Mumbai, Bombay, Bumbai, Mombay... all the same!

  Mumbai (Bombay), India
Friday, February 29, 2008

Today we took a city tour of Bumbai with my favorite guide yet.  She was a 45 year old mother of three who was clearly less conservative than all the other male guides we had to date.  She told us exactly how things were and not how they are supposed to be.  Mom definitely got along better with her than any of our previous guides and that helped a lot as well. 

India Gate and the Taj Mahal Hotel

She took us to the Gateway of India, which was built to commemorate the English reaching Bombay at that spot.  Utterly unimpressive, but a landmark for some reason. 

From there, we hoped on a boat for an hour ride to Elephant Island and the caves of Shiva. 

Our guide (the queen) getting a lift

  They were really cool considering how old they were and how they were built (carved out of the mountain leaving statues and murals that are all actually one stone). 

Shiva shrine in Elephant Island caves

Jorge witnessing Gandhi meeting the King

From there we made stops at a Jain temple, Gandhi's house, the Hanging Gardens, laundry city, the famous Mosque on the water whose name escapes me and got to see the glitzy area of the city. 

Laundry city

Supposedly, there is a strip of the commercial downtown that is the most expensive real estate in the world, but when we surfaced from our tour of the area it had obviously gone unnoticed because I thought we had yet to see it...

The "floating" mosque

I had to say good bye to Mother Dearest and I was sad to see her go.  She kept me great company and was an awesome travel partner.  Having a full 2 weeks alone with my Mom was a special treat that I don't know if I've ever had before or will ever have again.  I am absolutely certain that my experience in India would have been much less powerful without her there to view and discuss things with.  Thanks so much for coming Mother Dearest!!!

The crow who was selling stuff...

Alas, when Mom left I had to go and check out the bustling nightlife I had heard so much about.  Tonight I went to Prive, the hottest nightclub in Bombay.  It was just like any of the top spots in NYC.  The décor was amazing inside and the drinks were extremely expensive, even by US standards.  Just as I'm about to leave I run into someone who looks familiar.  After a few minutes of talking to him, I place him and realize that it's one of Ronak's (friend from high school) buddies from UPenn that I've met in Princeton and at Mardi Gras before, Parag.  I wind up hanging around and enjoying myself quite a bit.  I talked to another few guys from the states that turn out to be the Global Head of Securitization at Deutsche Bank and his right hand man... they are really nice and I briefly think back to how we would have interacted if we had met in NYC.   Haha, I'm clearly a lot happier here and now!!!