Juhu

Lon has business meetings in Mumbai tomorrow, so we're spending the "weekend" (that is, Sunday) at the JW Marriott on Juhu Beach -- one of Mumbai's northern suburbs.

The beach wasn't unbearably crowded, but it was full. In addition to innumerable cricket games, the beach is used for a lot of worship rites ("puja"). Yesterday was "Ram Navmi", a major Hindu festival in some parts of India (pretty low key in Gujarat), and this is some of the leftover offerings.

In our walk along the beach, we saw a number of people in private puja -- making offerings to the gods. Bodies of water figure prominently in Hindu worship.

Another private ceremony. (The family gave permission for this picture.)

There is effort to clean up the beach. This truck is hauling off last night's garbage. Another piece of machinery gathers the garbage, and women transport the garbage to this truck in large, shallow pans such as the one the woman on the left is carrying. Note the crows picking through the garbage on the truck.

The out-going tide made these drainage patterns in the sand. We thought they looked like a modern-art forest.

Juhu is more than the beach. It's an up-scale area where many Bollywood stars have their homes. Among the amenities in Juhu:

We did not know that Krispy Kreme had a presence in India, much less Mumbai. Dunkin' Donuts first store in Mumbai opened last December. This Krispy Kreme looks like it's been around a bit longer than that.

I loved the garland of oranges and pineapples at this juice stand.

This knife-sharpener has a belt that attaches his grinding wheel to the back wheel of his bicycle, and he pedals to put it in motion.

Juhu is home to a major ISKCON ("Hare Krishna") temple. The flowers in the foreground are floating on the water of the temple tank.

As you might expect, the JW Marriott hotel is stunning.

This is the side that faces the pool and the ocean. Just about every room has a glimpse of the Arabian Sea.

Top floor here is the lobby. Bottom floor is the restaurant.