Mumbai Jan 1--5, 2013

shanties beside highway into Mumbai

Nope.  Nothing we read, saw, or heard prepared us properly for India.  Landing in the middle of the night wasn't helpful, either.  Everything was dark, dusty, and strange-smelling, although by morning the dark turned out sunny and bright, the dusty, though it stayed dusty, wasn't as overpowering as it had been the night before, and the strange-smelling became stranger-smelling as the pall of smoke was joined by the breakfasts cooking in the thousands of little tin sheds surrounding our hotel.

brightly dressed ladies getting henna tattoos

Mumbai, and maybe the rest of India, is a dichotomy.  It is really dusty, and just when it seems everything looks grey, along comes a group of ladies dressed in saris of the most magnificent colors, almost like birds flying out of grey clouds to delight bystanders with their magnificent plumage.  Hues of orange, yellow, red, blue, green, turquoise and everything else inbetween swirl around us on the streets with backdrops of little garage-like stores stocking electronics, homegoods, food items, tires, some barber shops, and the like.
People are everywhere, rushing from the train station to their jobs, winding their way through traffic, standing in the middle of the street while cars whiz by, whole families on motorcycles, men sitting on the ground enjoying their breakfasts of various delights, entrepreneurs setting up one of thousands of sidewalk stands selling watches, sandals, purses, scarves, jewelry, fruit, vegetables, juices, pens, shaving gear, paper--everything thinkable.

sculpture in Prince of Wales Museum

We could just walk along, looking at every little thing offered, but we decide we'd better get going on some of the sites we want to see.  So, we proceed to the Prince of Wales Museum, a lovely collection of  sculptures, china, paintings, artifacts and textiles.  That's the first day...

shiva in cave on elephanta island

school girls pose for a photo

On subsequent days, we see Elephanta Island with its caves and carvings that were executed from 450 to 750 AD, Gateway of India built for the visit of King George V in 1903, Mahalaxmi Dobhe Ghat where hundreds of people hand wash thousands of pieces of laundry, hang them to dry in the morning and iron them in the afternoon, Kotachiwadi where early Christians built 2 story wooden homes with porches--all crowded in a few very colorful, winding street,  and some really beautiful architecture.

school boys with bare feet on school outing

mahalaxmi dobhe ghat--laundry as far as you can see

Tomorrow we take the train for Goa.
We hope it will be slower paced.

All of this we manage to find through much trial and error; street signs are few and far between.  There is a great deal of frustration, but it seems to work out.  We stop in a Starbucks to retrieve our sanity.

at starbuck's--getting ourselves together.