A Friend Comes to Visit

I had the great fortune of having a dear friend come to visit me in India. Ell Fanus, a teacher in the Poland (ME) system, arrived in Mumbai in the wee hours of April 17. I took a 3-hour train from Pune to Mumbai to meet her. We spent two and a half days in Mumbai, then traveled by train back to Pune for another four days of adventure.

The train we traveled on is called the Deccan Queen, and our carriage was the Vistadome car, with seats that turn to face the large windows and a "back deck" viewing area. The train traveled through the low volcanic mountains of the Western Ghats.

In Mumbai, we had jam-packed days: Gateway of India, Marine Drive & Chowpatty Beach, Dhobi Ghats, Gandhi Museum, Museum of Indian Cinema, Jain Temple, additional Hindu temples, Hanging Gardens, Victoria Train Station, the Elephanta Cave Temples (on Elephanta island), and piles of delicious Indian food. Here are a few highlights of these experiences.

Dhobi Ghats: One of my favorite places to see in Mumbai! Our tour guide/driver was able to arrange allowing us on the rooftops of this community, guided by a 15 year old boy from the community. The Dhobi Ghats are a HUGE outdoor hand-wash laundry "center" and basti community that washes laundry for hotels, restaurants, and other industries. It's a stunning operation!

* 5000 dhobis (washermen) work here 24 hours a day.

* Once, 496 dhobis cleaned clothing at the same time, earning Dhobi Ghat a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the site with the “highest number of persons hand-washing garments at the same time.”

* Note the twisted ropes -- this is how wash is hung without clothes pins.

Elephanta Cave Temples: This was an AMAZING place to visit, and a highlight for Ell and me. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that dates back to the 5th century. These temple caves and all statues/structures within it are carved out of solid basalt rock! It's hard to grasp this fact even viewing it in real life. Many of the sculptures were of Shiva in various forms. We took a 1-hour ferry to the island and back, from the Gate of India (see

photo), and returned as the sun was setting.

This next set is a photo dump of some of the other highlights of our time in Mumbai. I have labeled each photo for more info.

Chowpatty Beach at sundown

Roasting Corn, Chowpatty Beach

The "Queen's Necklace"

courthouse (?) lit up at night

Victoria Terminal

Jain Temple

Jain Temple

Our guide adding a tilak

Quote from Gandhi museum

Cow in the market

And more cows

Very fresh mango dishes

Once back in Pune, we continued filling our days: fun outdoor markets, time with the ASHA girls, Parvati Hill, Dadadusheth Halwai Ganapati (Ganesh) temple, Pataleshwar cave temple, Dinkar Kelkar museum (historical artifacts), a local mall, and... (more) piles of delicious Indian food. We also distributed small packets of items to kids living in nearby "hutments" (along the roadside I walk along to get to my college). The packets had things like scissors, glue sticks, paper, pencil, candy, toothbrush, toothpaste, tissues, hand sanitizer, comb, and other small items. Here's yet another photo dump of those adventures, with photos labeled for more info!

Banyan tree

famous Ganapati (Ganesh)temple

Ell at Ganapati temple

Kelkar Museum

Kelkar Museum

Kelkar Museum (Sitar)

Kelkar Museum

Pipecleaner fun with ASHA gals

Pipecleaner fun with ASHA gals

Packets for kids in hutments

I have less than 1 week remaining here, a bittersweet reality. I will soon do one more blog post to reflect on my final days and on my time here. In the meantime, I am in the process of saying goodbye to dear friends, hugging my neighbor girls especially hard, prepping Nini for her grand journey (including paperwork and ID chip), and beginning my packing to return home. As for Nini, she just wants to snuggle. She tells me she's ready for anything, as long as we are together for the ride.