Boog's Blog

I spoke with Bhswani and asked him the usual question. His long, rambling answer described the American political system as having two main parties and now a “Third Way.” He seemed to imply, without explicitly stating, that India has more freedom and that the US faces issues.
Udaipur’s population was approximately 600,000 in 2011. There’s significant emigration from India due to a large youth population and a lack of job opportunities. These young people, often highly skilled and hardworking, migrate to many different areas.
Land rates in central Mumbai are around ₹100,000 per square foot. In the suburbs, the rates are ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 per square foot. The ₹100,000 figure is correct. To get a rough estimate of the land value in central Mumbai, treat ₹100,000 as roughly equivalent to $1,000 and multiply that by the square footage of the land. This price is for land only, in upmarket areas.

Even the Taj: I checked out in the evening; did not get a receipt so in the morning double checked if all was done Yes sir, don’t be concerned. On the bus they called our leader to say I never checked out. Will sort this out at the next hotel which is part of same chain. As of this writing, there have been three phone calls, four rounds of texts, and two different apps involved. Still not resolved. Hopefully soon.

Air India flight to the hotel. The hotel is a royal palace, so it was 250 years ago that there were actually three palaces: one for summer, one for winter, and one for the monsoon, all located on the lake, as pictured in the monsoon section. One of the palaces is situated high on a hill above the monsoon clouds.

Rest time at hotel then to cruise and dinner Net: get up at 6 am for breakfast and flight, travel to hotel and arrive after about 8+ hours. Flight about 1 hr 15

We are in the city of lakes. Many mountains around and good quarries for marble.

small boat ride around the lake looking at a numerable number of palaces concubine, houses, Third, Barnett, equivalent, etc. etc. Beautiful lake with many small islands each with small palaces. Guide with usual stories of this king killed his sons or sons kill them or a joke. There is no kin in king ship.

There’s a nice mangrove forest with herons sitting on tree tops and Cormorant everywhere.

Sunset dinner, Indian food. I asked the guide about the difference between the food in Mumbai and here in Rajasthan in this latter area it tends to be spicier.

Lots of weddings, dates honeymoon tourists come to this lake tonight. There are events everywhere I can see every square into the property seems to be set up for some type of event guide said 1.2 million people, a year as tourist.

Rajasthani cuisine uses local ingredients and spices, with a prevalence of Jawar, Bajra, Ragi, tur, pulses, and gram due to the desert climate. It features ghee, dried fruits, nuts, and milk-based products. Mumbai, being a coastal city, incorporates more seafood.

Dinner. Two couples fishing about quality of guide and room quality. Some truth about the guide. No truth about the accommodations.

and moonrise to finish the evening off

A light morning before joining up with A&K tour group at noon.

Not many stationary stores around. This one was very helpful and sold me a new pen for ₹80. They could not find a fisher refill or another refill of the same size. A far cry from Japanese stationery stores.

After several hectic days, decided to take it easy this morning, buffet breakfast, catch up on my mail and reading before the tour group assembles 

Group assembled for introductory meeting. 16 others all white, 14 Americans andywo Aussies; rather disappointing. Went through a list of what we will be doing in each city and telling us how to travel how not to put electronics in the wrong place, etc. etc. the same stuff every traveler should’ve known. Not an inspiring beginning.

So sounds like I will be flying economy; if there was a choice at time of booking, I didn’t know about it.

Food may not turn out to be as I hoped. He explained that each meal is set; you can ask the wait staff to make it spicier or not spicy, but it’s set to be non-spicy. Sometimes it’s Mediterranean sometimes it’s Italian occasionally it’ll be Indian. Clearly not a food oriented tour.

Started out with a bus tour, guide pictured. Reviewed this history of the founding and the seven islaands to be linked.

Here is a map of modern Mumbai with an overlay of the 19th-century British Fort area, showing how the city’s geography has changed over time.

First picture stop Victoria station. The guide on the bus describing not only history but the development of the area how the traffic works. How the buses work how the trains work how the taxis work how your times work with long commutes. Lots of details.

Did not discuss the low accident rate of driving and walking and commuting. I discussed that yesterday with Sandeep. Consider considering the bedlam of walking around and driving, the accident rate is extra extraordinarily low. apparently the local population has adapted well. High percentage iof the cars are taxis and drivers and buses, professionals that does not stop then, however, from constantly honking the horn



Bus guide explanations and stops

Mumbai is the safest city in the world for women. Trains have separate compartments for women, and much of their shopping is done on the train— not only household goods, but fruits and vegetables are brought to the train.

