal Hotel is where the terrorist attacks took place several months back. This hotel was bombed and on fire for an entire day. The Gateway of India is a monument in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Located on the waterfront in Apollo Bunder area in South Mumbai. In earlier times, the Gateway was the monument that visitors arriving by boat would have first seen in the city of Bombay. When we visited yesterday there were many tourists and locals visiting the monument. Vedali and Heena told us that this is a location all residents of India like to visit as well.

Bandra Worli Sea Link Bridge which ties Bandra and western suburbs to the downtown area.

We drove by and visited several beaches in Mumbai. Mumbai is surrounded by the Arabian Sea and therefore has beaches on all of the coastlines. The coastline is also known as the Queen’s Necklace as all of the city lights speckle the coastline and appear as a pearl necklace at night. We also saw lots of beautiful government buildings, police stations and train stations. The girls told us that the trains in India have special Women Only cars as sexual violence against women is very high here.

Mumbai washing center.

My favorite part of the day was a visit to the Mumbai washing centers. This is where most locals have their clothing washed. Washing is actually a profession in Mumbai for men. The men will come to your house, pick up dirty laundry in a sack which they carry on their head to the washing center. They each have a basin and special clothes line which belongs to them. They take the clothing and bang it on concrete and move around in the water to get each item clean. The clothes are then hung dry, ironed, folded and returned to the home. I can’t imagine having my clothes cleaned in this washing center with dirty water from other people’s clothing. I found it really neat to see this!

Catholic Church.

Vedali also talked a lot about religions and the 33,000 “gods” in India. About 75% of Mumbai is Hindu, 15% Muslim and the other 10% is made up of other small religions. We actually visited a Catholic Church and monument dedicated to Mary. The Catholic population is about 5% in India.

In total I was gone for seven hours and probably spent five and a half of those hours sitting in traffic. The joys of Mumbai!

Today I slept in and spent most of my day relaxing. I finally found some American channels on the TV and was able to watch a couple of movies on HBO. I also get ESPN, CNN and the Travel Channel. I am doing some work right now and will probably grab some dinner before bed. Another week of training ahead of me.