Bombay is a city! The other places we visited pale in comparison. This is the "Big Apple" or the "city that never sleeps" as our guide called it. It has all the trappings of a city too. There are traffic signals (not speed breaks) and rush hour ( folks come to work at staggered times to reduce the crush ...so starting at 8 and ending at 11 (with 30 minute intervals) folks come to work, in order to relieve congestion. They work an 8 hour day and begin leaving for home at 4:30. It makes sense. There are lots of big business as well as libraries and museums and parks and gardens.
While the majority of commuters arrive in the train or bus, many take their own vehicles into the city. The train transports 5 million people a day. The train also employs more people than any other business IN THE WORLD! We saw the beautiful old Queen Victoria Station the was built in the 1870s and it was a beehive if activity.
The streets are teeming with walkers and bikers and drivers...taxis, buses, cars and scooters. We did not see one tuk-tuk here. This is the "big time" and the little 3-wheeled cars are not part of the scenery.
Bombay is a city of more than 20 million souls. Needless to say we did not see all of it. I'm guessing we saw less than 1%. We saw the buildings of the Raj that were built of stone by the Brits. These classic Victorian ladies are substantial. They aren't moldy either, but then Bombay is oł not as humid as the south. The pretty old stone buildings have a grandeur that the modern high-rises can never attain. Below is a really bad pix of the train station. (I'm afraid I took the pix thru a window hence the shadows) but it gives the idea what the Raj stood for. Another beautiful structure is the clock tower at the University of Bombay. The "Big Ben" of Bombay, is a classic gothic tower set amid a campus if gothic buildings.
We saw the Malabar area where real estate sells for 100,000 rupees per square foot (that's about $50k). We saw some of the beaches that grace the city. Folks don't sun bathe in this part of the world as its not cool to have dark skin.
As with every city, there a mix of folks living here. The Jains live in the Malabar area. They are strict vegetarians only eating veggies that grow above the earth...no carrots or turnips or potatoes for them. The are Farsis who practice Zoroastrianism. There are Hindus, and Catholics and Moslems and even a few Jews. Our guide says that everyone lives in harmony. Maybe that is even true. Our guide said that there are many choices for school, but most folks choose to send their children to the Jesuit Catholic schools.
The city is relatively clean. I saw people trying to sweep the sidewalks! The culture however believes that it is all right to toss stuff in the street or on the sidewalk. Some states in India have banned smoking, and I'm thinking this might be one of them as I did not see anyone smoke. Yesterday we learned that if you smoked in Goa you would be given a hefty fine...I wonder if the same is true in Bombay? If an anti-litter campaign were started, I bet it would have similar results as the anti-smoking campaign has had.
The harbour is filled with boats and ships of all sizes. I just was a mega-hauler creep out in the bay. I don't think I've seen a working ship as big! The navy base is near to the cruise terminal. There is a naval museum in an old aircraft carrier.
It's an amazing place. I'm glad we came up from the south so we could see the smaller cities before getting to the "big time" city. It's a place that needs days and days to explore and sadly we do not have that option. if we did, the place to stay would be the Taj Mahal Hotel, where we had tea this afternoon.
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