She went on about what a wonderful place Mumbai is for almost everything It sounded very much like a hagiography.

Did a good job of explaining the history of the Parsi in Mumbai and their burial practices and what happened overtime as they moved from being treated by vultures now electric gas fire furnaces, but not cremation

Visited the outdoor laundry which has been running for 140 years. this one employees 3 to 4000 people. Family run almost like a caste. Wife comes and picks up the laundry every day from the same place and person brings it down to the laundry area run only by men or almost only they wash it separate spin dry hanging on clothes lines clothes pins using the knot as shown. In general, a shirt might cost 20 rubles. Jeans might be 40 rubles.Dhobi means washerman

Next to the Ghandi museum. Advised to bring your own toilet paper. I spent much of the time in the library as well as the room that he spent most of his many many years here. One small room that has a lovely view from the balcony

I separated from the group to understand how the library was organized and what system they were using. As you can see in the picture they are numbered, looking like the Dewey decimal system with the name of the author generally under the Dewey modified system. Claimed to have taken the British system, modified a little bit by the American system and then modified it a little bit more. The book has the layout of the notification system.

Prince of Wales Museum, tons and tons of stuff online went through some of the miniature paintings and some of the sculpture garden the kind of stuff you would see at the Asian art museum in San Francisco

Nani Dhanyavad is how you say no thank you

Final stop of the day the usual gateway of India

Spoke to both a German and an Indian asking them their view of America. The Indian was lots of Indians are in America. The Germans view of America was you have the Grand canyon so much for my research at least today.

Group dinner at same Lebanese restaurant we ate previous night

Today’s initial plan

Bombay bazaars – chor bazaar and Bhindi

For breakfast, I ordered,

Sabudana vada, also known as sabu vada, a traditional deep-fried fritter from Maharashtra. Made from tapioca pearls (sabudana), mashed potatoes, peanuts, and spices. Often served with spicy green chutney and hot chai, it is best enjoyed fresh. A white version with yogurt -not pictured – is what I got.

It was lovely but served with sweetened yogurt as above; not the researched version. After this piece of research I went back to talk to the maître D he said that it is seved different ways and the amount of brown color is controlled by how much potato they add and how deep-fried

Took a morning walk after breakfast and once again security omnipresent. No on the street corners yesterday in the synagogue almost every place. This is still in reaction to the 2008 attack in Mumbai.

Plan is to have lunch here

First stop gateway to India; interesting history well covered in guidebooks and Wikipedia, etc.

I forgot to ask Sandeep about the various grades of gas and how the pricing works imperial gallons liters etc.



Next stop Victoria station. Main station for the central area fabulous architecture.

Sandeep stuck in a second trip to the hot lunch deliveries as Neil was interested. While there we ran into an Aussie couple who were doing a rally race after this. A mere 6000 km.

First of the two markets mentioned in the intro. Usual set up of many sections, food, clothing, household stuff, etc. etc. classic large central city market.

They had some beautiful oranges so I asked the price: 80 rupees per kilo. There are currently about ₹87 to the dollar. Nivea 350 rupees for a very large one.

Onwards to the second market, apparently one of the largest flea markets in the world. Americans would not call this a flea market, but a wholesale re-Distribution business of every single part you can imagine; one picture shows a car being stripped to its ends. We walked about two hours to cross the market.

We went inside toward the temple and left an offering with the priest.

We saw everything from roller blades wheels to ball bearings to every imaginable, metal, part, electronic parts, being stripped boards, being stripped all of this being pulled together for a wholesale distribution

Sidenote: about 80% of marriages are still arranged.

While wandering the market, I decided to see if I could buy a gold bird pin for Sharon . We went into at least six stores that sold gold jewelry, large pieces pendants on and on and on. In each one, we asked to buy a pin each store said we don’t sell it but go down the street and make a right some stores told us to go down the street and make a left. The quest was unfulfilled.

Shima suggested that we go out for a drink at Café Mondegar

and then have dinner at Café Leopold. Both are so cold Irani cafés. This refers to them having been originally of Parsi origin.

At cafe Leopold

Overall, an excellent suggestion. 

Another day of touring planned.

Breakfast at the Taj. They seem to know me by now because of my apparently strange request for no salt. They have accommodated brilliantly.

