The Dolan's love a city bus tour. Unfortunately, you won't be surprised, this option does not exist in Mumbai so we did the next best thing which was to hire a car and a diver from the hotel! Gill don't worry we didn't break the bank - £40 for a four hour, chauffeur driven, air conditioned Mercedes seemed worth it in these circumstances.........until later, when talking to Amrit we learned what he earned in a month to keep a family of 5 on the straight and narrow.
As you know from my earlier Blogs taking a road trip in any part of Mumbai is a life changing experience in itself. Amrit's tour did not disappoint.
In short we did the following:
Open Air Laundry - hand washing factory were the dirt and the grime of Mumbai is beaten out of well worn clothes by third generation workers born to the industry.
A revamped colonial natural history museum - great buildings and quiet (!!!!!!) gardens - on the whole swerve it unless you like miniature paintings and statues of many folded gods.
Gate of India and Raj Hotel - splendid Classic British architecture from the turn of the 20th Century - all massive and splendid and opulent, grand and in your face 'we own you and we are the top dogs in charge' - worth a photograph.
Of course we insisted on stopping and getting out and Amrit guided us though the streets, and we walked and we talked. He had a drink with us in the now infamous Leopold Cafe where the Mumbai terrorist attack started. He talked us though what happened in 2008 when gunmen opened up indiscriminately on the occupants of the cafe killing 11 people and injuring many more including grenade wounds. In all over 250 people died in the attacks on many of the places we visited and 700 people were injured. Amrit talked about the impact on the city and how quickly the local people returned to businesses as usual in defiance - opening the cafe only a few days later with massive queues outside so big that the police had to close it back down again to restore order before allowing it open again the next day.
Amrit lived two hours outside of the city of Mumbai. He lived with his wife, daughter (4), Mother and Father. He was the only member of the family that earned a living. He worked 12 hours a day 6 days a week, by the time he got home after a 16 hour day all he could do was sleep. He was lucky he had a great job!! He earned around $250 dollars a month from his basic salary. Lucky not to live in the slums where more than half of Mumbai's 22 million people live!!!
Travel definitely broadens the mind and is the greatest gift - I have no doubts. Speaking to people when you are there multiplies that experience - our taxi driver in Krakow, on the way to Auswitz, and Amrit in Mumbai definitely enhanced that gift for me and Connor. What will we do with it when we get back home?
PS Amrit took some piccies for us - some of the better ones are enclosed.
As you know from my earlier Blogs taking a road trip in any part of Mumbai is a life changing experience in itself. Amrit's tour did not disappoint.
In short we did the following:
Open Air Laundry - hand washing factory were the dirt and the grime of Mumbai is beaten out of well worn clothes by third generation workers born to the industry.
A revamped colonial natural history museum - great buildings and quiet (!!!!!!) gardens - on the whole swerve it unless you like miniature paintings and statues of many folded gods.
Gate of India and Raj Hotel - splendid Classic British architecture from the turn of the 20th Century - all massive and splendid and opulent, grand and in your face 'we own you and we are the top dogs in charge' - worth a photograph.
Of course we insisted on stopping and getting out and Amrit guided us though the streets, and we walked and we talked. He had a drink with us in the now infamous Leopold Cafe where the Mumbai terrorist attack started. He talked us though what happened in 2008 when gunmen opened up indiscriminately on the occupants of the cafe killing 11 people and injuring many more including grenade wounds. In all over 250 people died in the attacks on many of the places we visited and 700 people were injured. Amrit talked about the impact on the city and how quickly the local people returned to businesses as usual in defiance - opening the cafe only a few days later with massive queues outside so big that the police had to close it back down again to restore order before allowing it open again the next day.
Amrit lived two hours outside of the city of Mumbai. He lived with his wife, daughter (4), Mother and Father. He was the only member of the family that earned a living. He worked 12 hours a day 6 days a week, by the time he got home after a 16 hour day all he could do was sleep. He was lucky he had a great job!! He earned around $250 dollars a month from his basic salary. Lucky not to live in the slums where more than half of Mumbai's 22 million people live!!!
Travel definitely broadens the mind and is the greatest gift - I have no doubts. Speaking to people when you are there multiplies that experience - our taxi driver in Krakow, on the way to Auswitz, and Amrit in Mumbai definitely enhanced that gift for me and Connor. What will we do with it when we get back home?
PS Amrit took some piccies for us - some of the better ones are enclosed.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Shukriya - आप और आपके घर पर आशीर्वाद