MUMBAI, INDIA—IMPRESSIONS

∙ WHAT WE DID/SAW/EXPERIENCED
          ∙ Time in port: 41 hours (overnight no. 7 of 9)
DAY 1
          ∙ For the third day in a row, our day begin early, with a 7 a.m. pick-up for the long drive from Agra to Delhi.  We saw accidents, overturned vehicles and more road-roaming livestock.  People slept everywhere – in the slums, in their vehicles, and on the streets!  They crammed into vehicles and hustled their wares wherever we went.  A man stopped us on the road, requiring a small fee to continue.  He wasn’t a regular toll or tax stop; he only stopped “select” vehicles.  Our guide called him “mafia”, but handed him the cash so we could proceed without incident.  We saw numerous colleges and universities – and moments later, stacks of “cow patties”, organized neatly into piles (to be used as fuel).  Men urinated on the roadway.  Woman rode side-saddle on scooters, in their stunning saris.

          ∙ Our flight from Delhi got us in at about 4 p.m., in time to join an evening tour of the city.  Still, things didn’t go quite so perfectly.  Bill and I were originally booked on a Kingfisher flight, but the beleaguered airline was facing severe financial problems and changed our departure time twice:  from 2:10 p.m. to 3 p.m., and then to 5:05 p.m.  If we kept that flight, we wouldn’t arrive until 7:10 p.m., and our guide was picking us up at 4 p.m.  New articles spoke of the airline’s severe financial problems and commuters’ wariness about last-minute cancellations.  I couldn’t risk getting stuck in Delhi as our ship floated off to sea.  Expedia was a nightmare to deal with – I made four calls with my $25 (12-minute) ship calling cards, but each time they put me on hold as the time ran out.  I got so frustrated that I bought another flight on Jet Airways.  Although I’d purchased flight insurance, and there was no suitable alternative Kingfisher flight, Expedia refused to refund the cost of the Kingfisher flight (my new name for Expedia:  “Expedia dot screw you”).  But we made it to Mumbai!
          ∙ Ah yes, I’d made this change at the last minute and neglected to inform my guide.  Oops.  Turns out, there’s a different gate for Jet Airways flights than Kingfisher flights.  Who would’ve known – at home, there’s one terminal for (all) domestic flights.  We sat there waiting for about 30 minutes while trying to locate our guide.  What can I say?  Traveling’s hard.
          ∙ During our night tour of Mumbai, we saw the Hanging Gardens, Kamala Nehru Park and Bombay Point (with a great view of Chowpatty Beach and the Queen’s Necklace/beach shoreline below).  We made what was to be a quick stop to pick up these yellow cards required to enter the dock area, except that it turned into a long debacle.  Alas, with yellow cards in hand, we headed out for a really fun buggy ride along Marine Drive and other nearby sites.  From there, we saw the Chhatrapati Shivaja Terminus (fka Victoria Terminus) at night.  It’s the main railway station of Mumbai and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We saw the city’s most famous landmark, the Gateway of India – an archway built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary.  Finally, we stopped in to see the Taj Mahal Hotel, which was bombed as part of the coordinated strikes in 2008.  It’s gorgeous today!  Indeed, this is a beautiful city in many ways . . . clouded by its impoverished masses.

          ∙ The real “fun” (?) began when we returned to the “Green Gate” at the Mumbai port, where our ship told us to go.  It would take us app. 1.5 hours and a 100 rupee "pay-off" to the corrupt dock agents to get us into the dock and onto our ship!  (I had rum in my bag, which I'm told agents like to confiscate and sell at inflated prices.  My guide had to pay the dock official to "disregard" the rum.)  Many passengers complained about the horrible treatment we got by dock officials in Mumbai.  I’ll spare you the details, as I don’t care to relive it myself.  By the time we ate dinner, it was 11 p.m.  After a “soothing” cocktail, we headed to bed for a much-needed rest (this time, a whole 7 hours)!

DAY 2
          ∙ Look for this post tomorrow . . .