Shopping Till You Drop

We got up and headed out. There is no way we could ever find anything so once again we got a driver. He was excellent and found the stores we wanted to go to very easily. Lots of great shopping. Bombay is a shoppers paradise. Everything is made to order. We also went to see several sites we wanted to see. The Parsi's are a religious sect and very wealthy. They are noted for their non-burial method. They place the deceased on a raised column and leave the body for vultures to eat. It is very much into recycling but different from what we experience in the West.

We drove to the famous Mosque that is in the middle of the water. You walk across a long causeway to get to the Mosque. If there is high tides the causeway is covered with water and you wade back.

At night we walked along Marine Drive and Chowpatti Beach. Many Bollywood movies have a scene shot there. No SRK. There are enormous weddings taking place along the drive. There is an area with about 5 consecutive weddings. The cost of each must be enormous. There are sound stages, lighting, food for hundreds at each event. It is amazing to see.

We went to several clothing designers. We are meeting with the master tailor tomorrow to pick out fabric and design to get some pieces made. We will be the best dressed American's in Indian drag in LA.

Mumbai is very difficult city. The traffic is unbelievable. Nothing moves. Horns honk and no one moves. God does this city needs a subway system. I can only wonder what Japanese feel in Bombay.

The city has a great energy like NYC or London, in fact, it looks like them, if they had really bad streets, sidewalks and an occasional cow. Some things are very different, however. We had drinks on the roof on the Intercontinental Hotel and then took a cab to our restaurant. We asked the cab driver how much we owed him. His response was: What ever you think the ride was worth. Try getting a response like that in NYC.

We had dinner at Trishna. Johnny Apple of the New York Times said it was one of the 10 best restaurants in the world. It was excellent. No smoking. That is a plus. We had Indian Wine, Calamari, Shrimp, Crab, and fish. It was excellent. We will eat here again.

We have a full day tomorrow and fly on to Bombay Thailand late tomorrow night. Cheap massages await me! We will miss India. There is so much to say, and we will try to sum it up in a later post.