Two days in Bombay

Well, nearly everybody here still calls it Bombay...

After arrival the evening of 26 August, it was a bit of a social evening and at the same time a farewell to one rider who is ending his trip here.

Chris receives his jersey from tour leader Cristiano

Interesting venue for that - called the Stock Exchange bar; they run the price of drinks on a screen like stock tickers showing high, low and latest price. Buy a drink and instantly the price increases a bit for the next person if they want it badly enough to order right then. Wait a while and the price will come down unless somebody jumps in and buys one before you. Fun, limited 'trading range' - you can't buy a dozen whiskies and then try to flip them for a profit to someone in a private transaction.

The following morning was a start at blogs and laundry and that sort of rest-day stuff, then we went out on our own walk for a few hours. The hotel is literally two blocks from the Gateway of India, and along the water from there is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Two blocks the other way is the nearest entrance to the major Indian Navy base. Obviously a lot of history right here, and you sensed it in the atmosphere. We also noticed that Bombay is clean, and have learned that there are significant penalties for littering. Result... people use the litter bins... amazing what a little incentive can do. Downtown Bombay also doesn't allow tuktuks, or perhaps it is a ban on two-strike engines because there aren't many motorcycles/motorscooters and their lovely blue smoke exhaust.

Walking past the Art Gallery we see a poster celebrating Gandhi's 150th birthday while also promoting cleanliness...

...and other healthy things in an area that felt a bit like London (UK, not Ontario)...

We walked along 'the oval', past the University, the clock tower, and the Bombay High Court. On the other side of the road, casual cricket is being played in the oval.

Western Railway building in background. The Charkha (spinning wheel) on the left
is a symbol of self-reliance and of Indian Independence popularized by Gandhi

Not far away is Bombay's famous Victoria Station, now called the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, from which the first trains operated in India in 1853.

ticket hall

...and city offices designed by the same architect across the road...

From there we went back towards the hotel and to the waterfront...

Gateway of India

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel (not a low-budget place)

time for dessert and coffee

During our travels so far, we've been amazed that dogs can sleep pretty near wherever they want and drivers don't run them over. This is just outside our hotel, barely room for pedestrians, but the dog is totally oblivious to things going on around - he was still there twenty minutes later...

 ...and that evening down by the water...

The second rest day, we went to the other side of the peninsula where a cleanup campaign has revealed beaches that actually look not bad, at least not full of plastic.

Bombay is home to a large open-air laundry which has become a tourist attraction in its own right......

the laundry workers are inevitably male and they live work and sleep in these quarters

an apprentice?

gotta love the satellite dishes in the middle of all this

Bombay is also famous for its lunch delivery system. Meals are picked up from a person's home and taken to them at the office to be delivered at a precise time, then later the container picked up and returned home, all with amazing precision and absolutely punctual timing every day. The meals come in from homes in all directions to a central spot and get sent out in all the different directions to people's offices and then all in reverse after lunch. This 'segregation' all takes place on a street between the Western Railway Head Office and the Churchgate railway station.

A few bags arrive and are placed according to a scheme only the workers know.

 It doesn't take long for the piles of bags to get bigger...

...arriving by foot...

 ...by bike - there's probably 40 lunch bags tied to just about everything on this bike...

 ...on pallets on somebody's head...

 ...a bit of help needed to bring it down...

 The bags are coded so that the couriers know what goes where and when and when it comes back what to do with it. First one bag...

 ...then two...

 ...etc...

 They get sorted...

  ...and eventually get picked up and moved out in time for someone's lunch...

 

 No automation, just people!

And a chocolate welcome back to the hotel that afternoon...

Bombay has been a pleasant two days of rest. One can only imagine the atmosphere in its colonial heyday.

Tomorrow will be a very early start in order to get onto the ferry and back onto the route down the Indian coast to Goa. We have three successive riding days, then a rest day near the beach, then three more riding days to Goa. Just a week to go. We're told to expect some serious hills as we go down the coast, also some more 'challenging' road conditions. Also, internet is not likely to be available very much during the week, so all ye faithful readers, don't expect much until after we reach Goa in seven days.