Thursday was our first day on our own, just the 4 of us with no guide, no one “watching over us” so to speak. James and I were up before 7, we shared one room, Merv was up next door and Randy was still asleep. I went for a walk outside the YMCA, it was pretty quiet, the birds were singing, a couple guys were sweeping the street with long branches from what looked like coconut trees. There were a few people asleep on the sidewalk, you can see some in the pictures I posted. As I walked along, there were scenes like that every few feet. Some were by themselves, some were whole families with 2 or 3 kids. The sidewalk was their home. Pretty sad! We complain about our “little” houses back home. We have NOTHING to complain about!
After we all got ready, we went to Leopold’s Café for breakfast. That is where the shootings and massacre started in Bombay last November. They still had a front window with bullet holes in it and some in the walls inside. They are purposely leaving it unrepaired as a reminder of that day. (It also makes a great tourist attraction). From there we took a taxi south to the Bombay Baptist Church where I lived from around 4 yrs old to about 10 or so. The current Pastor of the church took us in and showed us all around including his bedroom where I used to sleep with mom and dad. His wife didn’t look really pleased but we got to see the whole place anyways! LOL. From there we took a city bus to Churchgate Railway Station and caught a local commuter train to Dadar, a station about 30 mins away. The train started out slow and stopped about 2 minutes out of the station. Some dudes come along and say this train is going to the yard for a checkup so everyone has to jump down onto the tracks and walk along the tracks back to the station. It wasn’t just us “foreigners” either. A whole bunch of folks were on that train. Anyways, after the train ride, we walked over to the school we attended as kids. We had to get past security at the gate and get permission from an official to look around. We found my sister Brenda’s name on the wall as she was the equivalent of Student President of the class of 1974.
From there, it was lunch time and we found a great vegetarian place and had a royal feast for 369 ruppees including sodas. That’s $ 7.40 US for all 4 of us!! Try that in America! Merv and Randy went back to the Y for a nap and James and I went to the little restaurant/bar down the street which has free wi-fi and I posted the video of the cute little kids.
In the evening, we walked down to the Taj Hotel and took some great pictures, met a few locals, a lot of whom are also visiting Bombay from other areas of India. Everyone is extremely friendly. From there we made our way to “Marine Drive” which is the “Ocean Drive” of Bombay. It is a long ocean view drive and the city actually keeps it free of any stalls or slums so it was how we remembered it. We ate supper at the Gaylord Restaurant, (I think Resty would have liked it) just kidding Resty! LOL This place was a little more upscale. It was Indian food of course and delicious. We pigged out again and this time our bill was Rs 2,300 including all drinks (James’s Kingfisher beer). That works out to $46 US or almost 12 dollars each for a huge meal. Still a pretty good deal by US standards. We probably won’t eat at too many of those high end places! We eventually made it back to the YMCA for the night. I wandered back to the free wi-fi for a coffee, James had a Kingfisher beer, and I posted a few pictures and checked my mail. Then it was off to bed by midnight.
Friday morning, James and I were up before 7, we had great chai delivered to the room and ordered breakfast. We both had an omelet and 4 slices of toast with jam and butter as well as more chai. This meal cost 60 ruppees for both of us, that’s $ 1.20 US total. James paid the dude Rs 150 thinking he was giving him a big tip which it would have been but Merv and Randy came into our room while he was paying him, they both ordered the same thing. So when the guy delivered their meal, he ended up not charging them anything thinking it had already been paid for by James! Oh well, he still ended up with a 30 ruppee tip.
We wandered back to the Gateway of India by 11 am and caught the 1130 boat to Elephanta Caves. It was a one hour ride to the island where they have some old caves with huge statues of Indian Gods. It was stinkin hot and a long walk up the hill to get there but well worth it once we were there. We have some great pictures. We got back to the mainland at 1630 and went back to the vegetarian restaurant from yesterday for another great meal for less than $10 total! We then went to the Tata Mobile Showroom and picked up a wireless card for internet access on the laptop while we’re on the road. The total cost of the card and unlimited usage for a month was Rs 3,200 which is $64 US, 16 dollars each! I love this new India!!! We also have a cell phone to use here and can call the US and Canada for less than $ 8.00/hr.
We went back to the internet café/bar where I uploaded all those last batch of pictures. By this time it was 2030 so we headed back to the YMCA, got our bags out of the lockup since we had actually checked out at 1100. Two taxis later we were at CST Train Station Mumbai where the most people were killed last November. We got there about 2130,our train didn’t leave until 2305. We dug out our Fins T shirt’s and put them on. The crowds at the station were HUGE, unbelievable! Merv said, “this is what I’ve been waiting for”! Of course we took lots of pics, were stared at a lot, especially all wearing the same (extremely bright) shirts!
