Sri Lanka & India 23/24

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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Crawford Market
January 24, 2024 in India ⋅ 🌙 24 °C
Our taxi driver insisted on taking us to Crawford market as it was fairly famous and well known in Mumbai. We weren't hugely impressed to be fair and again the caging of animals was a bit confronting.
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Mumbai Central Train Station
January 24, 2024 in India ⋅ 🌙 24 °C
Mumbai central train station at night is quite a sight with it lit up beautifully. Inside though is all the chaos and richness of the beauty that is India. Would be pretty easy to got lost inside this small city. As usual we made many friends and exchanged phone numbers with randoms as we often did! We fall in love with India all over again when we visit these places and connect with the people.Read more
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Newspapers
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
We got up pretty early in the morning to do the markets, first stop was the newspaper corner. We had missed the biggest peak of it - arriving late as we did at 5.30am!!

Every morning they would put together packs of each of the major newspapers then deliver them around the city to Hotels and the like. Can only imagine what it was like when the street was full of the vendors but you certainly get some idea from these photosRead more
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Flower Market
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
Next stop the vibrant and colourful flower market. So many vendors packed into the giant building you have to squeeze your way through.
The colours are just amazing and the sheer scale is just huge.
We just loved the vibrancy of the place and could happily have watched the goings on all day!

Dad bought some flowers for Mum, just felt like the right thing to do!Read more
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Vegetable Market
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
The vegetable market was our next stop. Rich in the typical chaos of what is India.
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Dhobi Ghat
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
The Dhobi Ghat is the most famous of open laundry's in Mumbai. Wikipedia says it was constructed in 1890 and is said to be the largest open air laundry in the world.

Around 7,000 Dhobi's (washers) flog, scrub, dye and bleach clothes on concrete wash pens and hang them out to dry wherever they can find a spot. They estimate 100,000 pieces of cloth are washed every day from the hotels and hospitals of Mumbai. We marvel at how they don't lose anything!!Read more
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Chai
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
We ask our guide, 'where can we get a great chai'? Of course he knows where! We will so miss our chai when we are no longer in India!
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Fish Market
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The fish market was another must do at dawn experience and we are very glad we did. The vibrancy of the colours, the fish and of course of the people. Everyone busy hustling trying to sell their fish but they generally leave us be, smiling at us, strangers to this daily show.Read more
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Residency Hotel
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The Residency Hotel was very much a filler on the calendar! The highlight of Mumbai was to be the Taj Mahal Hotel and we wanted to check in at the very earliest time to be able to maximise every second we could which meant staying in a sacrifical Hotel the night before. Still very central to India Gate around the corner and down the road and round the corner from the Taj but very much a step down in rating! Still, we are walking distance to everything, including Leopolds, and there is a cat to photograph too!Read more
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Leopolds
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Leopolds! The most famous of all cafes in Mumbai! Famous too from Shantaram, the story of the Australian escaped convict who lived in the Mumbai slums and befriended the local drug gangs.

We had breakfast, noted the bullet hole in the back mirror and bought souvenirs. But mostly we imagined ourselves there when Shantaram was there with Didier, Modena, Ulla and friends.

With souvenir t-shirts and glasses in hand we toasted Leopold's. A marvelous part of Mumbai's history.Read more
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Taj Mahal Palace Hotel
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
The Taj Mahal Palace is to be one of our highlights of our Mumbai stay, little did we know Mumbai had so much more to offer!

The Taj is probably the most famous Hotel in all of India, a place of absolute luxury and renowned service. The price was of course a very princely sum but for 2 nights it was worth every penny.

We happened to be there on India day and so with the Hotel looking out on India Gate we had the best seat in the house for the Independence Day celebrations.

The Hotel was of course also very famous for being one of the main locations for the terrorist attacks on Mumbai (along with Leopold's) from Muslim extremists. The memorial to the victims is a forever tribute but otherwise the Hotel was completely renovated to remove all traces of the attack (unlike Leopold's which was one of the first places the terrorists struck).

Everywhere you look it is luxury and that swimming pool was as good as it looks!Read more
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Heritage Tour with Newton and the boys
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
As we waited in reception to check in a delightful chap named Newton said he was doing a guided tour of the Hotel and did we want to tag along. Of course, we said! We were there for the Hotel so we may as well see as much of it as we could.