Plan: Dabbawala tour & Dharavi tour ( The Dharavi slum tour)

Actually:

Sassoon dock
St. John Church
World Trade Center and Marine drive
After that, we went delivery Lunchbox
Victoria terminal Station
Dharavi
Bkc

Tea at Taj

These are sold locally wholesale and some retail gigantic business employees thousands in an area that looks like it’s falling apart, but clearly isn’t

St. John’s Church, not picture. Built after the Afghan war of 1820s something.

Notice each bag is numbered

The dabbawala lunchbox delivery system in Mumbai is an iconic service that has been operating for over a century. According to estimates:

• Around 200,000 lunchboxes (or “dabbas”) are delivered daily.

Been going on for about 150 years

• The system serves about 200,000 people, as each lunchbox is typically for one individual.

Each lunchbox is hand cooked by a family and destined for husband wife student whomever, but it is personal cooking not commercial cooking

• Approximately 5,000 dabbawalas (delivery workers) handle this massive logistics operation.

• The system has an impressive efficiency rate, often cited as six sigma (99.9999% accuracy) with very few mistakes.

This traditional system operates with remarkable precision, despite relying on manual labor and bicycles, and has even attracted the attention of global business schools like Harvard for its efficiency.

Next to self-explanatory

Stopped at the local train station where there were multiple comuter trains of course. round-trip out to the suburbs twenty rupees . twenty four hours tickets but between two fix points; only roughly twenty five cents.

Synagogue, Sephardic. At one time there was a large Jewish population, but partition and the creation of Israel both occurred in 1948 a large part of the Jewish population moved to Israel 

First off it’s not a slum

Dharavi is one of the largest informal settlements in the world, located in the heart of Mumbai, India. It covers around 2.1 square kilometers and is home to an estimated 700,000 to over 1 million people. Despite its reputation as a slum, Dharavi is a major economic hub, with thousands of small-scale industries, including leather tanning, pottery, recycling, and garment manufacturing. The annual economic output of Dharavi is estimated to be over $1 billion.

Next to the Tamil area across the street

The pottery section was very unpleasant due to wood burning, kills and unbearable, air quality. Community manufacturing. The Tamil area was just busy commerce.

Next to Papadum manufacture

This is a large manufacturing operation entirely staffed by women part of a large company and employees only women to sit around and make these classic home manufacturing. People would not allow me to take pictures of them and ask several turned me down as did others in other areas. In this area, they claim the company did not permit photographs.

Had a long conversation with a fine English speaking person whose family had been doing this since 1977. We discussed the possibility of the government closing down this area, even though they’re trying to naturally tear it down for a bigger or better newer.

 this is from the recycling area which employees thousands

Again, pictures were not possible

Splurged mightily on a Tea buffet at the Taj tea was basically extra unless you wanted a bag of tea.

Very large buffet with hot food, cold food, cakes, pastries on and on and on

Long day, long post.

So far I have spoken to four people. Asked each of them what they thought of America, in each case they brought up Trump as the first item. Your country is in trouble like ours. They liken him to Modi “the same”. Very willing to discuss politics both of America and India. Hindu nationals versus white Christian nationals. out only for the rich. this summary is more gentle than their voices

See below for a further explanation.

After many years, staying in many of the great hotels of the world complements of my sister-in-law, I am familiar with many of them. This one seems to rank up at the top if not the top very close to the top can’t think of a better one right now.

after liberal application of mosquito and sunscreen, headed out to the main street. Hopefully fully protected

far too many cars and clearly far far too many horns. Number is somewhat like China and Saigon. people sitting outside and low stools sidewalks filthy and cracked and broken. Have to walk in the street. If you told me I was in Saigon of 2007 I might agree. Air quality was better in Saigon though. 

in tourist area, which is where the hotel is one has assaulted every minute or less by people trying to sell you tours around the city or other things. Typical of other places I’ve been.

Got an Airtel card. Process took about 45 minutes and not the promised three days. Totally different story here than what I found on the Airtel website in the United States. Here for about eight dollars. I have gotten 2 GB a day for 30 days with the phone number.

Dahi Batata Puri (Puffed puris, potatoes, dry mango chutney, green chutney, sweet curd, vermicelli)

Met Sandeep as guide

Chowpatty Beach

Malabar hill and temples

Lovely park built originally by the Parsis. Adjoins city park with nursery rhyme theme and wonderful view

Many temples circle the tank.

Shima and family. She called and invited me to the Bombay club- with her mom and two sisters. Quite a treat.

