January 16 – 10:35AM – Hotel Traveller's Inn, Mumbai.

Today is the beginning of our first full day in Mumbai, and from what I have seen it is a pretty amazing city. Buildings here are very old, with multistory stone construction that you can tell was constructed by the British. They seem over-sized related to everything else we have seen, especially the shacks in the surrounding areas of town. Most of them do not seem to be completely occupied and don’t look to have had a paint job in many years. These noble looking structures, now somewhat neglected and moss strewn, are a little spooky and out of place, but in a beautiful way. Their nobility is like a once distinguished gentleman who has grown old and been forgotten, but who still exudes a respect worthy air. This feeling gives a very mystical aura to the Fort area. The decay that you see happening to the sidewalks, streets and buildings is mesmerizing. Once dusk sets, it is very easy to picture yourself in an 1890’s Sherlock Holmes version of London.



So far this morning Kevin and I have walked to the Gateway of India which is a large freestanding archway that was built as a monument or sort of welcome gift I guess, a commemoration, to the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. It was also the last place that Britons stood on Indian ground as they departed by ship in 1957 during the handover of power. Pretty cool to look at. We also saw the Taj Mahal Palace hotel where many people were killed during the 2008 terrorist attacks.

On our walk back to our hotel and search for breakfast we stumbled upon a Bollywood flick being shot on a small side street. The crew had big lights and scrims up and was shooting a scene that had something to do with a little kid sitting on a scooter. I don’t know what it was about, but we watched for awhile. I’m happy I got to satisfy my goal of seeing a movie being shot here without having to travel the hour or so in traffic up to the studio area of Mumbai which is called Film City. Awesome.

Anyways, we finally found breakfast after a not so easy search and are now making plans to head out to Elephanta Island by boat. The island apparently has some very old caves carved out of rock which were used for some sort of religious purposes back in the day.