Mumbai

Mumbai is a very dirty city. We did not see a “new, modern” area of town, but

interspersed among all the old dirty buildings would be a clean one and a few

new ones. We had a morning tour of the city and it was very interesting. We visited

or viewed the Gateway of India, Taj Mahal Hotel, Victoria Terminal Station,  Gandhi

Museum, Prince of Wales museum, Kamala Nehru park and hanging gardens, Jain

Temple and the Gobi Ghat (outdoor laundry). 

One of our guest lecturers told us about two unusual occupations for men. One is

the Gobi Ghat and another is Tiffin Wallahs who deliver lunches from wives to working

husbands. If I understand our guide correctly the Gobi Ghat wash about 1,000,000 pieces

a week and the Tiffin Wallah deliver about 200,000 lunches daily and are paid about $15 a

month. They ride in the baggage car of the train. (I wonder what their fare is). I don’t

know what the Gobi Ghat are paid. 

We were hoping to see cows roaming the streets, but I only saw a couple down an alley

we passed.

A very pleasant part of the tour was seeing so many beautiful saris. When we were

walking in the lovely park I saw someone taking a picture of a lady by some flowers.

She looked very nice and I was wishing Foster were near to get a picture. When they

finished, they came to me and asked if they could have a picture with me (Deb had

told us that many people liked to have pictures with tourists). Of course I said yes and

I did manage to locate Foster in time to get my picture made with them. We also

got a nice picture of another family. We hope to get Wi Fi access in Dubai and if we

do I will try to upload more pictures.