More on the Trump Modi. Shima‘s family explained that Modi is not only smart but doing a good job for India and it is much more inclusive than the press ever makes it out to be. He has taken care of all of India at least on the macro scale if not always on the Micro scale. Trump, however, is greatly disliked understandably. Didn’t know that the tanking of the Indian stock market was related to Trump. Shima’s view is that I was most likely talking to Muslims along the causeway and in the town clearly they would have a different view.

Across from the Bombay club, what seemed like a kilometer of these clothing outlet stalls. brand name, possibly with defect or just over stock. 

Taj Palace hotel

“Somewheres East of Suez.” 

Arrived at 03:30 immigration and then to hotel.

immigration very busy even long line to get through the main channel. Very nice pick up and ride to the hotel. Hotel is about 29 km south of the airport, the city has 29 million people.

immigration process: I have an e visa, which is all digital and then they have you fill out the old fiche. name address, passport where you’re staying on a piece of paper basically same information that’s on the visa. Add, do not subtract. 

Plan: nap, eat, Airtel esim

Shima, travel to friend to family of Sridar send me this from Maha Kumba pilgrimage. He is one of the 400 million

Front page of the main newspaper

morning on the Arabian Sea has seen from hotel room.

Driver planning by Shima Dholakia

10Th Feb :  Evening Chowpatty beach & you could take an electric horse carriage if you’d like on Marine Drive ( also known as the Queens necklace )  Only car needed . The Chowpatty beach food stalls have been removed.

See sunset on Marine Drive, Arabian sea in the next post.

This is both an introduction to the trip, and an introduction for those who are new to following this blog.  

When we, or now I, travel a post is done most days.   Summary of the day, and pictures.  Simple travel blog that has been running since about 2007.   Lots of entries on the right hand side of the page (location browser dependent).

For those who wish to get an email each time a post is published just sign up in the register area and I will approve your subscription.   Naturally you can just look at the blog from time to time.   Comments welcomed but to leave a comment you must be registered – anti-spam of course. 

Trip:   Taj Mahal and the Treasures of India – 

Starts in Mumbai on 10 February and ends in Delhi.  Sharon decided not to go this time as, understandably, the air quality is a disaster and weather too hot.  

Will attempt to get enlightened with a guide for a few days in Mumbai before the tour starts and then a refresher course at the end in Delhi.

A very easy end to the voyage. Credibly long fast track line, but moved through rapidly and was through immigration by 10 after seven. caught taxi to the Acela.

Viewing deck was very full may be a third of the passengers will watching the arrival into New York. A few final shots.

A final stop at H&H

Acela and onward to the Tower

FIn

QB continues to improve though still quite a ways to go to fully recover energy.

At sea, en route to New York
we pass to the south of Georges Bank.This is a large submerged sandbank between Cape Cod and Cape Sable Island, which has been a long standing important fishing ground. then set a westerly course towards the New York Traffic Separation Scheme and the Nantucket Fairways. Passing to the south of Long Island at a minimum distance of 20 miles. Then enter the Sandy Hook pilot station, marking the traditional end of a transatlantic passage. From there under the Verrazano Bridge which our funnel will clear by approximately 4 metres, (Dee has advised we are not to miss) and then up to the Buttermilk Channel to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

Basically re-creates how she was feeling

QB better but not recovered enough to continue the trip. we will head from the boat directly to Rhode Island.

Chilly,39 degrees, foggy. We are in the north Atlantic 😀

A real trooper. I was doing laps on the deck and 20 25 minutes later he was still there.

People Met:

Richard Ressman photosurgeon@gmail.com
http://www.photosurgeon.net
Richard Ressman, lives in Los Gatos (or Altos), retired
And
Colleen Wilcox
Www.colleenwilcoxsculpture.com
She: retired from santa clara county school management and now on the board of the Commodore Club. Gets to travel widely with them and Richard, retired ortho surgeon and active in the Commodore club where they me. Lots of info about the club and its activities.
Both very interesting and engaged in the world. Foodies too.

Hot tub temporary buds.
American, 15 years taking care of elderly mother, now on a travel binge. Savoy in London – loved it at 2500 pds/night. Best hotel ever. Hires guides and drivers everywhere. See everything. First time out of the US country,

English couple, mid 30s, Hampshire. No interest in Brit or American politics. Not following. Biden fell off bike. Brexit did not matter. Like their garden and renovated house. Posh accent. Here with family group of 8.

Gala Night tonight, need to put on finest.

QB much better but still with exhausted mitochondria