One of the many tourist attractions in Mumbai is the Dhobi Ghat commercial Laundry outside Mahalakshmi train station. Dhobi Ghat is just down the road from Chor Bazaar and if I was to find my missing yoga Speedo trunks (pinched from the drying room) no doubt bound for the Thieves Market, they would have to be washed first!
From the bridge over the railway tracks you’ll have a colourful view of the laundry in action. What’s amazing is this vast laundry operates in sections according to colour. Perhaps not all that spectacular as we often separate colours from darks and whites but how do they manage to sort them all back together again?
I’m sure they have a system similar to the local laundry I frequented as each shirt, short, jock and sock was returned with a small material tag attached with a string thread containing a handwritten code of numbers and letters. Whatever their method it’s an interesting spectacle for the tourists lined up on the bridge with their cameras, much to the amusement of the locals.
And no, I didn’t find my yoga shorts!