Nathan’s Blog

Mumbai! What to say?

I live in London, have spent time in New York City and we’ll be in Tokyo at the end of the trip. I doubt any of these great world cities can claim to be as alive as Mumbai.

Everywhere you look at any time of day or night the city is doing something. The harder you look, the more layers you see. The shear industry of the people here, who hail from every corner of India, is amazing and unrelenting.

Having read Shantaram before coming here, my opinion may be romantically tainted, but I thought Mumbai was an absolute treat; warts and all.

Day 1

We arrived in Mumbai at about 10:00 after probably the worst travelling leg of our trip so far. We’d naievely opted for the 14 hour (billed as 10) night bus from Panjim – we won’t be making the night bus mistake again!

We thought it would be OK, as rather than semi-reclining seats we had beds. Ours turned out to be a top bunk, not much wider than a single, at the back of the bus – almost geometrically perfectly positioned to amplify and accentuate every movement of the bus. Now, the road from Panjim to Mumbai happens to be a long and winding one, which was not conducive to a sound nights sleep! We probably got 3 hours at best in what I can only describe as trying to fall asleep on a plank balanced on a beach ball.

So, fully rested (!) we set out on a DIY walking tour of the worlds most populous city, in the mid-day Sun, at the hight of Summer. And an Indian Summer at that. Mad dogs and Englishmen.

We did the walking tour straight out of the Lonely Planet, which took in:

- Gateway of India
- Police HQ – grand and imposing Victorian building
- Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue – Stunning blue building
- Flora Fountain
- St Thomas’ Cathedral
- Town Hall
- High Court – This was cool as you could wander around the courtyard and rub shoulders with all the barristers. There were 20 or so courts, each with a LED sign showing the case and start time.
- We passed by the impressive University of Mumbai building, but couldn’t enter the grounds because of security.

On the way back to the hotel (Bentleys) we stopped off at the train station to make reservations to Ahemabad as we weren’t risking having to get a bus again. We got chatting to a couple of Westerners in the tourist queue and Lau began relaying a story about meeting an Indian guy in a travel agency in Goa. This guy had said it was so hot in Rahajastan that his nose bled. Just after she had finished, the Indian guy in front of us turned around and said hello – it was the same guy from Goa! Astonishingly small odds given this random meet and the circumstances under which we found ourselves in the travel agency in the first place (see Goa post).

After a few hours chill time back at the hotel we headed out again for drinks and dinner before an early night. For those of you that have had the pleasure of reading Shantaram, we had beers at Leopolds!! I was hoping to bump into Didier or Vikrim, but no such luck. It wasn’t as I’d imagined it all. A bit too Hard Rock Cafe.

We ate at a proper local place near Leopolds. There was bench seating and the cheapest food – I think we spent about £1 on the whole meal.

Day 2

We spent the morning at Elephant Island, which contains a series of sculpted caves about an hour’s ferry from Mumbai. The caves were hand carved out of the solid rock face and contain a multitude of Hindu sculptures featuring Vishnu. Quite a feat.

Once back in the city, we grabbed a quick lunch of dhosas before jumping in a cab to Hajj Ali Mosque – another prominent scene in Shantaram. The mosque is on a small island linked to the mainland by a causway that is not accessable at high tide. The causeway was flanked by beggers of all afflictions and the fortress-like rock walls of mosque itself was peppered with street kids sheltering from the Sun.

The inside of the mosque complex was a hive of activity with families eating, beggers begging and a small group of women half singing, half wailing to the beat of a bongo. It was strangely soothing and hypnotic. At the time we both thought that the women looked a little on the butch side. It wasn’t until a few days later (over diner with the Mahajara of Zainabad – another story!!) that we learnt they were enuchs – men who have been castrated. More about them later.

Next we jumped in another cab over to Crawford Maket and the other markets in that part of the city. Along with Haji Ali Mosque, this is where we started to get under the skin of the real Mumbai, away from the plesant and sparsely populated (relatively!) streets of Colaba.

For dinner we had made reservations at Indigo, Mumbai’s ‘best’ restuarant and hang out of Bollywood stars. We sat on the fairy-light clad roof terrace and enjoyed lobster, crab and duck washed down with a crisp bottle of Pinot Grigiot. All very nice, but even though the food and service was excellent, I enjoyed the dinner the previous night more. To give you an idea of the cost differential we paid 4 times more as a tip at Indigo than we did at the local place!! I like the fact that we’re both able and willing to work the spectrum, both with food and accomodation. We’re lucky.

Day 3

Today we tourined the Dharavi slum before heading out on the train north to Ahmedabad. The slum visit deserves it’s very own post: Slumdog.