This year my Christmastime and New Year were totally different. First of all I had never spent these days having an average temperature of
30 degrees Celsius instead of cold weather and hopefully snow. On the other hand the religious aspect played an important role. More than 80 % of the Indian population is Hindus directly followed by Muslims. Only a few are Christians and thus Christmas is not much celebrated. Only 25th is a national holiday and most of the schools don’t give vacations, so the one where I’m staying. But because of my faith and due to the fact that I had never seen Mumbai, this was the perfect time. It was there when I saw the first Christmas decorations.
I stayed in this metropolitan city for 8 days at two families’ homes. Because they never celebrated Christmas or New Year I didn’t have it either, but I got the chance to see many things and get to know another part of India and Indian life. On 25th I went to see Mount Mary Church and had at least a little bit of Christmas atmosphere. Afterwards I went for some shopping to Linking Road. The next days consisted basically of sightseeing, combined with a lot of traveling through Mumbai. Thus I visited most of the places where the terror attacks had taken place like Tajmahal Hotel, Oberoi, Trident and the Gateway of India. Unfortunately there was a lot of security so we couldn’t get very close.
Furthermore I visited the Elephanta Caves, a world heritage site, the Wankele Stadium, Helen-Keller-Institute for deaf and deafblind, went to Juhu Beach, and a handloom exhibition and a special dome-cinema. I also got the chance to visit a laughter club once and had a very nice and funny experience there. Starting in the early morning it was a mixture of physical exercises interrupted by different laughingmethods and -versions.
30 degrees Celsius instead of cold weather and hopefully snow. On the other hand the religious aspect played an important role. More than 80 % of the Indian population is Hindus directly followed by Muslims. Only a few are Christians and thus Christmas is not much celebrated. Only 25th is a national holiday and most of the schools don’t give vacations, so the one where I’m staying. But because of my faith and due to the fact that I had never seen Mumbai, this was the perfect time. It was there when I saw the first Christmas decorations.I stayed in this metropolitan city for 8 days at two families’ homes. Because they never celebrated Christmas or New Year I didn’t have it either, but I got the chance to see many things and get to know another part of India and Indian life. On 25th I went to see Mount Mary Church and had at least a little bit of Christmas atmosphere. Afterwards I went for some shopping to Linking Road. The next days consisted basically of sightseeing, combined with a lot of traveling through Mumbai. Thus I visited most of the places where the terror attacks had taken place like Tajmahal Hotel, Oberoi, Trident and the Gateway of India. Unfortunately there was a lot of security so we couldn’t get very close.
Furthermore I visited the Elephanta Caves, a world heritage site, the Wankele Stadium, Helen-Keller-Institute for deaf and deafblind, went to Juhu Beach, and a handloom exhibition and a special dome-cinema. I also got the chance to visit a laughter club once and had a very nice and funny experience there. Starting in the early morning it was a mixture of physical exercises interrupted by different laughingmethods and -versions.Actually I had expected big celebrations and fireworks on New Years Eve, but due to the bomb blast nearly al the parties etc. were closed and most of the open shops and restaurants were shut down by the police right after 12 o clock. Thus, and also because of some cultural and family reasons, I had a very quiet start into 2009, although being in one of the biggest cities of the world.
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