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Ken and Desley in India
Malabar Hill & Girguam Chowpatty (Chowpatty Beach) Today we bought our breakfast from a vendor set up on the street around the corner from our Hotel. We had noticed him the day before as he had a lot of customers, suggesting he hadn't killed anyone with his food lately. With helpful advice from some of his customers and twenty three rupees later we had a dosa and four or so donut type items together with the usual dipping sauces - one hot and one not. Bob Birchall will be proud of us - brekky for $0.50. We would be back for more tomorrow at 15 rupees a plate but we are leaving for Hyderabad early in the morning. Down the street we saw a Chai seller so off we went for our morning cuppa - two glasses each whilst we chatted with the others standing around drinking their tea and shooting the breeze - 5 rupees a glass (no clay cups spotted so far) and it's very refreshing, even on a hot day. Our plan today was to visit the ritzy and expensive Malabar Hill area and the nearby Chowpatty Beach. A 100 rupee cab ride got us to a nice park in Malabar Hill called Kamala Nehru Park - it's pretty much at the top of the hill and gets a very nice cool breeze from the adjacent sea (called the Back Bay here). The Park has nice gardens and for the kids a large concrete "shoe" - as in the fairytale. I would have liked to climb inside but it was limited to 12 year olds as a maximum. Apparently your mental age does not count. From here we hoofed it down hill searching for a site called Baganga Tank - as usual we got lost so hailed a cab and got to our destination with a minimum of fuss. This tank (a large rectangular man-made pool of water) is located within a number of multi-storey apartment blocks not far from what appears to be a Hindu Cemetery. Our point in visiting was to see the wooden pole in the middle of the tank that, legend has it, is the shaft of an arrow shot by Lord Ram. Where it sits signifies the centre of the earth. There has to be a centre somewhere so why not here? From here we spent quite a bit of time searching for a Jain Temple that is supposed to be about 400 metres from the Tank. After much walking we ended up, to our chagrin, back where we started. Another cab was hailed and down to Marine Drive (30 rupees) to hit the beach. There is a lovely view along the arch of the beach showing the high rise buildings back towards Churchgate. The beach itself is quite broad with nice sand - it has a few trees growing on it and a number of high structures with large lights attached. The lights must be used at night as many people visit this beach in the evening. Food Vendors were setting up in the late afternoon as were Carney types with kiddies rides & the like. I have to say though that the waters edge is not appealing at all - the Lonely Planet describes the water as "toxic" - which may well be right - and the tide mark is so littered with plastic bottles and other debris (including a pair of shorts sticking up out of the sand) that it would be impossible to lay out a small beach towel without covering a collection of junk. A pity really as it would be so much more enjoyable for the locals if it were kept clean. After a good look around it was back to Fort and the eternal search for a menu we could understand - nice restaurant found near the hotel and after a good feed it was back to our luxurious digs to pack for our morning flight - next stop Hyderabad.
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