Venturing Out Again

Had a relaxing morning. Wandered to a local Starbucks around the corner to hook up and send a few posts out into the black hole.
Then went out for a drive. You know how keen I am about the hop-on-hop-off buses. Sarah couldn't find one for Mumbai, so we arranged our own. The hotel supplies a car and a guide, who takes us to an assortment of must-sees in the vicinity.

Lots of beautiful buildings, and some, well, not so much. We figured out why some appartment buildings are in such disrepair. There are rent control laws here, so tenants have been paying the same rent for decades. No increases. As a result, landlords can't afford to renovate, and many can't afford to maintain them at all. In fact, there is a suggestion that the only way to get rid of tenants with these pittance rents, is to let the building literally fall down around them. The land will be worth a fortune, so they can make their money selling to a developer.


Saw Victoria Terminus, the central train station. Apparently, the trains that move through this station move 7 million people every day. 7 million! That's twice the population of New Zealand. Every day! I know, right!

Had a wander through the Gandhi museum. This is the house where Gandhi lived for a number of years when he was in Mumbai. Very interesting, actually. Amazing how one man can do so much by doing so little.

Saw a Dhobi ghat. As you know, this is an open air laundry, where laundry from hotels and restaurants is washed by hand in little pools. Didn't see any of my laundry here, though.

It reminds me of an ad I saw in tv years ago.
Some ladies are at a riverbank, beating the crap out of some clothes on big rocks. An aid agency gives them a washing machine. Fisher and Paykel, I think. In the final scene of the ad, these ladies are still at the riverbank, happily beating the crap out of their laundry on the washing machine. Classic!

Also went to what they call a hanging garden. This is on the top of a hill, built on top of a huge water reservoir. The guide pointed out some crows flying overhead just next to the garden. Apparently, this is a place called the Tower of Silence. It's a funeral ground for the Parsi religion.
Because of their religious beliefs, they neither cremate not bury their dead. Instead, the have these dry wells in the ground, with some kind of platform on top. A grill I imagine. They place the body on this, to be eaten by the birds. Originally vultures, now crows. When they're done, the bones fall through the platform into the well. Yuck, right?

I've seen enough CSI episodes to know that I don't want to be standing underneath one of those crows for long.

This children's playground is over the road from the hanging garden. And the Tower of Silence. Nice.