We left Cairo at 6:30 pm and flew overnight to Mumbai with a three hour layover in Dubai. Our driver from Namaste tours picked us up from the airport and soon we were on our way to meeting with the guide at our first stopping point, Dhobi Ghat, the open air laundry. This is a huge operation right in the heart of the city, catering mostly to the laundry needs of hospitals and hotels as well as doing the pre-wash for clothing manufacturers. The process is quite basic; concrete basins laid out in rows, each with a rectangular flogging stone, and men beating the hell out of the clothes. The clothes are then hung to dry, usually in colour blocks that give away their provenance: green garments come from hospitals; white linens from hotels; row after row of jeans from a denim manufacturer; etc. The site occupies tens of thousands of square meters with entire families running their washing business and living there as well. Next to the laundry runs the train, which transports five million people each day from the suburbs to the city centre; the cars have no doors and during peak times the train is so jammed that people ride it hanging from every doorway. Crazy.
It seemed like we were just caught in an interminable traffic jam the entire morning, but we were hitting some of the main sites as our driver navigated the narrow, crowded, noisy city streets while our guide was filling us in with lots of information. We went to see the Jains temple (the Jains are one of the main religious groups in India, they are pure vegetarians whose main believe is Karma); the Hanging Gardens, where we learned of a most curious -and gruesome- site right next door. The Parsis (a religious group from Persia) have a large presence in Mumbai and this is what we learned: when a Parsi dies, their bodies are not buried or cremated; they are brought by ambulance to the Tower of Silence, where rituals are performed and the corpses are then exposed to the birds and bugs who proceed to pick at them until only clean bones remain. The birds (crows, eagles and others) are a constant fixture at the Hanging Gardens and apparently not a lot of people know that they are kept well fed with human remains. We also learned that just in case there are no deaths (and therefore no food for the birds) on any given day, they are fed beef to ensure they hang around for when they are needed. The things one learns.
Inside the Jains temple
Really cute girls from Jaipur who insisted on having their picture taken with us at the Hanging Gardens
We drove around admiring the architecture of the city; Victorian architecture is magnificently represented throughout, with several imposing structures reminiscent of London but with an Indian flair. Victoria train station is one of them, along with many others which house schools, banks, etc. There are also quite a few Art Deco buildings. One of the things that was immediately apparent was that billions of rupies are being spent on new buildings; tower after tower, mostly near the bay areas. In contrast, a tremendous number of the old, beautiful buildings are in a state of horrible decay. One of the reasons for this (or so we were told) is that these buildings contain rental apartments and there is a very restrictive rent control in place which makes it prohibitive for landlords to maintain them.
After driving down Marine Drive (in an area known as the Queen's Necklace due to the way the lights along the bay shine at night), we arrived at the Gate of India, our last site visit before a stop at a store where, despite our best intentions, we managed to spend a few bucks. Then we were ready to board the Sojourn. This embarkation was like no other we've ever experienced; there is no cruiseship terminal in Mumbai, only the port area where the embarkation procedures are entirely in the hands of the Indian military, rather than by the cruiseline personnel. Anyways, following a rather confusing but uneventful embarkation, we were sipping the first (of many) glasses of champaign. A few days at sea and then Salalah, Oman.
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