Happy

A smashing day out in Mumbai seeing some sights - spoilt for choice for blips so have added links to bonus blips!

First stop the Jain Temple, an impressive and ornate place, followed by Banganga Tank, a sacred Hindu lake surrounded by small houses - a lovely, peaceful relaxing place, where the above children, and others, soon took delight in posing for me! Happier faces you have never seen - really uplifting. Their smiles were infectious.

Next stop the Hanging Gardens, a public park, then to Gandhi's House, an excellent museum set in his Mumbai home.

Third stop - and best by far - the Dhobi Ghats - a huge open air laundromat, where dhobis thrash clothes against concrete pens, on behalf of Mumbaikers across the city. The clothes you are wearing might have been washed here if 'Made in India'. Hugely impressive and mesmerising - I've never quite seen anything like it! As the guide says though, the locals are mystified why foreigners find it so interesting!

Final stop was Haji Ali Dargah - a white shrine set on a tiny island in the sea. The walkway to it was lined with beggars with varying ailments, burns, and disfigurements. Visitors donate 1 rupee coins to them if they desire to - about 2p. A sobering end to the day.