Saturday, February 19
Nashik to Mumbai – Bus Ride
There was no one who seriously objected to taking a bus to Mumbai. The only other option was to ride our bikes part of the way and THEN board the bus because the logistics of getting thru Mumbai to our hotel was a daunting task. At 9:30 am we boarded the bus and left for the bustling metropolis. Mumbai is home to 23 million people and covers 166 square miles – a little bigger than where I’m from. J I sat about in the middle of the bus and took a picture of everyone behind me:
We were on the bus what seemed like a LONG time and the scenery wasn’t much to behold. I snapped a picture out the window of one of the brick ovens alongside the roadway. I’ve seen a lot of these, some of them are rolling with smoke when they are in use. This is where they make and bake the basic bricks used in building homes and walls, etc.
We FINALLY arrived in Mumbai but it took a long time to get thru town – we didn’t arrive at our hotel until after 3 pm. We crossed a long bridge as we entered southern Mumbai – the water you see in this picture is the shore of the Arabian Sea:
We discovered that our hotel was not one but several hotels spread out several blocks apart. We grabbed our bags to follow one of the bus boys and we started down the street, around the corner to a busy street, down a block, turned again and went another block… Oh dear. I still had to go get my other bags. The place was a dump too!! We finally decided to find a room elsewhere… closer to the main hotel for the tour and were able to get a nice room just across the street. It’s SO much nicer here (and I don’t have to walk down a hall, unlock a padlock to open my bathroom door in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom). J
It’s been a LONG day and we are getting settled in LATE, but we ate a late dinner that was the absolute BEST since we arrived. I had plain grilled chicken, French fries, steamed vegetables (no sauce) and rice. Anyway, it tasted SO good to me!!! It’s the most I’ve eaten since I arrived.
Tomorrow we are getting a taxi to take us to see some of the sights in the morning before Candie leaves for her hotel near the airport. I will take a bunch of pictures tomorrow and show you more of Mumbai then.
