Doin' It Bollywood, Mumbai

We've completed our month long, hopping tour of India and arrived in Jo'burg, South Africa on the 8th of June. Mumbai was a blast, and we really lived it up... It's kind of a funny story, or maybe sad, but we went from looking at any budget hotel we could find to living it up on the shoreline in a 5-star luxury hotel. Hey, it was only two nights... Our logic was something like this: Well, it's quite expensive just to stay in these "budget" places, and they really aren't very nice. So, we might as well go for the best... I'm not sure what was better, the free breakfast buffet or the rooftop swimming pool with a view of the bay.

Mumbai was mind blowing, a total mish-mash of people, poverty, and glamour. Walking the street at night to dinner you might be followed by the cutest children begging just for a few rupees until you cross the threshold into the restaurant. Then, just a bit further north into the city, you can browse books in a frostily air-conditioned bookstore with a great cafe just after passing the local Porsche dealer. You might see a Mercedes driving past the shanty towns on the way from the airport. There were contrasts everywhere. Hopefully Emilie will type up our incident with the guide and the rip-off scheme on the way from the airport, or else I'll have to tell you about it in person.

We also had our first real taste of the monsoon in Mumbai. As we were selling some books to a street vendor, it started to rain. A few minutes later, it started to really rain, about as strong as a good thunderstorm in the US. And then... Just a bit longer and it was like a fog of rain had covered the city. People either scrambled for cover or just walked right through it. The street turned into a full on river. We were stranded with a sugar cane juice seller (basically under a tarp). I wasn't sure if I should laugh with amazement or cry at getting soaked. It's funny, the Indian women can look very calm and graceful walking through what must have been the hardest rain I've ever seen. Amazingly, once the rain finally stopped, Mumbai drained out into the bay extremely effectively.

We set out in the rain to make it to a gallery displaying a retrospective of photographs from Raghu Rai, an India photojournalist. He has some really amazing stuff. Unfortunately, the exhibit was closed due to the rain. Great! And the gallery was closed the next day, our last day in the city. Great! We ended up at the Jenaghir gallery instead for a taste of some Indian modern art (all for sale), but I was mightily disappointed at missing the photography exhibit.

We also visited the Gateway of India in the rain and made a walk through the super-fancy Taj Palace Hotel before heading off to the airport for our flight to Africa. We didn't take in any of the newest flicks so I guess we weren't really all that Bollywood after all.