Mumbai/Bombay, India
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Entry into Mumbai went pretty smooth. Going through immigration was easy. No problems. Mumbai is a pretty dirty town. There is debris and rubble every where, garbage everywhere, and rows of people sleeping on the streets. There are many shacks and run down buildings that look like they couldn't withstand a mild wind,let alone a monsoon. Of course, I was expecting all that, but it still amazes meto see it inreallife. I was going to take pictures of us arriving,but they didn't allow pictures at the airport. It isvery smokey outside. I asked someone at the hotel where the smoke was coming from and they said, it was just pollution and that the smoke was an everyday event in Mumbai. It reminds me of being in Leavenworth when we had the big '94 fire. You can feel the soot in the air. There arealso some occasional sewer smells as you move along the town. We arestaying at the Bentley's Hotel in the Colaba district. It's a clean enough hotel,though we did findtwo bed bugs in Toni and Kenny Lee's beds. They were both full of blood, but none of us have foundany bites. So,it must be from the previuos guests.:-) The taxi ride to the hotel was quite an experience. The taxi was really a jalopy. I wasn't sure it wouldmakeit to the hotelwithout braking down. We went pretty slow (that was OK since everyone else wasdriving so fast and you know how hectic places like this can be. It barely made it up small hills and a coupleof times the driver wasbouncing forward asifhe wastrying to help the car make it up over the hill. I was worried that the bottom of the trunk would fall out when we hit a bump there was somuch rattling going on back there. We are staying here for one more night and then we will head north. I wanted to post some pictures here, but I couldn't do it. I'll try at another shop tomorrow maybe.
