I wrote the following entry two days ago but haven't been able to post it because of very intermittent Internet connection available here :

We've just arrived in the city of Aurangabad after taking an early-morning train from Mumbai's main train station. From here, we'll spend the next three days visiting local historic sites, especially the World Heritage sites of Ellora and Ajanta caves, which are filled with ancient Buddhist and Hindu carvings and paintings.

Mumbai, which we left early this morning, is enormous--the world's third-largest city--and so bustling and energized that one feels caffeinated just being there. We'd been daunted at the prospect of navigating through it, but in the end we enjoyed our day there. We walked from our hotel near the train station down to the Colaba district of the city where many of the famous sites are located, and eventually back after taking in the sights. We stopped in the ornate, luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel, which was bombed in the 2008 terrorist attacks but has been repaired since. I was glad to see the tight security at the hotel and in the general area. We also enjoyed seeing the Gateway to India, a huge stone edifice at the waterfront built by the British to commemorate a royal visit--but only a few decades later, after India attained its independence, the British marched out through the same Gateway as they left the new country.

Walking along the roadways of Indian cities can be challenging because pedestrians are at the bottom of the traffic pecking order here (there are few sidewalks, and pedestrians are expected to make way for vehicles), and because it's hard to travel more than a few feet without being offered a chance to buy something, or being asked to make a donation to someone.

Nevertheless, most of the time I enjoy walking along the roadways of Indian towns and cities, because so much of life is lived along roadsides that one encounters a zillion little vignettes of life on each block. In Mumbai, one encounters the full range of life circumstances, from the obviously wealthy hurrying about their business to the sidewalk dwellers rolled up in thin blankets whom one must step around.

The challenge is that one is completely uninsulated from whatever presents. K and I have been comparing notes about how best to respond to beggars and the very poor. We've encountered lots of advice about not offering money, but feel uncomfortable not acknowledging people at all. Yesterday, I tried handing out crackers. That allowed me to acknowledge the people requesting a handout rather than ignoring them, but I sensed disappointment on their part. There is no perfect solution or way to feel at ease, I suspect.

Before traveling to Mumbai, we had taken the train from Alleppey in Kerala state up the coast to the state of Goa, which has long been a mecca for Western tourists. We spent one night in a rustic resort composed of beach shacks and a modest open-air restaurant, so close to the beach that we needed to walk along a track through deep sand to get from the taxi drop-off point to the resort. B and I enjoyed a long, late afternoon walk up the beach and back, taking in both the many Western tourists (a few badly needing medicinal doses of sunscreen) and Indian families, all enjoying the beach in their own ways. K enjoyed her first swim in the Arabian Sea (I waded and splashed).

It was fun to spend a day on the Arabian Sea, which none of us had seen, and the beach is scenic. But only Westerners were staying at the little resort and nearby resorts, and I felt a bit ghettoized. I was happy to be back among mainly Indian people the following day when we caught the morning train up the coast to Mumbai. The compartments on Indian trains naturally encourage conversation, and we enjoyed a long conversation, touching on many subjects, with a businessman from Calcutta who also loves to travel and has visited many places in his own country. He and I enjoyed using B's good maps to trace out some possible future trips to Ladakh, Assam, and Sikkim, all places I'd also like to see, and he had some good advice and perspective on Bodh Gaya, Varanasi, and other destinations I plan to visit once B and K return home.