India: Mumbai- Rags and Riches

The four of us- Lynne Fraser, Kathryn Kleboe, Stuart Fraser, Stuart Kleboe
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We had our taxi tour today and despite some previous misgivings about being overcharged we thought it was worthwhile. Our driver took us all over the city and pointed out everything from prostitutes to ear cleaners. One of the most interesting places was Mani Bhavan which served as the home of Ghandi when he was in Mumbai. None of the places we went to charged an entry fee and although we were taken to a couple of stores our driver and the salesmen didn't expect us to buy anything. Even if they did try to make a sale. The last two stops of our tour seemed designed to highlight the contrast of India. First we were driven around the outskirts of the biggest slum in India. Then we were taken to a six story luxury department store. The extremes of wealth in India are incredible. I've never seen anything like it. Our guide was able to point out and explain a lot of things that we would have missed and take us around more than we could have seen by ourselves. While not the cheapest way to see a city it made a good introduction to India.

On the way back to our hotel we went to try and book the next train we would need. We went through a song and a dance with some touts. They were very good at providing travel information and even came up with an alternative bus service that was at a better time but we felt like we were being overcharged. We went back into the train station and went to the tourist counter. We couldn't travel on the day we wanted but our tickets were half the price of the bus tickets.