We got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning (sometime around 4 am) to head to the airport for our flight to Bombay (often referred to as Mumbai) -- locals use the two names interchangeably. I feel like Bombay is sort of like the Los Angeles of India: crowded with lots of people (over 16.4 M), horrible traffic (makes the 405 look like nothing), the Bollywood film industry, millionaires & billionaires, massive slums, posh restaurants & bars and a whole lot of coastline (though I don't encourage anyone traveling to Bombay to pop in for a dip).
Mumbai actually used to be made up of a number of islands, but land projects were done to connect them and fill them in to create the city we see today. Flying over provided a lovely view:
You can also see the stark difference between the enormous slums flanked by huge sky-rise apartments & offices:
Dharavi slum (made 'famous' by the film Slumdog Millionaire) is the largest in Mumbai. Nearly 60% of the population of Mumbai live in slums or shanty towns. I was very interested to learn that while these neighborhoods may appear chaotic from the outside, life in inside (while different) is surprisingly normal: residents pay rent, houses have kitchens & electricity, neighborhoods are divided up by settlements, often distinguished by peoples' trade: metal smiths, embroidery, potters, etc. In fact, these areas in Mumbai have an incredible $650M export business annually!
To get into the city, Elisabeth & I opted for the "Cool Cab" - because we always ride in style:
It ended up not being THAT cool. (A) there was no A/C and (B) it broke down about 2 blocks from our hotel. Here's a shot of the driver pushing it to the side of the road. Luckily, we packed light :)
The site of our gorgeous hotel quickly erased the "Cool Cab" from our memory:
The Taj Palace Hotel is absolutely stunning. It has been fully restored since the damages of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. We had a lovely room in the Towers. The view from our window & balcony overlooked The Gateway of India & the harbor.
After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we set out for the day to explore Mumbai. We were thrilled to find it to be an extremely walkable city, bustling with business workers, shop keepers, tourists, locals and university students. We hit up the major sights in the Colaba area:
The Gateway of India:
The Prince of Wales Museum:
Bombay University:
The area around the college felt just like in the states, tons of students milling about, complete with the local version of Kinkos (with students printing out course packs):
The Oval Maidans (basically like a Central Park - packed with people playing cricket):
And cows roaming freely:
Then we headed toward Victoria Terminus, a World Heritage Site. It was just as crowded and bustling as you would image (or remember from Slumdog Millionaire).
We were advised not to actually take the train, but here's me pretending to jump on. Not totally sure why I did this, but it seemed like a great photo-op at the time:
We wandered further along to Crawford Market. It was crazy crowded with people, motorcycles, cars & cows going every which way all at once. But it was also an incredible sensory overload of colors, and smells and noises -- just sort of like what you would imagine India would be like. Here are a few shots that give you an idea:
Then we stopped for a much needed lunch at Rajdhani, a traditional Thalis restaurant. Thalis basically = a buffet that they bring to you. You get lots of little dishes and they fill em up and then then keep coming by again and again and fill up the ones you like until you are going to explode. We were the only ones there when we first got in, so we got REALLY attentive service, ie. they watched us eat and after each bite popped by with that dish to refill :)
We spent another hour or so strolling through Crawford Market, until we practically overheated. It was HOT. Luckily, we spotted Badshah Drinks & Snacks - a MUCH needed oasis in the chaos:
We decided to splurge (read: 100 Rs - about $2.25) on a cab back to the hotel. It took us a bit of heckling and describing where were going, (Matt/Brian, if you are reading this, it was like the 'Ibiza Breezer' moment, no matter how many times we said it & described it, they could NOT understand Taj Hotel), but we got back & decided to spend the afternoon living it up at the hotel patio & pool. And wow, was it lovely:
That night we went to THE restaurant to see and be seen at: Indigo. After taking the VERY long way (after 20 minutes of searching, turns out it was right behind our hotel) we enjoyed a lovely (first non-India food) dinner at Indigo. While we didn't see any celebs we could recognize, it was a delicious meal. We tried the oysters from Cochin - they serve them with caviar on top of each oyster. One word: YUM:
Here we are dressed up for dinner:
Then we went back to the hotel and crashed. It was a long day, but a really good one.
Mumbai actually used to be made up of a number of islands, but land projects were done to connect them and fill them in to create the city we see today. Flying over provided a lovely view:
You can also see the stark difference between the enormous slums flanked by huge sky-rise apartments & offices:
Dharavi slum (made 'famous' by the film Slumdog Millionaire) is the largest in Mumbai. Nearly 60% of the population of Mumbai live in slums or shanty towns. I was very interested to learn that while these neighborhoods may appear chaotic from the outside, life in inside (while different) is surprisingly normal: residents pay rent, houses have kitchens & electricity, neighborhoods are divided up by settlements, often distinguished by peoples' trade: metal smiths, embroidery, potters, etc. In fact, these areas in Mumbai have an incredible $650M export business annually!
To get into the city, Elisabeth & I opted for the "Cool Cab" - because we always ride in style:
It ended up not being THAT cool. (A) there was no A/C and (B) it broke down about 2 blocks from our hotel. Here's a shot of the driver pushing it to the side of the road. Luckily, we packed light :)
The site of our gorgeous hotel quickly erased the "Cool Cab" from our memory:
The Taj Palace Hotel is absolutely stunning. It has been fully restored since the damages of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. We had a lovely room in the Towers. The view from our window & balcony overlooked The Gateway of India & the harbor.
After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we set out for the day to explore Mumbai. We were thrilled to find it to be an extremely walkable city, bustling with business workers, shop keepers, tourists, locals and university students. We hit up the major sights in the Colaba area:
The Gateway of India:
The Prince of Wales Museum:
Bombay University:
The area around the college felt just like in the states, tons of students milling about, complete with the local version of Kinkos (with students printing out course packs):
The Oval Maidans (basically like a Central Park - packed with people playing cricket):
And cows roaming freely:
Then we headed toward Victoria Terminus, a World Heritage Site. It was just as crowded and bustling as you would image (or remember from Slumdog Millionaire).
We were advised not to actually take the train, but here's me pretending to jump on. Not totally sure why I did this, but it seemed like a great photo-op at the time:
We wandered further along to Crawford Market. It was crazy crowded with people, motorcycles, cars & cows going every which way all at once. But it was also an incredible sensory overload of colors, and smells and noises -- just sort of like what you would imagine India would be like. Here are a few shots that give you an idea:
We spent another hour or so strolling through Crawford Market, until we practically overheated. It was HOT. Luckily, we spotted Badshah Drinks & Snacks - a MUCH needed oasis in the chaos:
The best banana milkshake ever (and that's saying a lot, because I have sampled quite a few)!
After a few hours of lounging, we took the hotel tour to learn about the history of The Taj Palace. Pretty cool. And like most things in India, it is owned by Mr. Tata. Here's a shot of the famous stairway (looked like Daddy Warbucks' house to me -- surprisingly though, not many people caught that reference). Turns out The Taj Palace is the 2nd most photographed building in India.
That night we went to THE restaurant to see and be seen at: Indigo. After taking the VERY long way (after 20 minutes of searching, turns out it was right behind our hotel) we enjoyed a lovely (first non-India food) dinner at Indigo. While we didn't see any celebs we could recognize, it was a delicious meal. We tried the oysters from Cochin - they serve them with caviar on top of each oyster. One word: YUM:
Here we are dressed up for dinner:
Then we went back to the hotel and crashed. It was a long day, but a really good one.
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