Fri, Apr 21: Mumbai

Today is a more extensive tour of Mumbai.

We both really wanted to get a chance to take pictures of some of the British architecture as it was amazing.  So we stopped at the University...

and then the cricket fields.

Next was Victoria Station with it's grand exterior…

and really awesome interior.

Of course, this is a public building in India so it was PACKED.

Nearby was the Council Building…

Then we took another drive by the produce market so that the McCandless's could see it and on through the city streets.

We then went to the Dharavi Slums.  The only photos allowed were from the bridge at the edge of the slums. Its sort of a city unto itself with shops, eateries, and businesses.

The area has a commercial side where the main industry is recycling.  We saw some of the plastics recycling (the bottles are cleaned, ground, the grind hand-picked through to remove any foreign material, and then ground plastic melted and extruded into long strings for use in making other items out of the reclaimed plastic.  We weren’t able to see all of the processing steps.

We did see a huge pile of aluminum bars that were made from melted down aluminum cans.

In the community or home area of the slums we saw goat hide processing and then did a bit of shopping in the store…Mary refrained from buying any of the pretty purse/back‑packs.

After lunch we went to S J Studios to see some of the process of making Bollywood films.  

Working on sets

We saw the jail that seems to be featured in a lot of the films…

A set used for interiors of a bungalow and another set used for street scenes…

And we saw them rehearsing for a soap opera.

While waiting for a show to start we walked through an area showing some of the major film stars.

The tour ended with some films about the history of the Indian Film industry interspersed with dancing by four energetic and talented dancers.  Mary joined the dancing at the end of the show.

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Video 1 of the Bollywood dancers.
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Video 2 of the Bollywood dancers.

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Video 3 of the Bollywood dancers.

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Saw more heritage buildings on the way to our next stop.

We ended the day at a series of flea markets in a Muslim area of the city.  The “Antiques” market featured used goods of many types…not what we would normally think of as antiques.  

And of course there was street food available everywhere.

The markets were packed…probably the heaviest concentration of humanity we have ever seen in any of our travels in Asia.

We opted for dinner at the hotel and spent the evening packing and relaxing.