October 22 - Passing through Mumbai

We docked in Mumbai this morning.  Let me tell you, when it comes to air pollution we are novices.  This city has more than 22 million people and they must all be out on the streets.  Traffic is unbelievable.  Lanes of traffic are strictly optional but horns are not.  They must be mandatory.

To get off the ship and out of the port we had to have our passports checked at least 6 times.  The guards were armed  with some kind of machine guns.  It took forever to bring the luggage to the terminal building because it was brought by porters with luggage carts like those in airports carrying 3 at a time at most.  Al finally went back to the pier and found our bags at the back of the line and managed to move things along.

Each step of the way we had someone new to tip.  The porter bringing the bags from the ship to the terminal handed off to a different guy to take them to the car picking us up.  The driver picking us up could only take us to the port gate where we went through another security check and had to get out of one car, walk through the gate and switch to a different car.  At the airport we were met by someone different who helped us check in, check our bags etc. It was expensive getting through Mumbai just to go to the airport.  Al noticed the security check points to enter the airport terminal are protected by sandbags.  A full body pat down and two more passport checks and we’re now waiting in the Jet Airways Lounge.  There’s no wi-fi, but I figured I could at least write this.

About our ride through Mumbai.  As I said, traffic was unreal!  Along the streets we saw a few cows just hanging around.  The Festival of Diwali is beginning tomorrow so people are getting ready for that.  The city is a real study in contrasts.  We actually drove past some areas that made places we saw in Egypt look pretty good.  That’s pretty hard to do.  There are high rise buildings everywhere in whose shadows are sections of corrugated tin huts with all manner of clothing and personal items on roofs, sidewalks and everywhere else.  We passed the 26 story home of one of India’s richest men.  It cost $2.5 billion dollars to house him and his 3 family members plus their 200+ house servants.

In the midst of the modern skyscrapers and slums are moldering colonial structures which must be left over from the British Empire days.  Over everything is the pall of pollution.  The horn-blowing is incessant.  The whole place is cause for sensory overload.