Mumbai

Gateway of India

Mumbai is the financial capital of India and the home to Bollywood. It is a modern city that was once the gateway to India. Mumbai is located on the western coast of India with the Arabian Sea on the west side of Salsette Island. Mumbai was once known as Bombay when the British were in control.

The Gateway of India was built to welcome the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.

Narrow gauge train to reach the Elephanta Caves

Elephante Island holds ancient cave temples dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. You take a ferry from the Gateway of India to reach the island, then a small train before climbing about 100 stairs. If you can not climb the stairs there are porters who will carry you up for around 2000 rupees.

Shows the height of the caves

The caves were carved from the top down using wedges to separate the rock.

The area is dedicated to the Lord Shiva

There are several art galleries and museum that you can visit in Mumbai. We visited the Prince of Wales Museum and the Gandhi Museum.

Victoria Train Station

The markets are also a great place to bargain.

Choosing Spices

Crawford Market

Chowpatty Beach South Central Mumbai

At 5:30 AM Sassoon Dock is a busy place with the fishing boats arriving. People are buying fish, shrimp, crabs and other seafood. Women carry the purchases in tubs on their heads to the warehouses or storage bins.

Fish are sorted on the deck of the boat before being auctioned.

We spent five days at the Trident Hotel on Naranhi point. This was a great place to stay. This hotel was one of the places that the Pakistan terrorist attack Nov 26, 2008.

Our last day we were sent on our way with a wonderful message from the staff in the Frangipani Restaurant at the Trident Hotel at Nariman Point.
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Alleppey Backwaters

Rice barge now a houseboat

Our experience with the Alleppey backwaters was on a houseboat that was used to bring rice from the fields to Kochi for export. This was not a luxurious cruise as described in the travel information. Having come from the dry dessert atmosphere of Northern India to the humid south we were all very hot a sticky. There were four rooms on our boat with a common sitting room open to the elements. The bedroom did have air conditioning but there was little in the way of controlling the temperature. The walls were paper thin so you could hear everything going on in the next room.

The rivers and channels along the backwaters are quite large which allowed for a freeway of boats traveling between places. People could also walk or drive along the shore with the aid of bridges to allow for boat traffic to pass.

We saw locals carrying on with their daily life from fishing, preparing food, washing clothes and repairing boats. Below are a few picture from the area.

Local Transportation

Washing Clothes

Fishing for Dinner

Boat Repairs

Rice Field

The rice fields are often lower than the height of the waterways which allows for the fields to be easily flooded.

The boat was parked overnight facing a raised strip of land overlooking a rice field. They connected all three boats to a power supply on shore for the evening.  The open area was closed in with netting so that the mosquitoes and bugs would not use us as their evening meal. After dinner there was not much to do, the boat staff encouraged us to go to bed as they slept on the floor in the common area on a foam mattress.

The next day was a short trip back to the jetty where we boarded and the back on the bus for our transfer to the airport and on to Mumbai.

Lake Kumarakom

Kumarakom is a popular tourist area in Kerala India. The temperature is a moderate tropical climate year round. We stayed at a wonderful resort and enjoyed the pool and views.

Lazy River Plunge Pool by our room

Our Outdoor Bathroom

Kumarakom is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary is a noted bird sanctuary where many species of migratory birds visit. During our visit, the birds had not yet migrated.

Path in the bird sanctuary

Vaikom Village in one of the oldest villages in the area. The narrow waterways were the traditional form of transportation in the area before the roads. We visited this village and saw the market, how to extract coconut oil and the making flatbread.

Outdoor Market

Meat Market

After our visit to the market, we had a boat ride through the canals and say local life in the community.

Local Food

Doing the laundry

After our boat ride, we had a local lunch served the traditional way on a banana leaf. A banana leaf plate makes easy cleanup. Lunch consisted of local fish, curries, pickle and the locally produced fried flatbread.

Lunch Time

 After our stay at the resort, we ventured on to a houseboat that was an old rice barge that travelled the Alleppey backwaters bring rice from the fields to the port city.

Kochi - Southern India

Kochi is located on the southwest side of India on the Laccadive Sea. It is a major port and fishing has been happening here for centuries.

We visited a traditional Chinese fishing structure. There are less fish now and the fisherman demonstrated how the nets work to earn income.

Chinese fishing nets and large tanker in the background.

The nets are held up by large rocks. The men pull ropes to raise the heavy rocks and this lowers the net into the water. The fish then swim over the net. The fisherman then lower the rocks to the deck of the platform and the net rises out of the water catching any fish that are over the net.

Rock Weights

Men have raised the rocks by pulling ropes

Example of earlier catch

Kochi is where Vasco De Gama died. The Church of St. Frances is the oldest Christian Church in India and is where Vasco De Gama was interred.

Vasco de Gama was returned to Lisbon Portugal at the request of the family for burial.  

There still is a gravestone in the church for the famous explorer.

We had an opportunity to visit a local women's sponsored store to purchase their crafts and spices. En-route we walk through the streets and saw some interesting shops.

Colourful Dies 

Then off to meet our cooking instructor Nimmy. She demonstrated a traditional Kerala recipe and then we all enjoyed a lunch that she had prepared.

In the evening we attended a performance of traditional Kathakali dance. The dancers use eye,  facial and hand movements to tell the story to the rhythm of a drum.

The next day on the drive to Kumarakom Lake we stopped at a palm weaving factory. They use the palm tree fibre to make mats.

Weaving the mat fabric

Finishing the edge with a large needle

Checking the mats

Making the rope by twisting palm fibers

Transporting the mats for sale