Saturday, June 2, 2012

Day 11: Last Stop Mumbai

A pre-dawn flight lands us in Mumbai, the last city of our Indian adventure. After a short nap we’re back on tour bus for a whirlwind of Mumbai highlights. I’d thought Mumbai would be like Delhi, a big, dirty, brown dump full storage building-style store fronts. I was so wrong.

Mumbai is colorful, with beaches and islands, skyscrapers and slums, museums and gardens. Mumbai is what you picture when you picture India, and with good reason. Mumbai is home to Bollywood, which churns out more movies each year than the rest of the world combined. Its largest slum was also the site for “Slumdog Millionaire.”

One of the most striking things about Mumbai was the contrast. We drove down one street where to the left was the richest area in the city, high-end shops, luxury apartments and five star hotels. On the right was the largest slum in Asia.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Day 9 & 10: Udaipur

I got behind with the from-the-road blog posts. So I cut my loses and decided to jump ahead. I didn't want to slight Udaipur, though. So here are some highlight photos.
We decided to roam the grounds at the Royal Retreat where we were staying. We found actual stables! With horses! 

This carving was right outside our door. How sweet, that lion wants to play him. 

At the gates of the city palace. 

We took a boat ride across Lake Pichola. The views were beautiful and we saw so many people swimming, bathing, and doing laundry along the shore. 

We took a break from the boat to stretch our legs at this floating building called Jagmandir Ghat. 

She looked so pretty, set up with her little water stand. We snapped a picture, but decided to stick with our bottled water.