Sunday 31st March
After four days at sea we arrived at Mumbai early this morning. Many of the crew have family here so as many as possible have been given time off. As it is Sunday the traffic in the city was a little lighter than expected. Our coach driver seemed to think that that meant it was OK to go through some of the red lights. Our guide assured us it was fine - that we wouldn't die!! Soon after we left the docks we saw some cows wondering along the road although we were told they were usually tied up. While we were travelling around the city we saw lots of young men playing cricket - on one field there were hundreds, each group only had a small area but it didn't seem to worry them.
We drove first of all to the Gateway to India that was built a 100years ago to mark the visit by King George V and Queen Mary. There are a lot of old buildings from colonial days in Mumbai, lots are very impressive but there are others from that era that are crumbling away and some balconies looked extremely dangerous. We stopped at the Dhobi Ghat which is a large outdoor laundry. The clothes are collected from peoples homes, washed and dried here and then ironed and amazingly returned to the right homes even though no lists are made. As you can see in the photo they wash the clothes in large vats, hitting the clothes against the edge of the vat to get them clean and then they are hung out on endless lines to dry. As it was Sunday it wasn't all being used but was very interesting.
We then drove along Marina Drive past some lovely sandy beaches to seethe Hanging Gardens. As we left the gardens we were told about the Parsi Towers of Silence that are near there.
We visited the Krishna Temple and went to the Prince of Wales Museum, both were lovely buildings. We also went to Mani Bhavan which was the house Gandhi lived in when he was in Mumbai and is now a memorial to him.