Mumbai Calling

The final stop on Jodi's whirlwind visit to south Asia was in Mumbai, where she'd be catching her flight to head back to the US. We were a little bit concerned that security might still be an issue since the 26/11 attacks had occurred only three weeks prior, but Mumbai seemed to be pretty much back to its busy self. We only stayed in town for a couple of days before Jodi's flight, but did manage to get in a little sight seeing.

Jodi in front of the Taj Palace Hotel. They reopened the day after this picture.

The Gate of India, where the 26/11 attackers disembarked.

Bustling downtown Mumbai. Lots of taxi cabs.

L: The outside of Mani Bhavan, Gandhi's house when he stayed in Mumbai.
R: Dobi ghats, where laundrymen clean the city's laundry by hand.

Since we were in the home of Bollywood, we also took a trip to an Indian cinema to see a Hindi movie. Although we didn't understand the dialogue, Bollywood storylines are extremely obvious with lots of slapstick humor and singing and dancing numbers. The cinematography was actually pretty good, and we didn't get bored even though the movies are some three hours long. Here's the trailer for the movie we saw, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi:

After our short stint in Mumbai, it was time to head to the airports to say our goodbyes for now. Jodi caught her plane back to St. Louis, and I caught my plane back to Coimbatore to finish up my final four months in Wellington.

With Jodi's visit behind me, it was time to use the last week of the Christmas break to finish off my dissertation and get ready for the last two terms of Staff College. We did take a break from dissertation writing to celebrate New Year's Eve with our friends.

Back row: AJ and Vikas (India), Vanessa (Australia), me, Jazna (Chile), Jeff, and Hilde (UK) Front row: Tera, Gaby (Chile), Tim (UK) and Shamim (Bangladesh)

A long, strange 2008 was put behind us. Next up was a new school term and two weeks of train travel for the Industrial Demonstration Tour...