James Says Goodbye To Bombay

Said goodbye to Bombay last night. I really liked it there, but was ready to move on to other places. Hoping for a little less traffic and pedestrian congestion in Goa. Will miss The Woodside Tavern in Bombay though. It's the place that we have been using for internet wifi connections. It's fairly Western or European style, but the cold air inside is a great relief. Not to mention they had great cold beer too. Speaking of beer.... Many of the beer reviews of India that I read before leaving had nothing good to say. I wasn't very optimistic about India’s beer before coming here. This has all changed. The Woodside had King Fisher on tap for about $2 per half liter. It was great tasting beer. Had one in a bottle at another place. It wasn't as good as the draft at The Woodside, but I didn't expect it to be. I don't know what the other "beer reviewers" were complaining about. King Fisher isn't a Belgian ale or an American micro brew, but I wouldn't want those in this heat anyway.
I had certain reservations about this trip after the 26/11 terrorist attacks last year. They attacked the Taj Hotel, the CST train station, Leopold’s restaurant as well other places in Bombay. Little did I know that all of this was within a couple of blocks from where we would be staying and spend most of our time. This area is apparently frequented by foreigners and tourists, making it a target. We ended up at all of the locations mentioned. There are still bullet holes all over Leopold's and large portions of the Taj are still burned. Photos of the bullet holes are posted on this blog. I think these places have now become even greater landmarks than before, much like the World Trade Center sites. Terror tourism could become a new and unexpected industry in this world.