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Published: December 25th 2019
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We were up early at 3.00am, as we had a 4.00am pickup with our driver for an airport transfer. Our flight to Mumbai was scheduled to depart at 7.00am, but we find ourselves still sitting in the airport hours later as our flight has been delayed, now departing at 10.00am. There is nothing more boring than sitting around an airport...waiting....waiting...
No transfer was arranged from Mumbai Airport on arrival, so we found the pre-paid taxi counter, told them our destination, and paid for our fare via a voucher system, before we found a taxi. It was R1500 ($30) into the Fort district where our hotel was, and the trip took almost two hours. A new metro line is being built through Mumbai with long sections of the roads being closed off behind corrugated iron walls, forcing traffic into fewer lanes and causing chaos on already overcrowded roads.
I knew that a new metro station was being constructed opposite our accomodation, Hotel Residency, when I booked here months ago. According to online reviews, it was in progress over a year ago and I was hoping it was completed by now, I should have known better. When we finally pulled up
in the middle of the street outside our hotel entrance, we were greeting by construction noise and two porters who were quick to remove our bags from the taxi. The street was full of concrete trucks.
We were so pleased to walk into the peace of the hotel foyer and get to our rooms. A soft mattress, a shower that won’t run across the bathroom floor and extra pillows on the bed, what else could one ask for? We retreated to our seperate rooms (a first for this trip) and closed our doors...
Tumultuous Mumbai (formerly Bombay), capital of Maharashtra state, is India’s most populous city, home to 21 million people. It’s one of the largest and most densely populated urban areas on Earth, with an average of 30,000 people per square kilometre. It’s also the country’s financial and commercial centre and its principal port on the Arabian Sea.
Lonely Planet describes it better than I ever could.....
It’s full of dreamers and hard-labourers, starlets and gangsters, stray dogs and exotic birds, artists and servants, fisherfolk and millionaires, and lots and lots of people. It has India’s most prolific film industry, some of Asia’s biggest slums
(as well as the world’s most expensive home) and the largest tropical forest in an urban zone. Mumbai is India’s financial powerhouse, fashion epicentre and a pulse point of religious tension.
Several hours later we decided to go out and explore. The hotel is very central, within walking distance of CST and Churchgate Stations, The Gateway of India and Colaba Causeway. Reception had given us maps of the area and we found our way to the Gateway of India without any problems. Built in 1911 to welcome King George V and Queen Mary, it overlooks the Arabian Sea.
The area around here was packed with people, mainly local tourists, I think.
Just across the road from The Gateway of India is the rather famous Taj Palace Hotel, India’s first 5 star luxury hotel. There was a terriost attack here in 2008, one of many locations which were bombed over a 3 day period.
When it opened in 1903, the hotel was the first in India to have electricity, American fans, German elevators, Turkish baths and English butlers. Later it also had the city's first licensed bar, India's first all-day restaurant and the first discotheque. Initially in
1903, it charged R13 (.26c) for rooms with fans and attached bathrooms, and R20 (.40c) with full board. Today, to stay here in the lap of luxury, it will cost you R24,000 ($487) a night.
It was time to think about having dinner as we had missed lunch and tummies were rumbling. We ended up at a craft beer bar called Effingut. It was very modern, had great music playing, a good menu and distilled water ice for our drinks. Exactly what we needed....
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