The final days of my India journey, days, days 13, 14 and 15, were spent in Mumbai. Landing in Mumbai after being the relaxing and calming Goa was a bit jarring. After multiple days of getting used to horns and busy, busy, busy, Goa and it’s slow pace spoiled me. Upon leaving the airport I thought my ear drums were going to explode because of the noise!
I landed late Saturday night and before my work started on Monday, I took Sunday to explore a bit of Mumbai. This was the only city I had been in before but my previous trip really did not do it justice. The first stop was to Dhobi Ghat. This is an outdoor washing space and according to Wikipedia, hotel and hospital laundry is done here. It was so interesting to see because I had never experienced anything like it!
After that it was off to Mani Bhavan where Gandhi spent many of his adult years. It has been turned into a museum to honor his life and I was able to see his former room and a clay-mation style timeline of his life.
Gandhi was know for his peaceful ways and means of accomplishing Indian independence from Britain in the 1940s. He took on many fasts during his lifetime to promote non-violence during troubled times. His face graces the currency in India as well and it was his influence which guided the design of the current Indian flag. Sadly Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 at the age of 78.
After seeing Mani Bhavan, we continued along south to see where the 2008 bombings had occurred.
In November 2008, organised terrorists attacks happened at multiple points around south Mumbai. Some call this Mumbai’s 9/11 – many people died and I drove past both the Taj hotel and the Leopold Cafe where some of the attacks occurred. It was very sobering to see and my mind instantly thought of America and how it was rebounded from it’s own attacks in 2001.
After I finished sight seeing, it was time to shop! There were two great places I visited, D. Popli and Sons and Good Earth. D. Popli had some really interesting jewelry and of all kinds – silver, gold, gems, etc. Good Earth is a gorgeous home good store that looks like it feeds into Anthropologie. I picked up some great items for my home.
Monday and Tuesday were my work days and also my last in India. I finished my last meal with some paan ice cream and was off to the airport for a 1:20am departure to Zurich.
Mumbai has also just completely remodeled their international airport terminal. It looks gorgeous and it actually made for a very pleasant final journey.
I now sit snugly in my Zurich home thankful for such an incredible journey.
Until next time….
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