Visiting India was not on my bucket list but I'm glad I had a chance to visit this amazing country. As large as a continent, there was too much to see in a shortened 2 days. We made the best of an interesting set of circumstances as follows:

Initially getting a visa for India was a nightmare for everyone . We were definitely not welcomed by the authorities. They delayed our getting off the ship for 3 hours while painstakingly examining all of our documentation in 3 different locations, scanning our backpacks, and initially forcing us to anchor at the container dock, a 15 minute shuttle ride to the main gate.

Our first stop was lunch, because by now it is after noon. The food revitalized us and we walked to Gandhi's residence. This museum was a wonderful look into the life of this remarkable man. I really liked his take on "admitting you are wrong is not weakness." Hmmm!

Because it was Saturday the offices were mainly closed so the lunchbox delivery couldn't be observed. The movie "Lunchbox" is a great movie explaining this complex operation.

The ubiquitous museum was beautiful. I was interviewed by a group of gregarious young women students.

The traffic is unbelievable . Can't imagine what it must be like on a weekday, we only saw it on the weekend. Dangerous. Worse than any other country we've visited. No one pays attention to traffic lights. Thank goodness for our terrific guides. Lots of pollution; our bodies are rebelling.

We visited the public laundry, next to the railroad tracks, where the men were doing their thing. Amazing. It appears that lots of hotels and other suppliers of uniforms use these services. They also pick up laundry from individuals and families. Hard for us to understand but it works for this city of 26,000,000 people.

We were all so impressed with the wonderful people of Mumbai. The conditions under which some of them live are impossible for us to understand. We spent some time in Dharavi, a locality in Mumbai that houses one of the biggest slums in the world. It was founded in 1882 and grew in part because of an explosion of factories and residents from the peninsular city center and from the rural poor migrating into urban Mumbai . It is currently a multi-religious, multi-ethic, diverse settlement of nearly a million people.

In spite of the grunginess and squalor, Dharavi is the most bustling and economically proficient part of Mumbai, generating revenue of a staggering billion US dollars annually.

We were asked not to take pics once we entered the area so I only have the one initial photo. I welcome the chance to expand on this visit when I get home. Can't do it justice in a blog.

Lastly, as we are now cruising into waters where we might encounter pirates, the ship has rigged razor wire along the veranda deck and we are currently undergoing a "suspicious boat" drill.

We will be at sea until March 22. Then we dock in Oman.

Later......