We found our compartment and our train left on time. More to come.
After we all got ready, we went to Leopold’s Café for breakfast. That is where the shootings and massacre started in Bombay last November. They still had a front window with bullet holes in it and some in the walls inside. They are purposely leaving it unrepaired as a reminder of that day. (It also makes a great tourist attraction). From there we took a taxi south to the Bombay Baptist Church where I lived from around 4 yrs old to about 10 or so. The current Pastor of the church took us in and showed us all around including his bedroom where I used to sleep with mom and dad. His wife didn’t look really pleased but we got to see the whole place anyways! LOL. From there we took a city bus to Churchgate Railway Station and caught a local commuter train to Dadar, a station about 30 mins away. The train started out slow and stopped about 2 minutes out of the station. Some dudes come along and say this train is going to the yard for a checkup so everyone has to jump down onto the tracks and walk along the tracks back to the station. It wasn’t just us “foreigners” either. A whole bunch of folks were on that train. Anyways, after the train ride, we walked over to the school we attended as kids. We had to get past security at the gate and get permission from an official to look around. We found my sister Brenda’s name on the wall as she was the equivalent of Student President of the class of 1974.
From there, it was lunch time and we found a great vegetarian place and had a royal feast for 369 ruppees including sodas. That’s $ 7.40 US for all 4 of us!! Try that in America! Merv and Randy went back to the Y for a nap and James and I went to the little restaurant/bar down the street which has free wi-fi and I posted the video of the cute little kids.
In the evening, we walked down to the Taj Hotel and took some great pictures, met a few locals, a lot of whom are also visiting Bombay from other areas of India. Everyone is extremely friendly. From there we made our way to “Marine Drive” which is the “Ocean Drive” of Bombay. It is a long ocean view drive and the city actually keeps it free of any stalls or slums so it was how we remembered it. We ate supper at the Gaylord Restaurant, (I think Resty would have liked it) just kidding Resty! LOL This place was a little more upscale. It was Indian food of course and delicious. We pigged out again and this time our bill was Rs 2,300 including all drinks (James’s Kingfisher beer). That works out to $46 US or almost 12 dollars each for a huge meal. Still a pretty good deal by US standards. We probably won’t eat at too many of those high end places! We eventually made it back to the YMCA for the night. I wandered back to the free wi-fi for a coffee, James had a Kingfisher beer, and I posted a few pictures and checked my mail. Then it was off to bed by midnight.
Friday morning, James and I were up before 7, we had great chai delivered to the room and ordered breakfast. We both had an omelet and 4 slices of toast with jam and butter as well as more chai. This meal cost 60 ruppees for both of us, that’s $ 1.20 US total. James paid the dude Rs 150 thinking he was giving him a big tip which it would have been but Merv and Randy came into our room while he was paying him, they both ordered the same thing. So when the guy delivered their meal, he ended up not charging them anything thinking it had already been paid for by James! Oh well, he still ended up with a 30 ruppee tip.
We wandered back to the Gateway of India by 11 am and caught the 1130 boat to Elephanta Caves. It was a one hour ride to the island where they have some old caves with huge statues of Indian Gods. It was stinkin hot and a long walk up the hill to get there but well worth it once we were there. We have some great pictures. We got back to the mainland at 1630 and went back to the vegetarian restaurant from yesterday for another great meal for less than $10 total! We then went to the Tata Mobile Showroom and picked up a wireless card for internet access on the laptop while we’re on the road. The total cost of the card and unlimited usage for a month was Rs 3,200 which is $64 US, 16 dollars each! I love this new India!!! We also have a cell phone to use here and can call the US and Canada for less than $ 8.00/hr.
We went back to the internet café/bar where I uploaded all those last batch of pictures. By this time it was 2030 so we headed back to the YMCA, got our bags out of the lockup since we had actually checked out at 1100. Two taxis later we were at CST Train Station Mumbai where the most people were killed last November. We got there about 2130,our train didn’t leave until 2305. We dug out our Fins T shirt’s and put them on. The crowds at the station were HUGE, unbelievable! Merv said, “this is what I’ve been waiting for”! Of course we took lots of pics, were stared at a lot, especially all wearing the same (extremely bright) shirts!
We found our compartment and our train left on time. More to come.
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