We had cocktails in the bar listening to live Jazz music then a very nice curry meal in one of the Hotel's restaurants. David was in the mood for champers so we spent more on yesterday's meals than we've spent in the last week I'd guess ... but sometimes you just have to do these things ... and the Maitre d was very happy!
Just wish they'd leave us alone a bit more ... I've just had the doorbell ring again, this time with a handwritten note from our Housekeeper, Margaret. When checking our room earlier apparently she noticed our shoes were on shoe racks in the bottom of the dressing room/wardrobe .. so she's delivered some bags to store them in ... and also a soft pouch for the mobile chargers (she obviously noticed I'd got a camera battery charging in the bedroom. Too much attention - I can't cope!
I haven't got any photos of the outside of the hotel yet but this is the view from our 11th floor landing looking down into the atrium
and looking up to the other floors
This morning we set out for Churchgate railway station where we were meeting a group for the first of our pre-booked walking tours. This was a tour of the slums of Dharavi . Photography isn't permitted in the Dharavi slums but I took my camera anyway to capture anything that interested me en route.
This monstrosity is near our hotel .... the sign is very non-appropriate IMHO
I loved this sign .. assume it means they'll let down the tyres of offenders?
Forty winks on the pavement (this was about 8.30am and he was oblivious to passers by and heavy traffic on the road - bless!
Flower seller near the station
and more flower sellers
I love the fact they look after/feed these cats
Just outside the station
and across the road from the station .... this is the railway HQ building - very impressive
David ... all excited about his train journey
Inside our train compartment - there are no doors and the windows are only half-glazed so when the trains are moving there's a nice breeze throughout the carriage. There are fans on the ceilings (as you can see) but these weren't working today so I guess they just get switched on in rush hour
This is a 'Hijra' - a transgender person. Hijras are recognised as a third gender in India and this one shimmied up and down the compartment lightly tapping young men on the arm and blessing them when they gave him/her coins.
He/She was happy to pose for a quick photo
Sadly, the camera 'never lies' and this show his/her 6 o'clock shadow too vividly
Shoe polishing on the platform as we left the train
The visit to the slums was a real eye opener. There were 18 in our group so we were split into smaller parties of 6 in each. The tours are organised by Reality - and our Guide (plus family) comes from the slums himself so was very knowledgeable. 80% of the monies earned from these tours go back into the community.
There are more than 1 million Indians living in Dharavi slum and this particular slum has organised itself into several different industries - pottery, leather making, plastic recycling, clothing recycling, bakery and poppadom making. Its split into 3 areas, Muslim, Hindu and family/community. The Muslim sector has all men working as the work is considered to dangerous for ladies with heavy scale industry breaking down plastics and metals etc. Also the Muslim sector operate the leather making industry - the leather comes from goats, buffalo sheep but not from cows (sacred) unless the cow dies of natural causes or is killed in an accident.
The Hindus are the dominant religious here and their section was much 'friendlier'. We watched women making hundreds of poppadoms whilst sitting crossed legged on the floor and chatting/keeping an eye on their toddlers, and older folk making flower pots and oil burners from clay by hand.
It was fascinating but really brought it home how very lucky we are. The streets between the tiny (10sq ft) rooms were very narrow with open drains running through them.
But there is a real community spirit prevailing and we were told that most dwellers really do not want to move away into the high rise accommodation the Government has started offering. Basically, any slums built prior to 1995 on Government owned land were given official status which means the Govt has to provide water and electricity. But these slum houses don't have sanitation and there are just a few shared/public toilets available for men and women - approx 1,000 people to each loo and apparently the morning queues are very long!
Despite that, they're all very productive but working in some god awful situations with toxic fumes drifting around. They only work for 7 months of the year (because of the monsoons) and many return to family farms in the countryside for the remaining 5 months. They choose to live/work in the slum as the wages are almost twice as high as they'd earn outside the community.
Reality provide education for the children, computer and personal skills for adults and also teacher training for the adults to encourage them to help the kids.
It was meant to be a 2.5 hour tour but we actually left at 8.30 this morning and didn't get back to our hotel till 3.30pm so it was a very tiring tour (in the heat).
We're off for an evening walking tour very soon - starting at 7pm so hopefully this one will be a little more gentle then we'll look for somewhere outside the hotel to have a more simple meal tonight.
