Day 12- She is famous!

Finally in Mumbai! We are doing a whistle stop tour to try and see as much as we can. Starting on Marine Drive. This is a 3km Boulevard that runs along the coast of the Arabian Sea. 

As we moved further down Marina Drive we came to chow patty beach which is a gorgeous sandy beaches apparently popular with both locals and tourists. 

Next on the list was Mani Bahwan, this is a house that belonged to a friend of Gandhi’s. Whenever Gandhi stayed in Mumbai he would stay here. It was from here that Gandhi initiated the civil disobedience act. Now however it is used as a museum which still has some of his belongings and contains information about his life.  

We then visited the Sri Sri Radha Gopinath temple. The architecture in this temple was beautiful with the outside being made from ornate carvings. The inside was a colour explosion where you didn’t know quite where to look. Absolutely stunning. 

 

Up in the hills we paid a visit to the hanging gardens which are absolutely stunning and a welcome bit of green in the concrete city beneath. The gardens are set utop the western side of the Malabar Hills and overlook the city below. You could see the beautiful Arabian Sea glistening under the sun. 

The gardens were incredibly kid friendly with lots of beautiful paintings from popular movies.

After seeing the beautiful gardens the next stop was a bit more harrowing. We went to the tower of silence. This is a sprawling graveyard which is set atop Malabar Hills. This is where the Parsee community come to lay their people to rest. The body is taken up to the top of the hill before being left for birds to eat. 

Want to know what a $1 billion house looks like? Well here it 
is.

This is called Antila House. It is owned by the Chairman of 
Reliance Industries and is the most expensive residential property in the world. It has over 600 rooms and each floor is the same height as a double story. You definitely would not bump your head there! 

Looking at a different aspect of Mumbai  now we went to look at the Haji Ali Dargah. This is a celebrated Islamic shrine which is recognised across the globe. The beautiful white building is located on an islet just off the Arabian Sea  and stands out against the brilliant blue background. 

So after seeing a $1 billion house where can you go? Well we went to the slums. With the beautiful tower blocks on the horizon underneath is a whole community living in poverty. The slum we visited is called Dharavi, it is supposedly the biggest slum in India however this is hard to measure so no one can be quite sure. Within this slum there are small businesses working to make clothing, food and recycling plastics to make money. The slum has issues with hygiene and rats are seen running around the built up rubbish. It truly does put into perspective and is a perfect example of the weath divide within India. And right under the noses of those working in India’s financial district you have people who are living on the complete opposite side of the invisible line running through the city. 

Next up was something I did not know existed and that was Dhobi Ghat which is an open air laundry site that is more than a century old in origin. Here is where washer men (dobis) come to work each day washing clothes and linens from hospitals and hotels. The site seems pretty organised and their whites are definitely still white. Looking at them washing their clothes makes me think about what a bad job I do of my own laundry in the hotel room sink. I could definitely learn a thing or two from these men! 

The penultimate stop was to Victoria Terminusdiv. This is among the busiest train station in India. The Victorian-gothic architecture is beautiful. Unfortunately when we visited they were completing the cleaning which happens every two year to preserve the building. It was beautiful nether the less and I can see why it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our last stop was the Gateway of India. This was built to commemorate the visit Queen Mary and King George which took place in 1911. Construction on the structure finished in 1924. This is significant for Indians because this is where 
the last English Forces left India in 1948. 

 

Opposite the Gateway of India is the Most iconic hotel- Taj Mahal hotel. In 2008 there was a terrorist attack where the hotel was ransacked for two days and a lot of people died. The people who claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack are Pakistani and are still alive. This was a target because a lot of American and Jewish people stay in the hotel. 

Whilst at the Gateway of India I recurved a lot of attention from Indian people. It has been common on our trip for people to want to take pictures because of the colour of our skin. I don’t feel completely comfortable with this as although I appreciate that it will be the first time that some Indian people have seen white skin how can you ever expect white skin to be normalised if you keep acting like something is different. I feel that there are only three reasons that someone would want a picture with a white person. Those being 

1. Something to laugh at later with friends (mickey taking)
2. Because they are amazed by white skin (hints of admiration)
3. General curiosity.

I hope that it is option 3 however I am never sure. The situation however was not made better by Roy who found it hilarious and kept shouting ‘she is famous’ and Emma joining in with ‘has anyone seen Harry Potter?’. Sods. 

In the evening we went out to a traditional arts festival which had some traditional music acts. 

So now the reason why this blog is late because after the arts festival we headed to the club! The club was called Colaba Social and had a great atmosphere, food and lots of drink. Getting back to 2am to get some sleep before a flight to Goa! Mumbai, you are beautiful.