Back to Mumbai and leaving India

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I caught an evening sleeper train from Varanasi which arrived at Bhopal at 8am the next morning. I had decided to stop for a while in Bhopal mainly to break the journey from Varanasi to Mumbai so I had booked two separate sleeper trains to do the journey. Bhopal is the site of the Taj-ul-Masjid mosque, designed at it's inception to be the largest mosque in the world. It was started by one of Bhopal's three female rulers in 1877 but she died before it was finished.

Before heading towards the Taj-ul-Masjid I had put my large rucksack into the left luggage storage department at Bhopal railway station. Left luggage at railway stations is a very useful and cheap facility - usually only 10 rupees for up to 24 hours - when back-packing and you want to explore a place without carrying round your heavy pack all day. Rules vary at different stations however. At Bhopal you are allocated a large tin locker but you need to provide your own padlock to secure it. At Mumbai's Victoria Terminus your luggage is just put on a shelf but before you can hand it over you have to take it to a police security post to have it x-ray scanned, collect a receipt and take it back to the luggage office and show your passport.

Unfortunately when I left my backpack at Bhopal railway station, I omitted to take out a pair of long trousers. When I arrived at the Taj-ul-Masjid in shorts I was not allowed in! However, even from the outside I could see that it was a very large impressive building, both the mosque itself and the fortress-like building that surrounds it.

As I was leaving the mosque, the rain started and the rest of the day was a complete washout. I walked around a bit to have a look at the lake views - Bhopal is built between two lakes - then headed back towards the railway station to sit and read in the upper class waiting room until my next train arrived at about 6pm. I awoke the next morning in Mumbai's enormous Victoria Terminus railway station, a product of the British Raj and now a protected monument. I now had two full days in Mumbai before my flight was due to leave in the early hours of Wednesday morning,

After finding a hotel for one night, showering and changing, I took a taxi down to the harbour area at the south-eastern end of Mumbai. Here, facing the Arabian Sea, there is a large archway known as the Gateway of India which was built to celebrate the visit to India of the British King George V and Queen Mary in 1911. About 50 to 100 yards away is Mumbai's most prestigious hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace. After wandering around the harbour area for a while, I walked back in the direction of Victoria Terminus where there are numerous British Raj-era buldings. From Victoria Terminus I then walked west towards Marine Drive, the long road and sea embankment that marks Mumbai's south western edge. I followed Marine Drive all the way north to Chowpatty, Mumbai's beach, where a short stretch of sand encouraged a few hardy souls to swim in the Arabian Sea. By now the rain had set in again and walking along Marine Drive with the bracing wind, sea spray and rain reminded me of similar days as a child on holiday at Bridlington on Yorkshire's East Coast!

Further north I stopped to have a look at Haji Ali's Mosque which is built on a rock a couple of hundred yards off-shore and connected to the mainland by a long low-lying causeway. With today's weather, however, it was not going to be sensible to try and walk out to the mosque so instead I headed off next towards the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, an area of Mumbai where most of the population are engaged in laundry work, and where most of Mumabi's hotels and hospitals send their laundry to be done by dbobi-wallahs. These laundry workers work outdoors washing the linen by hand using hundreds of purpose-built concrete wash pens. Despite the fact that it was still raining heavily, some washing was still going on.

The next morning I checked out of my hotel and took a taxi back to Victoria Terminus where I put my large rucksack into the left luggage store so I could spend the rest of the day exploring more of Mumbai. I walked back down to the harbour area first. Most of Mumbai is built on a peninsula which creates a bay in the Arabian Sea. In this bay are a number of islands, the largest of which is called Elephanta Island. Because there are some important carvings in caves on this island, there are a number of boats which ply backwards and forwards between the dock at the side of the Gateway of India and Elephanta Island. The boat trip takes about an hour each way and even if you don't visit the caves, the return boat trip is a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours enjoying a sea breeze on a sultry day (today it wasn't raining!). I spent the afternoon doing some present shopping for friends and family before finding a taxi to take me to the airport in the early evening. The taxi ride from Victoria Terminus to the International airport took just over two hours in nose-to-tail traffic.

After completing my first visit to India, I can say that I am glad to have had the opportunity to see some iconic sights, to get a feel for life in Indian cities, and to get to know a bit about the country's magnificent railway network. However, this first visit packed 7 cities into 15 days and very little else in between. On reflection I think I should have tried to give myself some respite in non-city environments as well. Indian cities are crowded, noisy and seemingly chaotic, and I am definitely citied-out for the time being. When I return to India, which I am sure I will, I will plan to see much more of village and rural life, some mountain areas and coastal areas. However, my next planned trip, for Easter 2013, is to go back to Nepal and this time do a mountain trekking holiday. Watch this space.

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