We began our day with breakfast in bed. The hotel we were staying at had a restaurant and served it’s guest breakfast in their rooms so the night before we placed our order and enjoyed having food come to us. When we aren’t traveling we are usually still living in hotels back home and have referred to meal time as hunting time since we always have to eat out we are always having to look for our food. Not having our own kitchen is one of the biggest sacrifices of our lifestyle. As soon as we got our lazy bodies out of bed we headed out to finally do some proper exploring. Our first stop was at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus. A Gothic style historic railway station opened in 1887. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and is still in use today. From there we walked to the Gateway of India, a historic arch-monument built in 1911 to commemorate the first British monarch (King George V) to visit India. This stop is a 2 for 1 spot, as right next to the arch is the Taj Hotel. The hotel is the most luxurious 5 star hotel in Mumbai. I remember the hotel from being on the news in 2008 when terrorist seized the hotel for 3 days killing 31 people. Today you can stay here if you can afford it or you can visit for a meal or afternoon tea. We weren’t dressed semi-formal so we didn’t make it past the door. However, while in front of the gateway arch we had so much fun. We were blogging and trying to tell the story of the arch when people started coming up to us wanting what they call a foreigner selfie. It started as one or 2 people but once they noticed the camera and found out we were youtubers everyone wanted a selfie and to know our channel name. Luckily we have a QR code that made sharing our channel easier. By the time we were able to pull ourselves away we had to have taken over 50 selfies. This video is going to be hilarious with all the people wanting to pose with us. From old grandparents to little kids, we had so much fun.

After finally getting the footage we needed we grabbed a taxi and headed to the 5 star Wyndham Ramada Resort and we used our Diamond status to get 3 free nights in luxury. Normally $300 a night. We spent the rest of the day at the pool and walking around the beach attached to our resort. We finished the night off with another delicious meal.

The next day we got serious. Day one we stayed on the tourist trail but todays plan was to get off the beaten path and really experience Mumbai. We knew what we wanted to see so we found a local who knew the area, from the site “Get your guide”. We usually don’t go for guided tours but for this adventure we knew it would help. We met the guide near the famous arch we visited yesterday. His plan was to see all the sites we wanted but to get between them using transportation that locals use. Agreeing, we jumped on a bus and went to the train station. From there we took a train to Mumbai’s largest slum made famous by the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It’s the 3rd largest slum in the world and the movie didn’t do it any justice. The locals were upset that the movie made life there look horrible. The slum consisted of 2 sections. One was residential and the other was industrial. As this was their home we weren’t allowed to film in the residential area. As we walked through the industrial area we got to see people doing the main the four main trades there. Recycling and textiles were the main ones we saw. The guide explained that there were labor laws but none were enforced unless people started dying. We watched people recycling plastics and others making soap, breathing fumes and dust that would never be permitted back home. I’m nowhere near a good enough writer to put into words the conditions I saw. However, all I saw was happy content people. While walking through the residential area I began to realize that a slum is just an area of highly concentrated people and not necessarily poverty. Sure, these people were poor and doing jobs the rest of the world wouldn’t touch in miserably conditions with no real equipment but they were all happy and working as a team. I saw families living in tiny quarters. People of every religion coexisting in unity. Every child we saw ran up saying hello in English, asking how we liked their culture. Not one asked us for money or seemed to be sad, suffering or hungry. They explained that the media made the quality of life seem much worse than it was. They asked if all Americans carried guns and if we were afraid of the daily mass shootings back home. It was tough to comprehend how they could exist the way they do but they not only exist but are quite happy. Our guide lived in the slum and said he was working to save money to bring his family back to the slum. He said he stays because of the opportunity to make money in Mumbai and in the slum is too good to leave. They lived amongst communal dogs, cats and goats. Vendors selling the same product we find in our markets and fruit and veggie stands with better looking produce than we get back home. My mind was blown.

The next stop was to see the famous Dabbawalas. Dabba means lunch box and wala means worker. These men dress in all white with Gandhi like hats. Everyday except Sunday and holidays they are out delivering lunch to workers throughout the city. The story goes that the tradition dates back 135 years. Every morning the women get up and spend the morning getting the children ready for school, so they have no time to make lunch for the men. The men don’t want to eat fast food daily so after getting the children off to school, the woman then make lunch for their husbands and drop it off at the nearest train station where a dabbawala picks it up and delivers it to the men at work. They can send notes with the lunch as well. The 5000 dabbawalas have recently started charging for pics since tourists have been interfering with their deliveries and when we were there they were hard at work so we could only get pics from across the street but the story was still worth the stop. From here we caught another train and this time I worked up the guts to ride like a local hanging out the door as the train sped down the track. I was having the time of my life while giving our guide a mild heart attack. He kept begging me to hold on and come back in and not to extend my arms. I appreciated his concern but continued to act a fool and live in the moment. He explained that an average of 45 people a day die hanging out of the trains or riding on top of them.

The last stop we wanted to do was at the world’s largest outdoor laundry. It’s actually a neighborhood called the Dhobi Ghat that has 1200 residents. The families live and work here in conditions worse than the slum. We met a resident who took us inside for a rare look at life in the laundry. He showed us how the chemicals were effecting their bodies and then took us through the entire process. They receive laundry from hospitals, families and businesses all over the city. Most of the laundry is washed in giant pools and beaten on rocks with very little machinery. It arrives at 4am and is washed, hung to dry ( no clothes pins), iron pressed, folded and ready to be shipped back by 4pm. Again we saw happy friendly children living there and helping with the work. I have so much more to say about this day and all we saw but I will need more time to put my thoughts into words.

After returning to our hotel and a gym session we ended the night watching a sunset on the beach, taking dozens more foreigner selfies and dancing with strangers in the sand. As we were leaving some men approached us and asked if they could interview us for an Indian documentary on climate change. Every time we leave our room Mumbai has something special to offer us. People ask why we would travel to places like this and all these experiences outside our comfort zone are the answer. This is why I travel!