A Final Day in Mumbai

After meeting Sujatha we drove over to have breakfast at Cafe Leopold, the restaurant we'd walked through the day before.  It was good to visit with her even if she did tell us both that we had gotten old and fat.  Sujatha has never been one to mince words.

The fresh mango juice was the best part of my breakfast.  I had seen a guy sitting next to us who had something that looked good and which Mark said he thought was cheese toast, so both he and I ordered that.  When breakfast came my plate held two pieces of buttered toast and two room temperature slices of American cheese...still in the plastic wrappers!  Not what the guy next to us was eating nor what I would have expected to be served in a restaurant!

I choked down my cheese toast after struggling to remove the plastic, then Mark found out the guy had had jalapeno toast so we got an order of that and it was much better, although still American cheese toasted on bread.  We were all a bit underwhelmed with the cuisine at Cafe Leopold!

With a different driver and car, one that had more room for Anthony in the back seat, we headed north to Sanjay Gandhi National Park and the Kanheri Caves.

When we'd come here before we'd been able to drive to the cave entrance but now the parking lot is down below and you have to pay to take a park jeep up to the cave entrance.  Driving provides some employment for men who live in the small villages within the park.

The caves themselves date back to the 3rd century B.C. and are the evidence of Buddhism in this region at that time.  The caves are carved in volcanic rock and are the most numerous group of caves carved out of a single rock.  In some ways they remind me of Mesa Verde.

The caves are one of the most popular tourist destinations in Mumbai, although they are more out of the way than Elephanta Cave on the island of the same name that is closer to south Mumbai.

Multiple carvings are found throughout the caves and some of the upper caves have paintings within.  Only Mark climbed up to the latter.

There are 110 caves that spread over a half kilometer.  Part of the complex includes water cisterns.

The lower caves are the most detailed.  

It is kind of mind boggling to think about how long it would have taken to make all the columns and carvings throughout these caves.

This is one of the largest of the caves.

Some of the carvings are worn while others still retain much of their detail.

Outside the caves the monkeys abound!  There were two that were carrying their babies around like this.

Here's a view of some of the park.  It's a large swath of forest in the midst of Mumbai.  You can definitely tell that it's the dry season here.  During monsoon this spot is full of beautiful greens and lovely waterfalls.

Here's Karl coming down some of the ancient, carved stairs.

Monkey families.

The cute little babies looked like little old men.

It was fun to see how the mamas would hold their babies.

This one came over to sit next to Jane so I quickly took a photo before it ran off.  Little did we know it was actually eyeing her backpack and would try to get into it a few moments later.

When I looked at my weather app this was the "feels like" temperature that I saw.  I can promise you it felt every degree of 105 and something like 112% humidity.  Even I didn't know I could sweat so much!

Our final stop today was Dharavi, the largest slum in Mumbai, in all of Asia, with over a million people living within less than one square mile.  It was somewhere that Mark had wanted to see so we added it to our list.  Anthony was a great guide there as in years past he had lived Dharavi.

There are two parts to Dharavi, the commercial and the residential, we walked through the former first.  This place is the great recycle center for the entire city.  All the plastics that are recycled come through here.

Jane and I were thinking we probably should have worn closed toe shoes here in this busy, busy place.

Old pieces of car bodies get cut into smaller and smaller pieces here, and yes, it pretty noisy when they're being cut up.

More car bodies and a bit of laundry.

At this shop they were making raincoats for a local company in preparation for monsoon.

People work in the dark, hot places for about $5 a day plus the right to live in the small apartment up above the shop.  It's a two-for-one deal for the business owner because they get a worker who is never late for work and someone to guard the business at night.

Here are some of the huge bags of plastics that are brought here to be processed.

The narrow alleys didn't smell as bad as some places I've been in Mumbai but you had to make sure to step carefully.

And just around the corner you might find a goat relaxing on the sidewalk.

In this shop they were making bars of "black soap", a type that's used for cleaning.  These men were slicing bricks of the stuff into bars.

Nearby was a shop where they were making jeans.

A shot of another section of the slum.  I was glad that Anthony had made his way out of there.  He said it wasn't a place that he wanted to raise his son.  Often when people live here their children see the work available there and never look for anything else, he wanted his son to get a good education, plus he was concerned about bad influences there.

Here are some of the tiny bits of plastic that have been reduced down, ready to turn into something else.

More bags, more ladders to living quarters, more trash, more compactness.

I think Sujatha began to wonder why she had decided to come along to Dharavi with us.

These cardboard boxes have been made from recycled materials.  Nothing here goes to waste, the small pieces you see on the floor get used as fuel.

This guy does ironing for people in Dharavi and that iron weighs a ton.  I tried to lift it but couldn't.

How would you like to climb this ladder to get into your "house"?

Broken toys and such sorted by color and ready for recycling.

This disgusting river runs through Dharavi containing both sewage and garbage.  There are no sewer lines in the slum.  We watched as a man threw a huge piece of trash right in without a second thought.

As we got closer to the residential part of the slum there were some shops selling food, colorful pasta was being sold here.

This part of the slum appears to be a lot more livable.

The streets are narrow though, not sure how this truck actually made it between the buildings.

Our last stop in Dharavi was in the leather maker's area.  They don't use cow leather, only water buffalo, goat and rabbit.

Outside the bag shop we took our photos next to their unique Dharavi logo.

Since I neglected to take a picture inside the shop I took a picture of my purchases, sans a wallet for Karl, after i got back on the ship.  The only place you can buy bags with this logo is in Dharavi slum, they aren't sold anywhere else.  It's a pretty good way to promote your goods, because after walking through Dharavi you want to do something to help create change.  The leather shop though, is a reminder that there is good in this slum, that work goes on, that there is hope and courage to be had in the midst of what to us appears to be squalor.  There is a community with a heart here.

It was time for us to head back to Ballard Pier to get back on Serenade, our heads and hearts a little wiser than they had been that morning.  And we bid goodbye to Sujatha, after slipping a little cash in the new bag we bought for her.  Karl convinced her to let us buy it by telling her it was to make up for all the times he had forgotten her birthday.

One last photo with our great guide Anthony, who made our two days even more enjoyable.  He's one guide I made sure to write good reviews for on Trip Advisor.

Karl was asleep but I went up on deck 12 to watch as we sailed away from Mumbai.

I honestly didn't expect this farewell to India to be as emotional as it was for me.  I got pretty teary as I watched the city fade into the distance, not knowing if we will ever return.

There will always be a piece of my heart in Mumbai thanks to so many lessons that I learned there.  I will always be grateful for the years there.