Giant Replica of Crow at Kala Ghoda
We left our Palace in Hyderabad, and flew to Mumbai,
arriving at Sunset. As we drove to
our new Palace, The Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, we saw a beautiful sunset over
the Arabian Sea. After checking into the Taj, were upgraded to a truly
magnificent suite. We had stayed in the Palace Wing previously, leaving 10 days
before the Terrorists took over the building, which has been fully restored.
Mumbai is unseasonably cold, and all the Mumbaikers complain
they are freezing. To us it is like LA weather and perfect! Hot during the day,
cooler at night.
Security at the Taj is tighter, like at all major hotels.
All hand carried purses, and packages are x-rayed before you can enter the
hotel and you must pass through a metal detector. Of course the terrorists didn’t
come in the front door, but scaled the wall in the back of the hotel.
In the morning we went to the Sahar Village Slum near the
Airport to meet with Americares. We are involved with The Los Angeles – Mumbai
Sister Cities, which raises money in LA and sends it to Mumbai to support
Americares efforts in Mumbai. Americares is rated the top NGO in India. In the
slum we visited, the people are desperately poor and can’t afford doctors or
medicine. The Americares mobile van schedules bi-weekly visits to
the slum. Everything is free:
examination, medicines, etc. It was an amazing experience going from the over
the top luxury of staying at the Taj to be in the slums. If you are interested
in a worthwhile charity, this is one worth supporting.
On the way back to the Taj our driver drove us by Mukesh
Abani’s new skyscraper house. Mukesh is the richest man in India. The house
costs somewhere between 1 and 2 Billion Dollars! The whole building is his
house, 6 people live there with over 200 servants, 2 private helipads, etc.
Returning to the Taj, we walked around the Coloba district
where the Taj is located, checking out some stores and the street life. Drinks
by the pool were followed by a massage and then a visit to our favorite Mumbai
restaurant: Trishna. It is a fabulous, but unpretentious fish restaurant. We
love it there. We then walked late at night to the outdoor art festival: Kala
Ghoda. It was a perfect end to a great day.
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1 comment:
I'm delighted you had such a worthwhile day. I will look into what other work Americares does. Medical help is so badly needed in so many parts of the world, obviously. Did you visit the slums themselves or just the medical facilities?
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