Blogs from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Asia

Today is our last in Mumbai and we have decided to visit Elephanta Island. The rock-cut temples on Gharapuri, better known as Elephanta Island, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Created between AD 450 and 750, the labyrinth of cave temples represent some of India’s most impressive temple carving. It was the Portuguese who dubbed the island Elephanta because of a large stone elephant near the shore (this collapsed in 1814 and was moved by the British to Mumbai’s Jijamata Udyan). There’s a small museum on-site, with informative pictorial panels on the origin of the caves. Boats head to Gharapuri from a set of stone steps behind the Gateway of India every half hour. We had no trouble purchasing tickets, several touts approached us waving ticket books in our faces. One tried to tell us the ... read more

Travelling on Mumbai’s trains is not for the claustrophobic, and getting up close (but hopefully not personal) with commuting strangers is impossible to avoid. More than seven million commuters a day cram onto Mumbai’s creaky suburban railway network. Crowding is extreme, with trains often carrying six times their capacity. During peak hours its estimated each suburban train carries 5000 commuters. Close to 3000 people die annually riding the Mumbai Metro, that’s eight people a day, according to rail officials. In 2018, 650 passengers died falling from trains alone, others were hit by poles whilst hanging through carriage doors, and even more were killed on the ground. Mumbaikars are always in a hurry to reach their destination, and there are those who won’t use a railway bridge, choosing instead to take their life in their hands, leap ... read more

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 ... read more

India is somewhere neither of us has been to before, so are very interested to see it. We have done a fair bit of homework for this as we want to get to see as much as possible. The ship docked at about 4.00am in the morning, and by 7.30am, we were all allowed to start leaving the ship. The ship is docked a long way from the port entrance, so there are loads of shuttle buses to take everyone to the entrance. No need to book these though as there are so many of them. The journey to the entrance took about 10 minutes. Once off the buses, they checked our visas again and we were in Mumbai. It was absolute chaos. For about 20 minutes, we walked through man after man asking us if ... read more

Had to get up a little earlier today as taxi driver was picking us up outside reception so after a superb breakfast (The Sahara Star does a wonderful selection) we wandered outside and he appeared as if by magic. We had to head right down to the Gateway of India which we visited last time as that’s where the boats go to the island. So along the fantastic road built out into the bay on stilts to get clear of the main city traffic. As the road is 4 lanes and then goes to 2 it does have a bit of a traffic jam at either end but undoubtedly quicker than the stop, start clog of traffic by any other route. Then across to the other side of the pointy bit at the bottom of Mumbai ... read more