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| One of thousands of street urchins |
Mumbai
A city of
profound contrasts and 20 million or so inhabitants seethe in this ancient port
once called Bombay, meaning “good bay”. There is little wonder that the noise
levels are so high. There are 16 languages spoken in this city, rather 17 if
you account for the honking of horns. Dialects are innumerable born of these 16
languages but it seems that everyone can understand, that is, except us.
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| Taj Mahal Hotel |
Our guided tour took us to the Taj Mahal Hotel in an ancient
precinct of the city that is now very tourist laden. Naturally where there are
tourists there will be retailers, beggars, less than desirable sorts and in
general, a very circus-like atmosphere. The Gates of India were very impressive
and stand today as they did when George V, King of England came to visit
Bombay.
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| Interior of Temple - peek! |
A visit to a temple is typically
on the tours that we sign up for, this was no exception. This rather a strict
sect of the Hindu religion has male and female monks who denounce everything
and come to reside in the temple. This is the wealthiest sect apparently so
therefore the temple is well maintained. The morning that we were there the
temple was active with monks in pure white dress with their faces masked all
but their foreheads and eyes. We were not allowed into the sanctuary of the
temple so merely peered in true “tourista” fashion at the goings on.
We read that we
could not enter even the public areas with anything leather on our person,
shoes of course taken off with additional regulations posted for our benefit.
We popped into a delightful
public garden for a “happy room” stop as well as to enjoy the rather
colonial-style gardens. Many of our group found the heat oppressive so much so
that they scuttled for shade at every chance in the parks perhaps missing many
interesting trees and flowers.
Once refreshed and reasonably
haggled by the local street vendors, we boarded our bus and headed to Ghandi’s
home which is now a small museum. On our way, we stopped for a photos shoot of
the famous Dohbi Ghat, or laundry place.
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| The Laundry! Dohbi Ghat |
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| Slum dogs along the way - centre of Mumbai |
