Mumbai Day Two: Mumbai Marathon, Part Two

View from window of first school visit

OK, so we met up in the lobby at 8:30 and hit the streets in a couple of little SUVs. We drove from our hotel way down to the southern tail of Mumbai, called Colaba (see map below). There we visited the B. D. Somani school, which seems to have a great program. We had an opportunity to do brief overviews of the school, take questions, and then meet one-on-one with some students.


Map of Mumbai, taken from a newspaper ad

Next it was way back past our hotel, to the northern part of Mumbai. On the way we grabbed McDonalds. None of it is made with beef here, for obvious reasons, so I had a Big Mac made of pressed chicken patties. Yummy. School two wasn't so great, but we got to see Juhu Beach on the way there, and the house of India's most famous Bollywood star. You've still never heard of him.

School three, the RIMS school, was another good one. Only got a chance to meet with a limited number of students, but they were all very interested. I'll be looking back in on this one and the first.

So, all that sounds fairly simple, but we did not get back to the hotel until after 5pm. Mumbai traffic is hell. The A/C wasn't working so well either. And our drivers only had an idea of where the schools were, so there was lots of U-turning etc. Mumbai is a complete maze. I have no idea how you would map it, let alone create a phone book or something. It's chaos.


Lite traffic, seriously

Back at the hotel I walked around the grounds a bit, did some more e-mail (surprise), and went to bed before 9pm. Wait 'til you read about day three.


Hotel grounds. Notice new causeway construction in upper right.