NOTE:
Photo 1 is a Beggar with carrying baby.
Photo 2 is the outside of the Taj Mahal Hoel.
Photo 3 is a Shanti.
Photo 4 is one of three synagogues that we visited during our tour of Mumbai.
Today we visited our second port of call in India; Mumbai (Bombay), India. The ship will stay in this city overnight. Tomorrow morning this sixth segment of the World Cruise will end. With the conclusion of this segment, some passengers will depart the ship in the morning while new guests will be joining the ship starting at 12:00 Noon.
Mumbai is a heavily populated city and the standard of living for its residents varies widely. There are some who live a very lavish lifestyle and are reaping the benefits of the emerging economy in India. Others are less fortunate but live a comfortable life while many others live in poverty. For those who live in poverty it is well below what most of us think of. For many of those in poverty they literally live on the streets and sidewalks. Over the years many people have moved to Mumbai from the countryside hoping to find a better way of life only to quickly learn that live is not any better for them. With high growth expected to continue over the first half of this century and limited space, Mumbai will continue to be very challenged in the foreseeable future.
We have to say that during our visit we saw some of the worst living conditions that we have ever witnessed first hand given the magnitude of the people living in poverty. It is estimated that of the 18 million people living in this city, that five million people live in poverty. In addition to people living in boxes, we saw people sleeping on tables as well as sleeping on sidewalks. Unlike homeless people in various cities around the world, we are talking about an enormous number of people essentially living in filth. In addition to seeing so many people living on the street, there are many more who live in shanties that looked like they were falling apart.
During our drive around the city we saw both parts of Mumbai. We did see many nice areas with beautiful buildings, both traditional and modern, and we saw many other areas that looked like the remnants from a war. Everywhere we looked there were people begging, but far worse than we have ever seen in all of our travels. More on this in a moment.
Mumbai offers those visiting this city much to see. There are a variety of attractions which include;
Gateway to India. This is the most recognizable remnant of the British Raj. The Gateway was completed by the British in 1924 and was the final departure point when the British left Indian soil in 1947.
Elephant Island Cave. In 1987, this site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Mani Bhavan Gandhi Musueum. Mahatma Gandhi lived in this home from 1917 to 1934. It contains a library of Ghandhi related works.
Marine Drive. This drive was build in 1920 and is recommended as a nice place to take a long walk in order to get a good perspective of Mumbai.
Jain Temple. This is a nice temple to visit to get a nice introduction to Jainism and Hinduism.
Taj Mahal Hotel. One of many impressive hotels situated in the city of Mumbai. This hotel was build just over a century ago. It is a well-known place to stay or to just visit while in Mumbai. It is also home to an impressive array of stores.
Due to low tides, we docked in Mumbai prior to 3:00 AM this morning. We woke early and worked out in the Fitness Center and then we enjoyed a nice breakfast in our room.
Before we went ashore, each passenger on board the ship had to attend a mandatory Indian immigration inspection. This inspection was very orderly. For those of us on tours, we were asked to show up for this inspection at a specified time based on the starting time of our respective tour. All other passengers were asked to show up at a specified time based on the first letter of their last name. When we finished breakfast we went over to the inspection area at around 6:25 AM and we were given our passport along with a landing card to take with us to the front of the room to show one of the Indian inspection agents. There was somewhere between 12-15 inspection agents and there were no lines so we each immediately walked up to an available agent who looked at our passport and stamped the yellow landing card. As we left the lounge, we turned in our returned our passport and kept the yellow card. Those passengers leaving the ship tomorrow morning in Mumbai, along with those passengers going to the Taj Mahal today or those passengers who needed their passport to exchange money in port could hold onto their passports. We preferred to return our passport as we didn’t want to take a chance of losing it or having it stolen while we were off the ship.
All in all the process took about two or three minutes. Our hats off to both Crystal and to the Inspection Agents for handling this so efficiently.
The tour that we booked for today was called Mumbai’s Jewish Heritage. Crystal always provides an escort or more than one escort for each tour depending on the size of the group. The escort keeps count of those on the tour to make sure we don’t leave anyone behind, ensures that the tour follows the tour itinerary, acts as the Crystal Representative should any issues arrive, carries a ships medical kit should someone need assistance and provides feedback to the Crystal Shore Excursion Staff about the tour. The Rabbi and his lovely wife escorted those on our tour today, which was wonderful.
When we boarded the tour bus our tour guide stressed several items to us. She noted that each time we got off the bus in many areas that we would be confronted with beggars of all ages, including children and also women with babies. She warned us that under no circumstances were we to give them money, talk with them or buy anything from them. It was not too long after that when we realized she had given us great advice.
Our tour began with a chance to see the Gateway of India. The site was built in 1911 to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary. As soon as we got off the tour bus we were swarmed by beggars and our tour guide had to gently tap one of them to get them to leave the tour group alone. She also told us that at times one may need to yell at them to tell them to get away from us.
We then visited the Knesseth Eliahod Synagogue. This Synagogue was built in 1884. When we arrived here a service was just finishing up.
We then continued our tour where we passed by the David Sasson Library. This very large and impressive library was built in 1847 and was built by the same family that built the Knesseth Eliahod Synagogue.
Our next visit was to the Magen David Synagogue, which was built in 1861. The size of this synagogue is immense and it is the largest synagogue in all of Asia.
We then had the opportunity to visit our third synagogue of the day called the Magen Hassidin Synagogue. This synagogue was constructed in 1904 and has the largest congregation of Jews in Mumbai. We learned that almost all of the Jewish marriages and bar mitzvahs take place at this synagogue.
