The second day in Bombay was just as exciting and I might add, just as hot and humid. I hadn’t mentioned the heat and humidity before but both days were incredibly hot so thank heaven for air conditioned buses.

We started our tour with a trip to an old Portuguese neighborhood and this was also a Catholic neighborhood as would be expected. I took a photo of a typical house and as you can see the houses are well maintained even though some are 200 or more years of age.

Our next stop was the temple of Banganga which is one of the oldest structure in the city. Part of this complex is a water “tank” which is believed to have healing powers. Some famous historical figure threw his sword into the soil and out flowed a stream of water from a spring, so this is why it is considered magical. Our guide does need to go back to math class as he told us there were just a few steps then changed his mind and said there were 20 steps. Well, there were more like 60 to 100 steps and we did have one lady faint but luckily she fainted after boarding the bus and was ok after some cold compresses.

We also stopped at a local market (like our super stores) that sold everything from pets, herbs, fruits, vegetables and sundry items including toupees, I got Grady to stand by this stall and I think you can guess why.

On the way back to the ship we stopped to get a better photo of the Victoria Station which is quite famous. I heard two estimates of how many people use the station every day---three hundred thousand to one million.

The other photos are just scenes that are typical and I could have shot the same photos many times in many locations. One note of interest to me was that the slums are not really slums as we know them. The government rent space, provide toilet facilities, electricity and water. Some of these shacks have television antennae or satellite dishes, and some have water tanks on top of their roofs. They have their own community government and though many can afford to live elsewhere they choose to live where they have always lived.

Patty asked the question of how I have time to write on my blog with everything else to do on the ship. The one thing that has suffered is my reading. I have not read nearly as many books. Probably half of what I normally would read. The other thing is that I don’t compose. I break every rule of creative writing----I talk to you as if you were here. All in my usual style with stories thrown in so it goes very fast.