The seawall along Marine Drive is a lovely walk and a great place to view the sunset. We stayed in a business / boutique hotel in a quiet part of town.
On our last day in India we booked a tour of the Dharavi Slum with Reality Tours. This slum is one of four in Mumbai. It is a city within a city. Approximately the same population as Calgary (1 million +) live in an area 1.7sq km. You aren't allowed to take photos in the slum but if you saw the movie Slum Dog Millionaire - this is the slum that was featured.
We met our guides at Churchgate train station and took a thirty minute train ride to the slum entrance. The first part of the tour takes you through the heavy industry area. All sorts of things are recycled and sold. We saw plastic being melted down, dyed, and made into pellets. The pellets are shipped to China where they will be made into plastic lawn furniture etc. In one factory, men were recycling oil cans. First they burned away the oil inside in giant furnaces, then they hammered out the dents in the cans, and finally polished them up to look like new. Nobody was wearing masks although the fumes were toxic.
Further inside is the residential area. Most homes are sheds about 21m sq. In one home there were five family members and three renters living there. The slum only got running water a few years ago and there are two outhouses to serve two thousand people.
We visited a school where an English class was in progress. The students were a blend of Hindu and Muslim. Everyone is co-existing peacefully now - in the 90's tensions were high and riots were common. Some of the other industries in Dharavi include pottery, leather, soap, and poppadom making.
This tour was shocking, enlightening and really worthwhile. I came away with an appreciation for all that I am lucky enough to have. I'm a "glass is half-empty" type but I came away with a new perspective.
So - if you do go to Mumbai, take the tour!
www.realitytoursandtravel.com
