Mumbai madness...

This really is a great city! I arrived very late two nights ago due to my flight being cancelled over a year ago (yes, that is correct)... and I have been non stop since my eyeballs opened yesterday morning!

This is the beautiful Taj Hotel. You cannot really see the damage in this picture but it is under construction due to the bombings. Colaba which was the main area bombed, is alive and thriving and it is nice to see life going on here.


After Colaba I jumped on the local train and headed north to Mahalaxmi station so I could check out the 136 year old laundry ghats. Everywhere in India you can drop off your laundry at the 'laundry service' and magically it comes back the same evening clean as a whistle and ironed beautifully. Well, I heard about the Mumbai service and needed to witness it for myself! As I got off the train I was greeted by this group of laundry people who were returning laundry to it's intended destination.


And before it is folded and ironed here are the beautiful clothes lines which are made of rope and they don't use pegs! I love clothes lines.....

To the right of the green sheets are the actual troughs, there are 1026 of them to be exact! They are filled with what looks like dirty water to me and the men literally beat the laundry against the trough walls to clean it then dunk it in a trough of stratchy water! Ahhhh this is why it presses so nicely! The amazing part is your laundry is not identified and I have yet to have a piece go missing....

After observing the laundry service I meandered for about an hour and made my way to Haji Ali Mosque. This Mosque was built to hold Saint Haji Ali's tomb. The legend has it that Haji Ali died while on a pilgrimage to Mecca and his casket miraculously floated back to this spot!

Thousands of pilgrams cross the walkway to the mosque but at high tide the water (Arabian Sea) covers the causeway.

Yesterday was a great day and today I went to Asia's largest slum! More on that tomorrow....