On day four in Bombay.  And what a colorful four days it has been- one part vegas high-rolling, one part tour of a developing country, and one part Mexico beach vacation.  

The vegas high-rolling part: All I will say for this is thanks to a glorious party and evening of clubbing that Win and Hilary arranged last night, I am a bit out of sorts this morning, but will attempt to write a blog post anyway (as a have a computer for the first time since I've been here).  Also, a huge thanks to Win for being such an excellent host this week!

The tourist part: One of the highlights of my time so far has been the slum tour I took yesterday.  An NGO called Reality Tours runs a tour of the Dharavi slum and uses the profits to fund a school and community center there.  Dharavi is the largest slum in Asia and holds over a million people; it is also where slumdog millionaire was filmed.  The tour guides really focus on trying to show you the entrepreneurial and positive sides of the slum, of which there were a surprising number.  The most notable is the full-scale plastic recycling operation which is carried out in small, unventilated, low-tech spaces and on rooftops.  The slum was striking, depressing, smelly, and sometimes uplifting in most of the ways you might imagine, but one thing I was continually impressed by was how clean the people living there seemed to remain given the conditions they were in.   I felt like the women in their vibrantly colored saris generally appeared much cleaner and nicer that did our group of tourists who had all spent the night in clean hotel rooms or apartments with showers, rather than in 5x10 rooms with no beds and five other people.

Another thing that has been interesting is how lush and green this city is.  Although it is incredibly dirty, and all the buildings look moldy and dilapidated (even if they are new and beautiful inside, which a few are) due to the heat and humidity and extreme pollution, Mumbai can still look quite beautiful because of all of the street trees. A great case study in how greenery can completely transform an urban landscape.

The Mexico beach vacation part: Details for this part of the trip make for a boring blog post, but include absolutely delicious food, an anthropologie inspired-yoga studio, and hanging out at resort pools.  Hopefully some spa-ing to come soon.

I am heading to Varkala (in Kerala) on Wednesday, and assuming I can find a computer and some internet there, I will write another blog post then!

I miss you all and would love to hear updates! Please send me emails!

At the gate of India

At Nariman Point

At Jain Temple Rebecca and I stumbled upon

Street Scene

View from Win's Patio

Scaffolding India-style (sticks of bamboo)