We all managed to make it to Mumbai just fine, perhaps a little grimy and tired, but we're all just fine. This train had triple decker bunks, so we had to fit more luggage and more people in each compartment. We were really packed in! Fortunately, this train was cleaner and happier than the last one.
There were quite a lot of vendors passing through, everything from "chai chai chaiiii" to funny Indian chip-like snacks, to full meals. Some of us tried some interesting things: most interesting had to be the masala flavored crispy fried identified crunchy and skinny chips. Don't know what they were, but they tasted great!
We got in early this morning after rolling gently into this massive city. We rolled from open fields with scrubby mountains in the background, to salt marshes and salt farms, to beautiful open salt water bays, to gleaming new metal and glass suburbs, to ramshackle old concrete colonial sprawl, to crushing slums. Mumbai, even in the little we have seen of it so far, is a city of contrasts.
We are staying in an area of the city right near the ocean. This is a safe area for students to walk around. The famous Cafe Leopoldo is right around the corner. We have a bit of free time now, to unwind from the train. Some students ate out already exploring the neighborhood. Others are napping. We are out and about soon enough!
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