Mumbai!

Mumbai far exceeded our expectations today. After three ports, where heat and trash composed my most vivid memories, today we spent with our old friends Siddarth and Nemita Kumar. Sid, who is Vijay's nephew, had his driver at his disposal all day, and a very fine air conditioned Tata SUV to take us everywhere.

Sid is now into the business of wine bottling supplies and Indian whiskey, which due to an accelerated aging process is said to produce single malt in 1/3 to 1/4 the time typical of equivalent Scottish production. He will send a bottle home for us to try, from Goa, of all places. The name is "Paul John".

We had tea with Sid at the Taj Mahal hotel tea roomvby the Gateway to India, overlooking the harbor. Then we went to lunch at a small restaurant near their home, where Namita met us and we had the best gee masala dosas I have had for quite a while.

We then visited their lovely apartment for a break, and Sid left for business, while Namita escorted us (with driver) to the former Prince of Whales museum, featuring natural history, art and archaeologic displays.

Next we experienced an Indian Starbucks, now in India thanks to Mr. Tata, of the automobile industry frame. We were assured the ice in our cold drinks was perfectly OK.

Finally Sid met us at a very nice seafood restaurant near the financial and court district. We were dropped off by the driver on a busy, cluttered street in front of an unpretentious doorway which said simply "Ankur". It turned out to be one of the better seafood places in Mumbai. The prawn, fish and garlic naan with butter was delicious, washed down with a cold Kingfisher beer. At around $10 per person it was a deal.

They dropped us off at the dock gate at around 8:30 PM, in plenty of time to make the last boarding call at 9:00 PM.

Mumbai is a different city from 14 years ago, when we last visited. The trash has been removed from the main streets and the road and walk around the half moon bay was delightful and clean looking. A far cry from the trash-strewn via we walked years ago.

It is our fervent hope that none of the different varieties of food we consumed around town contained some evil bugs that will multiply and manifest themselves in 12-72 hours.