Day 13 - Mumbai: Churchgate & Elephanto Island

We arrived in Mumbai last night. Esther picked us up from the airport and we went to "The Camp", a local restaurant that apparently, she and her friends frequent. They are buddies with the staff there. It was delicious... Here's Esther's place - very nice place!

This morning we went to work with Esther – she’s interning at the International Justice Mission – another amazing organization seeking to make public justice systems work for victims of abuse and oppression who urgently need the protection of the law. It is an international organization working in local offices globally, freeing girls that are sex trafficked, fighting for a widow’s land rights, and fighting other injustices through legal actions.

After visiting the office, we headed towards Churchgate, at the southern tip of Mumbai. This is also the area where the terrorist attacks took place just a couple of weeks ago. We took a local train that was ridiculously packed full of people. Women and men sit in separate cars – luckily it was mid-day so the womens cars were not too bad, but the mens cars – it was crazy. People were squeezed in, hanging out the doors. I can’t even imagine what it’s like during rush hour. Lining the train tracks were slum dwellers. Tents and shacks where people live and play, all running along the tracks.


We arrived at the Churchgate train station and started wandering towards Churchgate and the Taj Hotel, where the attacks took place. The hotel is still closed. As I stared at the building, the image of the building on fire from the news broadcasts was engraved into my mind. It was a surreal experience.

We then hopped onto a ferry that took us to Elephanto Island. We didn’t actually know much about this island, but Esther had mentioned it, so we just went for it. It was a relaxing 1 hour boat ride out there, filled with views of oil tankers – lots of them. We hiked up some steps (sadly the biggest workout we’ve had), took some pics by some cannons, made friends with some Muslim men who wanted to take pictures with us, maneuvered around some sort of animal poop which was everywhere, saw a couple of monkeys, and then headed back down towards the ferry to go back towards land.

This boat made us think of...
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, A tale of a fateful trip, That started from this tropic port, Aboard this tiny Ship.
The mate was a mighty sailin' man, The Skipper brave and sure, Five passengers set sail that day, For a three hour tour. A three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough, The tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, The Minnow would be lost. The Minnow would be lost.
The ship's aground on the shore of this, Uncharted desert isle, With Gilligan, the Skipper too, The Millionaire and his wife, A movie star, ( and the rest ) the Professor and Mary Ann, Here on Gilligan's Isle!

After getting off "Gilligan's Island" and arriving back at Churchgate, we walked towards the market and down to Café Leopold where 7 people had been shot and killed. We were not planning on eating there, but our curiousity led us there. We were surprised to find it open so soon after the incidents, and were encouraged by the full house there. Everything seemed normal - crowded with both Indian and non-Indians alike, resilient and proud to be there, showing their support and saying through their actions that terrorism will not bring us down. We were hungry - we decided to sit down. As we looked around, we noticed right next to our table was a pillar with a bullet hole in it. Then we looked around more and you could see some broken glass, bullet holes in the ceiling, and then under the glass table mat was a small card for visitors to donate money to the families of the 2 waiters of the Café who were killed in the shootings. There was a sense of sadness but a sense of unspeakable pride and resilience. We wandered the streets for a little bit after our meal there, and then jumped into a taxi for a short trip (distance wise) but took a good two hours to get home. We’ve become accustomed to the traffic but 2 hours was way more than we expected. It was a nice drive up though – we drove along the river – reminded me of driving along Riverside Drive in NYC or along the bund in Shanghai.

Inside the Leopold Cafe


What's that?