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This morning we had a VERY quick overview of Mumbai. We were driven past Chowpatty Beach, up Malabar hill to the hanging gardens where we stopped for five minutes for a photo opportunity. I was disappointed we didn’t have time to check out the place we used to live when I was a child, but they pointed out the lane that led to it. At least I recognised the Kamala Nehru Park and the large “old woman who lived in a shoe” type shoe. Good to see children today are enjoying it as much as I did. Later we visited the big arch called “The Gateway to India”. The dhobi ghat, or outdoor laundry centre was fascinating. I’d never seen it before, but it’s where hundreds of kilograms of washing are washed outside every day in open air troughs. Then the washing is hung on long lines to dry before being ironed. How the dhobis keep track of who’s the washing is, or where to return it is beyond me. The operation is enormous, chaotic, and somehow works. I think we all felt the time our schedule allowed us to stay in Mumbai was inadequate. There's a lot to see here, and we all felt short changed. It might have been better to have omitted it entirely. In the afternoon we flew to Kochi. We are now in Kerala, and it’s a very different India to what we’ve experienced so far in Rajasthan. Our new guide, Ajith seems very nice.