During our tour we learned that after World War II there were about 20,000 Jewish people in Mumbai. Today, there are only about 5,000 Jews living in all of India, of which, approximately 4,000 Jewish people live in Mumbai. There are nine synagogues in Mumbai.
We also had the opportunity to observe the local laundry also called the dhobi ghats. It is hard to imagine but each day laundry is washed in this area from all over Mumbai where it is soaped, soaked, boiled, beaten and thrashed and the next day the laundry is delivered to its owner. Approximately, 10,000 men work there and the operation is open seven days a week from daylight to dusk. It is all done outdoors.
We also learned that there is another business, which employs about 5,000 people. This involves the delivery of hot lunches from ones home to the office they work at in Mumbai. The way it works is either someone at your home or someone else makes the lunch for you and then it is picked up later in the morning from one of these men. In turn, it is transported by train but is handled on average by about fifteen different men as they consolidate the deliveries between various train stations until it ready for pickup at the closest train station. You can either pick up the lunch or for a slightly higher cost have it delivered to your office so that you can eat lunch at around 1:00 PM.
Before we got back to the ship, we stopped by a couple of markets for shopping and we also dropped off some fellow passengers who wanted to visit the Taj Mahal Hotel.
During some of our stops, we were told not to take anything off the bus except for our cameras. Every stop we made, we encountered many beggars. Some would try to touch you to catch you off guard. We have encountered gypsies over the years and other beggars but we have never experienced anything like this.
When we got back to the ship, we enjoyed a nice lunch that we had pre-ordered this morning.
We decided to go over to the Taj Mahal Hotel to see the hotel and to see the shops inside it. We were warned about the cab drivers so it took us awhile to negotiate with the cab drivers. We just wanted a cab to take us from the pier over to the hotel, one way, with no side trips to other stores. We were quoted a variety of prices. While there were several taxicab drivers at the pier, we soon learned that our best bet was to walk a few minutes out of the pier to what is known as the Green Gate where other taxis would be available. The drivers outside the gate were easier to negotiate with.
We quickly settled on a price that we knew was fair and we were driven to the hotel. Our driver wanted to wait for us but we truly didn’t know how long we would be so we told him not to wait for us. During our time at the hotel we saw several passengers from the ship. Some had been there to shop, while others were there to eat lunch while others were there to eat and shop.
There were several places where you could order men’s custom shirts, dinner jackets, tuxedos, suits and other clothing while there were other places where one could order women’s dresses, full length gowns, tops, pants and other custom items. There were other places featuring clothing ready for purchase in a variety of sizes while also offering the opportunity to make custom fit items. There were other stores featuring an assortment of other items from shoes to shawls, along with jewelry stores. We walked aruod around for about an hour and one half. One of the hotel doormen helped get us get a taxicab and this time around we had a very easy time in negotiating our fare and we had a very nice driver who did not try to play games with us about going shopping elsewhere. On our way back to the ship he pointed out some sites along the way. On a related note, before our tour ended our tour guide had pointed out the streets we would take to get from the Taj Mahal Hotel back to the cruise ship and she said to be alert so we didn’t end up taking a four hour drive with stops at many stores. The game here is that the drivers can make money from storeowners by getting you to look at their stores. This was also the case in our last stop in Cochin, India.
When we got out of the taxicab, we were once again confronted with several people begging. It is all so very sad. We then walked around the cruise ship terminal area to look at some of the items being sold there. We also noticed that there is another ship in port, which we believe is the Silversea Whisper. The Whisper carries approximately 350 passengers.
Much of what we were told about Mumbai was true. There really are some very interesting areas to see along with several beautiful areas of the city. We saw many buildings with very traditional looking architecture. Some people who live here are doing very well and are living a wonderful standard of life. Those people make relatively good money, have good jobs, live in nice places, dress well, and live the good life.
We met many nice people in the stores, and as part of today’s tour. They were very polite, well educated, and nice to talk with.
At the same time, in sheer magnitude, this is the largest amount of poverty that we have ever seen. As we said, parts of the city looked like it had been ravaged by war. Millions of people living in one city in such poor conditions is difficult to imagine but this is the reality of this city. A good portion of the city was chaotic.
We will likely be haunted by memories of what we saw today for quite some time. We saw families living on the street, young children looking very dirty and begging along with women holding little babies (much more intense than say the Gypsies in Europe) who were also begging. Words cannot adequately describe what we witnessed today. To think that so many people who live in India continue to move here from various locations around the country for the better life, only to settle here and not find any work is truly amazing. This city has too many people at this very moment and the numbers are projected to continue to increase.
Today, we are reminded of how diverse this world is. We are also reminded of how fortunate so many of us are. Yes, those in Mumbai who are in the middle, upper middle and upper classes do have a lot of opportunity and overtime will likely do very well, live comfortably and continue to improve their overall standard of living as part of the emerging economy within India. At the same time, so many of those living in he slums of Mumbai have little to no chance of success and that is a very sad fact of life.
We are glad that we had the opportunity to visit this city. However, this is one city that we would not want to visit as part of a land vacation given what we encountered today. We are very lucky that we can visit a city like this knowing that we don’t have to live here.
This evening we reflected over what we have seen today during dinner. Some of our fellow passengers are eating in town this evening, but not us. We enjoyed a nice dinner in the Main Dining Room and talked between ourselves about what we had witnessed today.
Keith & Anne Marie
