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Published: April 17th 2007
Mumbai. Or Bombay as it used to be called and still is by many locals. I had heard mixed reviews of this place, some loving it, others advising me not to bother. I had to see for myself.
The way to Mumbai was the easiest journey so far. After saying goodbye to my Goa room-mates Sally and Katie, I got a taxi with Priyam and Lucia to Vacso Da Gama airport. And as Priyam flew south to Bangalore, Lucia and I flew north to Mumbai. I had stupidly left my swiss army knife in my handluggage at Goa and it was confiscated and sent separately. But in Mumbai the airline staff said they didn't have it and said the security at Vasco wouldn't have sent it because they were useless. Then he went off to talk to his friends. So I guess that is lost then.
We take a taxi to our hotel which is in an industrial part of the city called Cotton Green. Lucia has found us a cheap room (cheap for Mumbai) and when we see it we understand why. Not wanting to hang around there too long, we take a train to the
Victoria Terminus (VT). The train is packed and people are hanging out of all doors. The Victoria Terminus is a beautiful old station and nice introduction to central Mumbai. We take a walk in the hot early evening down towards the Marine Drive and choose a nice restaurant for dinner. It's expensive for India (10GPB/ 400Kc for the 2 of us with drinks) but the food is amazing and we try several dishes. And for desert I try gulab jamon, dough balls in syrup. Yummy!!
We stroll down Marine Drive, the skyscrapers in the distance giving Mumbai an American feel. It's a long way to the end but we are curious to see Chowpatty Beach where the locals hang out in the evenings. Maybe it's our mood, or the beers from dinner, or that it really is silly, but Chowpatty Beach just seems ridiculous to us. It is dark and people are sitting on a dirty beach. Children are being pushed round in toy cars, women are drinking brightly coloured mixed drinks and men are throwing hoops trying to get them to land on a bar of soap balancing on a fanta bottle in the hope of winning
the soap. It's all to silly for us, so we take a taxi back to the station (of course we get lost, even though the taxi driver swears he knows where he's going - the Indians never say they don't know) and a train back to our hotel.
Next day we wake early, keen to see more of Mumbai. We take a train to VT and a taxi to
/">The Gateway Of India, built in 1911 for King George V's visit to Bombay. Close by is the famous Taj Mahal hotel and tower. We walk along the harbour, through a slum and into a market. We have an Idli / Vada breakfast, then move on up to "Fashion Street" a row of market stalls selling fake branded goods. We buy some Hindi DVDs next to the Oval cricket ground and it reminds me of London where I used to live next to the London Oval cricket ground. I try a sugar cane juice. It's very sweet but good. We walk past shoppers, sellers, beggars, sleeping policemen, tourists and businessmen. And Ganesh, the Hindu god of good luck, is everywhere in this town!!
to Elephanta Island - it's getting really hot now so we are glad of the sea breeze. We eat samosas and bhajis and pakoras and drink lots of water. On the island we don't visit the caves (tourist admission is always 25x Indian admission prices) and instead walk up to the top of the island. A monkey steals my fanta and just as we are laughing that it can't do anything with it, it deftly unscrews the cap and drinks from the bottle. Amazing.
After the island it's back to our hotel to pick up the bags and to Bandra Terminus for our overnight train to Ahmedebad.....
Lucia
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Chowpatty beach
Chowpatty beach ..... STOOOOPIIIID!!!! :-D Whenever I feel down, remembering about Chowpatty beach will make me laugh!!! :-D