Day 1 - Arriving in Mumbai
After a long but actually enjoyable wait in Heathrow, we finally boarded BA199 for Mumbai. The plane was packed full of Indian people who were trying to bring home way to much stuff. This gave us our first little taste of the overcrowding we were about to experience! Using my gift of being able to fall asleep anywhere, I was quickly out for the count while Claire struggled to get a good nights sleep in. As the sun came up, we got our breakfast and began our descent into Mumbai (note to BA: a sweet-potato wrap is not a breakfast). More and more city kept going by the window and there was no airport in sight!
Then, as we eventually touched dow,n we were looking at the biggest (and actually only) slum I have ever seen directly outside our window. They were basically sheets of corrugated iron/aluminium cobbled together in little 3x3 metre huts (which were 2 & 3 stories high in some parts). Lots of them had a blue tarpaulin roof and they were built all the way up beside the runway.
So all going well, we went straight out into the monsoon weather. Having a taxi organised meant there was no stress and we were off on our way to the hotel. I love renting a car when on holidays and I happily drove around all of Italy, but I would never, ever get behind a wheel in Mumbai. It basically works like this - fit your car into whatever space exists, drive a few inches from the cars on either side and beep your horn frequently. The main road into the city from the airport is what we would call a 3 lane motorway. There are no line markings and as the cars are mainly small (think Cinquecento), they were managing about 7 abreast at 50mph with a few trucks in the middle of it all to mix it up a bit. Today we actually saw a learner doing a 'first lesson' in the middle of it all - hilarious. Their driving instructing company was called "Good Luck" and that is most definitely what that person needed!
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| Mumbai Monsoon |
Checked in (not without a few room mixups) we hit the streets. Claire was instantly a main tourist attraction with lots of gawking and casually taken camera phone photos going on (I don't think she noticed most of it which is probably for the best). Claire edit: "I was just playing cool - sure this happens me all the time!". Walking on the streets at any time is like walking in rush hour work traffic in the middle of any other city I have ever been in. None of the footpaths have enough space and most of them are covered in enterprising street shops anyway, so you pretty much share the slow lane with bicycles, motorbikes and taxis. Crossing the road is also a riot as the pedestrian lights go straight from green to red and then all of the cars charge at you. Definitely taking your life into your hands!
After checking out some markets, the university and the high court we eventually found ourselves outside one of the main museums in the city (the Prince of Wales Museum). We went in (they had fans - it was great) and saw a very big collection of Buddhas, Shivas, Ganeshes and the like. The also had a very impressive natural history area with a number of eagles and other Himalayan birds that I would not like to meet on a mountain as well as a real White Tiger (apparently the other ones around the world are just normal albino tigers).
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| Prince of Wales Museum Balcony |
Suffering from jet-lag we started to fade badly at this point. I didn't really want to eat given all the scare stories I heard about the food but the voice of reason (Claire) pointed out that we had to eat some time so we went to this great little vegetarian restaurant called Samrat. Lesson 1; the same words on a menu here do not mean the same food as at home (I did not get a Bhaji). Lesson 2; if you rack up a bill of 10 euro, you've probably ordered way too much food. After eating what I could (it's tough in this heat) I fell asleep delighted I'd survived the day and blown away by the life in this city.
Day 2 - Running around Mumbai
A dodgy hotel breakfast was not the best start - cold boiled eggs that tasted sulphurous, thankfully we stopped eating quickly and stuck to milk-less tea. Having only one day to see this city before moving on we got out the door and headed for the hot spots. Our first stop was the Modern Art Museum (MGMA). In my view this is a real GEM. There were paintings by somebody called Gautam Waghela (particularly monologue) and an A. A. Almelkar that were spectacular. The building that these paintings are set in was also fantastic (great air-conditioning too). Unfortunately no photos are allowed.
Then we went down to see the Gate of India. This was built to welcome the King of England (George V) in 1911 and used only a few decades later to host the leaving ceremony for British troops exiting India. Claire was again the main tourist attraction with people asking for photos with her. We then decided to go for a cup of tea in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel; it quickly turned into a delicious and by Indian standards very expensive lunch. This was the hotel that was attacked by terrorists in 2008 and there's an airport security operation on the door. However, when you get inside it's spectacular with the most opulent rooms, corridors, washrooms, staff treatment, courtyards I think I've ever seen. There were even nicer looking areas behind the 'residents only' doors - hopefully we'll return here one day.
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| Claire at the Gate of India, moments before a photo call with the local paparazzi |
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| The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel |
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| Living it up at The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel |
Refreshed and feeling good we went around the block to check out Leopold's cafe (which should be familiar to anybody who has read Shantaram). All I can say is, it's a bar, the image in your mind's eye is way better, don't go. Hopping into a taxi we shot across the city to the Hanging Gardens on Malabar Hill. The perfect antidote for a roasting hot afternoon, beautiful gardens and great views of the city kept a brilliant day on the right track. We then found a great cafe in a book shop and had a cheese toast (comfort food is way more comforting here)!
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| The Hanging Gardens |
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| Hanging Gardens on Malibar Hill |
With the worst of the heat now out of the sun, we then went on a huge walk through Kemps Corner, Malibar, Chowpatty Beach and Marine Drive to take in the sights, the sea breeze and as always the hoards and hoards of people. What a day, what a place!
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| Reflecting on a wonderful day on Chowpatty Beach, Marine Drive |