Just wish they'd leave us alone a bit more ... I've just had the doorbell ring again, this time with a handwritten note from our Housekeeper, Margaret. When checking our room earlier apparently she noticed our shoes were on shoe racks in the bottom of the dressing room/wardrobe .. so she's delivered some bags to store them in ... and also a soft pouch for the mobile chargers (she obviously noticed I'd got a camera battery charging in the bedroom. Too much attention - I can't cope!
I haven't got any photos of the outside of the hotel yet but this is the view from our 11th floor landing looking down into the atrium
and looking up to the other floors
This morning we set out for Churchgate railway station where we were meeting a group for the first of our pre-booked walking tours. This was a tour of the slums of Dharavi . Photography isn't permitted in the Dharavi slums but I took my camera anyway to capture anything that interested me en route.
This monstrosity is near our hotel .... the sign is very non-appropriate IMHO
I loved this sign .. assume it means they'll let down the tyres of offenders?
Forty winks on the pavement (this was about 8.30am and he was oblivious to passers by and heavy traffic on the road - bless!
Flower seller near the station
I love the fact they look after/feed these cats
Just outside the station
and across the road from the station .... this is the railway HQ building - very impressive
David ... all excited about his train journey
They have several carriages for women only - some are for peak hours only and others, like this one, is for 24 hours
This one is for handicapped people,cancer sufferers or ladies in advanced stage of pregnancy!
The guy on the right was a pain in the butt ... I'd been trying to photograph a tiffin wallah who was loading empty tiffin tins into his car but this guy kept photobombing the picture ... I simply gave in and took a proper photo of him and his mate.
We will be going back to the station on Friday around 11.30 -12 noon when I hope to get some pictures of the official Dabbawallahs (tiffin men) as they load all the ready cooked dinners onto the trains for onward transmission to the city guys and girls
Inside our train compartment - there are no doors and the windows are only half-glazed so when the trains are moving there's a nice breeze throughout the carriage. There are fans on the ceilings (as you can see) but these weren't working today so I guess they just get switched on in rush hour
This is a 'Hijra' - a transgender person. Hijras are recognised as a third gender in India and this one shimmied up and down the compartment lightly tapping young men on the arm and blessing them when they gave him/her coins.
He/She was happy to pose for a quick photo
The visit to the slums was a real eye opener. There were 18 in our group so we were split into smaller parties of 6 in each. The tours are organised by Reality - and our Guide (plus family) comes from the slums himself so was very knowledgeable. 80% of the monies earned from these tours go back into the community.
There are more than 1 million Indians living in Dharavi slum and this particular slum has organised itself into several different industries - pottery, leather making, plastic recycling, clothing recycling, bakery and poppadom making. Its split into 3 areas, Muslim, Hindu and family/community. The Muslim sector has all men working as the work is considered to dangerous for ladies with heavy scale industry breaking down plastics and metals etc. Also the Muslim sector operate the leather making industry - the leather comes from goats, buffalo sheep but not from cows (sacred) unless the cow dies of natural causes or is killed in an accident.
The Hindus are the dominant religious here and their section was much 'friendlier'. We watched women making hundreds of poppadoms whilst sitting crossed legged on the floor and chatting/keeping an eye on their toddlers, and older folk making flower pots and oil burners from clay by hand.
It was fascinating but really brought it home how very lucky we are. The streets between the tiny (10sq ft) rooms were very narrow with open drains running through them.
But there is a real community spirit prevailing and we were told that most dwellers really do not want to move away into the high rise accommodation the Government has started offering. Basically, any slums built prior to 1995 on Government owned land were given official status which means the Govt has to provide water and electricity. But these slum houses don't have sanitation and there are just a few shared/public toilets available for men and women - approx 1,000 people to each loo and apparently the morning queues are very long!
Despite that, they're all very productive but working in some god awful situations with toxic fumes drifting around. They only work for 7 months of the year (because of the monsoons) and many return to family farms in the countryside for the remaining 5 months. They choose to live/work in the slum as the wages are almost twice as high as they'd earn outside the community.
Reality provide education for the children, computer and personal skills for adults and also teacher training for the adults to encourage them to help the kids.
It was meant to be a 2.5 hour tour but we actually left at 8.30 this morning and didn't get back to our hotel till 3.30pm so it was a very tiring tour (in the heat).
We're off for an evening walking tour very soon - starting at 7pm so hopefully this one will be a little more gentle then we'll look for somewhere outside the hotel to have a more simple meal tonight.
I found this very interesting and wonder how much of it is like the film, Slum Dog Millionaire. Enjoy the next tour then chill out in that beautiful hotel.
ReplyDelete