Mumbai to Goa

September 27, 2009
Arrived today in Goa at the Park Hyatt which is right on the beach and a good place to rest up before leaving for Toronto on Tuesday (September 29th).

Yesterday we moved out of the Ramada in the north end of the city to the Taj hotel in central Mumbai. The hotel was a welcome relief from the Ramada which involved one service nightmare after another: On arrival the people (4 of them) were inattentive and each one seemed to be waiting for the next guy to process us; when we got to the room it smelled smoky; several phone calls later, we were led down the hallway on a different floor to another room (both smelled like they had just been sprayed with sickly-sweet air freshener); our internet connection was to be connected after check-in, we never received a call from the front desk for our password; we called several times over 20 minutes and tried several times over this time with no luck with the internet; the A/C was blowing air but was only barely working; on our first morning, we got a knock at the door at 7:30 a.m. from a staff member asking us if we were ready to check out? – our check out date was two days away.

Also yesterday, we toured the Dharavi slum – the largest slum in Asia with a population of a million people. The tour guide met us on the border of the slum and gave us a great education, was personable and is a resident of Dharavi. We also met some potters who were Gujurathi speakers and it was nice to speak to them in their language and make a better connection. I took a few pictures of our new found friends. We were not allowed to take pictures within the slum throughout the tour to respect people’s privacy and to not turn the whole thing into a circus.

Pictures of Goa to follow shortly.