Sunday, February 20
Mumbai – Rest Day
Today was a very full day with many sites and photos. There is so much history here, but I don’t have the time to explain it as fully as it deserves. To begin, our taxi driver for the day was Rafeet (I have no idea how to spell it, but you MUST roll the R… RRRaw–feet [with the accent on "feet”] – he had me repeat it until I was saying it correctly and it is very important that you to do the same (haha!). J Rafeet took us to a coffee shop for a morning latte before heading to the sites of Mumbai. On our way there, I asked him if the famous Leopold’s Restaurant was nearby and in fact we were just about to pass it - he pulled over so I could get a picture. Leopold’s is a famous gathering spot here in Mumbai. Its history also contains a tragic experience in recent years – I’m sure you can find out about it on the internet. I was thrilled to find it - partly because it was one of the spots I read about (actually I listened to it on audio book) in the book Shantaram – on loan by Dave and Karen Schill. I thought Dave and Karen might enjoy a visit to this spot as well. Here is the sign out front:
And the inside:
One of our first stops after Leopold’s was the Hanging Gardens. This garden was built OVER the top of a reservoir in the city – it’s very pretty and well maintained. As we meandered the pathways, we saw topiaries, flowers and statues. There is a very unique story behind this garden – worth reading about. If you look up the Hanging Garden and Parsi religion you will find a very unique and interesting practice that takes place here. The building next door is called the Tower of Silence. We can talk about it when I get back… J Sorry to leave you hanging but do check it out and then let me know your thoughts when I get home. Here’s a few pictures of the garden.
More flowers:
Here’s the entrance to the Tower of Silence – no one but a Parsi may enter.
Mani Bhavan was our next stop. It was the Mumbai residence of Muhatma Ghandi. We toured this building/museum in near silence. The life of this man leaves you feeling very humbled to walk the same floors and hallways. Albert Einstein wrote this of him:
Next stop was…. Drum roll please! The largest outdoor washing area in Asia! If you can zoom in on this picture you will see the thousands of clothes being washed and dried here every day. Only men work in this laundry facility. They are sorted by color – I have NO idea HOW they keep things organized. NONE WHATSOEVER!!! When I get a few of my clothes laundered on the rest days, they come back with a certain colored thread sewn into them, but there is NO WAY that system would work here! J
Here is how it’s done – no Maytag repairman needed! He repeatedly hits the garment on the rock slab, turning it and hitting it again and again. They actually come out really clean too!
We also saw the government building, the treasury, the train station and the college before asking our driver to take us back to the hotel so we could get Candie’s things ready to go. Our first morning coffee was a disappointment so we stopped one just down the road from our hotel – it was a gem! I had a mocha cappuccino – the BEST I’ve EVER had! Look at this piece of art!!!
We helped Candie gather up her bike and set off to our hotel so she could get the rest of her things together. Here we are carrying her stuff while ALL she has in her hand is her lock… funny. I’m carrying all her bags AND mine and Jan has her bike. What’s wrong with this picture??? We were sad to say goodbye to Candie – we miss her already!
After Candie left we took a walk to the India Gate, then added minutes to our prepaid cell phones and just HAD to stop for one LAST mocha before going back to the hotel. We tried to get a table at Leopold’s but it was full and the armed guards won’t let us in unless there was a table for us. We didn’t wait. Here’s the India Gate – a famous landmark:
While we waited to get our minutes on our phones we watched a little girl on a tight-rope. Her mother is playing a drum to draw a crowd and the little girl does the act – hoping for $ in their bowl. Can you imagine? So many things here are hard for me to comprehend.
Tomorrow we leave Mumbai by ferry – onward and southward!