We had no idea at the time but it turned out Newton was retired but he had been the guide to the Hotel for something like 35 years and today he was giving one final tour to his friends who he had worked with over the years at the Hotel. Us and one other couple were lucky enough to be invited to tag along.

We started with the Hotel shops and the shoe store was notable for having desk legs fitted with shoes! Part of the idiosynchracies of the owner! The ballroom was as grand as any ballroom we have ever set foot in and the special sushi served up was as delicious sushi as you've ever had.

But it was Newton in the company of his friends that made this tour most special. Watching the banter as they traded stories formed over 35 years of working together was really quite special.Read more
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Taj and India Gate at night
January 25, 2024 in India ⋅ 🌙 23 °C
With India Day the next day after check in we had to go and check out the scene. Lots of scaffolding had been erected. Lights and music speakers were being put in place too. Really did look quite spectacular and we are sure it is the who's who of India in the best seats! As always with a smile and a wink someone let us in for a sneaky photo though!

The Taj at night looks as stunning as it does during the day. And how's that for a sunset!Read more
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Shantaram Tour pt1
January 26, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Having read the book Mum did a wee Google to see if there was a Shantaram tour and sure enough there was! It was guided by Prabhakar's nephew, it just had to be done!

Prabhaker was the character who initially befriended Shantaram (also known as Lin and Linbaba) and took him back to his village and taught him many of the local ways including finding him somewhere to live in the slum.

First stop on the tour was the brothel owned by Madam Zhou. In the story it was burned down in the end, Madam Zhou was a particularly nasty piece of work but made for a good villain in the story. There wasn't much to see now so it was a quick drive by.

Next up was the infamous Bombay prison where Lin spent many months in the most inhumane conditions one could possibly imagine. We vow never to deal drugs in Mumbai lest we end up there!

Next up was the docks. This is where the drugs came in by boat hidden in fish. Lin had a role in overseeing things making sure product got to where it needed to go.

We got a photo of Shantaram on his bike on a return visit (sadly, not with Abdullah, one of Lin's best friends in the gang world).

And finally, photos of where Shantaram lived in the slum. This was very different to the ethical slum visit where we were shown industry and endeavour. Here it was very narrow pathways and people just living. Still, every child smiled at us and every person we met made us feel welcomed. This is their home and they are proud.Read more
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Shantaram Tour pt2
January 26, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
As always in India. the Slum visit is really about the people. The children were so excited to meet us and so happy to be in our selfies!

One of the more famous (or should we say infamous) scenes in Shantaram is the 'motion in the ocean'. That is the giant toilet that is the ocean, of course we had to see it for ourselves! As giant a mess as you would expect when you have an open air lavatory for a million people living in a couple of square kilometers!Read more
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Cricket in the Slum
January 26, 2024 in India ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
It was India Day and the annual tradition in the slum was to play a cricket tournament (of course!). It was much like indoor cricket back home just without the net and of course the addition of spectators on buildings!

The announcer spotted us watching from afar and invited us to join him next to the scorer right above the stumps. He announced us as being from New Zealand to the crowd and we got a big cheer! A little girl befriended Dad and we watched the game unfold to the joy of participants and spectators alike.

A hard fought game, clearly a lot of pride on the line. To keep the ball down the balls were bowled underarm with spin. A fun game with plenty of improvisation it was such a privilege to be part of it.Read more
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Mumbai art
January 26, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Not quite Penang but art nonetheless and reflective of the city.
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Kumar, Prabaker's nephew
January 26, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
The obligatory selfie with our guide!

We know Shantaram is not a true story but the characters are based on the people he actually did meet in India and you can see that everywhere.
It is why you fall in love with India and its people, it is why you have to come back!Read more
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Sri Lanka & India 23/24
Marine Drive
January 26, 2024 in India ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Marine drive is a place for people to walk and meet and of course a great place to go people watch. It is also a place of great noise. And traffic!

There were people playing guitar, groups of people just sitting around, talking, singing and dancing. Families and lovers, people from all walks of life. Just lots of life!

We soaked it all in and celebrated India Day with the people.Read more
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On our way home
January 27, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
A final stopover was in Singapore before our final flight home.

Southern India was very different to the North and we weren't as in love with India through this journey until we made it to Kerala, but especially Mumbai. What a magic place, we will definitely come back here one day.

India has a forever place in our hearts and we have only seen but a fraction of what it has to offer but I think our next holiday will be somewhere different before we inevitably come back for more!Read more
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Trip end
January 28, 2024