Jeremy's Cool Travel Blog: Incredible Mumbai! pt. 1

Saturday, January 4

My flight to India took me from Warsaw to Mumbai with a two-hour layover in London. I hadn't been to Heathrow for over 20 years and was surprised at how big it is. My layover was spent browsing through the high-end shops in the international terminal and enjoying a coffee and beer with a fellow traveller - Eileen from Scotland - on her way to Singapore. I probably could have skipped the beer, as I had to then rush to the gate for my Mumbai flight. I didn't realize that getting to the gate involved taking a short subway-type train across the terminal. Of course, it ended up malfuntioning for about 10 minutes, leaving me and many others worried that we could miss our flight. Thankfully ended well.

Following an uneventful flight, I landed in Mumbai at around noon on Saturday. "This was the moment I've been waiting for and slightly dreading" I thought. Indeed, my guidebook warned of being bombarded by people and noise as soon as I set foot outside the airport. I was also concerned about finding a taxi that could take me to my apartment without too much hassle.

It turns out my fears were misplaced. Having made it though customs (where I had to fill out a new form because I'd filled mine out in green pen), I retrieved my bag, took out some money from the ATM and reserved a cab from a taxi stand. I easily located the cab outside the airport, where there were no more people milling about than outside of any major North American airport.

The next step - getting to my apartment - was a bit more complicated. I showed the driver the directions I received from my host and provided him with a map of major intersections that I had prepared from Google maps. The apartment was not far away and the directions were straight forward, so I figured it would be easy. The driver told me to relax, so I sat back to enjoy the ride. It wasn't long that I began suspecting that we were off course. The driver's English was limited, so I asked him to call my host for specific directions. After his call with her I thought we'd be OK, but I still had the feeling that he didn't know where he was (or was pretending not to). The major landmark near the apartment is a Hindu temple called Arya Samaj. The driver would frequently stop people to ask where it was, but the directions never seemed to be clear. Finally, after about 30 minutes, several calls to my host, and even more stops to ask for directions, we made it to the apartment. One of the first things my host said was "That driver is so stupid!" She was also amazed at the accuracy of the map I had drawn and couldn't understand how anyone could have so much trouble finding the apartment. In the end the ride cost me about double of what it should have, but that double was only 300 rupees ($4.50), so I wasn't complaining.

My apartment is in Bandra West (or more specifically, Santacruz West), located in northern Mumbai in a district known as the western suburbs. The area is known for its restaurants and night life and is to central Mumbai what Brooklyn is to Manhattan. In other words, lots of stuff to do, but not as intense.

The bedroom I rented for the next five nights is in a spaceous place (see here) owned by a lovely woman named Dolly. Given the astonishing cost of accomodations in Mumbai (higher than many places in Europe) and the sheer size of the city, I was happy to be staying in a private residence in a quieter area, rather than some of the busy hostels I'd read about.

After a much-needed siesta, I left the apartment at around 6:00 to explore the neighbourhood and get something to eat. Surprisingly enough, there's a Starbucks two blocks from my place, and not far from there, a major street called Linking Road, where you can find many major clothing shops like Guess, Nike, Levi's, etc. The rest of the neighbourhood is filled with various shops, restaurants and residences ranging from high-end apartments to shanties. For the next couple of hours, I wandered around, sampled food from street vendors (including dabeli - a mixture of boiled potatoes and dabeli masala stuffed in a bun and served with chutneys, pomegranate and roasted peanuts - and a type of toasted sandwich with cucumbers and tomatoes), and enjoyed a delicious vegetarian dinner at a well-known local restaurant. Happy with my food discoveries, I was also happy to discover that I people didn't pay me too much notice. Maybe that's to be expected in a city of 18 million that's home to people from all over the world, but it was a welcome surprise from the attention I attracted in West Africa and even Beijing.

I went to bed full and happy, feeling more oriented in the neighbourhood and looking forward to the rest of my stay in Mumbai.

Sunday, January 5

I was awoken at 6am to the sound of gun fire nearby... or what I thought was gun fire. I later learned that this was the sound of firecrackers or something that are set off by the Hindu community down the street. They do this almost every morning and it's f'ing loud! But at least it's not gun fire.

Rickshaw ridin' with Kaashvi and Reema

I had plans this morning to have brunch with three young ladies - Reema, Kaashvi and Tanvi - that I was put in touch with through my friend Abhishek in Toronto. Tanvi works as a yoga instructor and we arranged to meet at a charming restaurant / yoga studio where she teaches and that is not too far from my place. En route, I had my first experience in a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, which is the main type of taxi in Bandra. This is a super fun and incredibly cheap form of transportation, and the drivers are very adept at naviaging the insane traffic (as far as I can tell, the only rule for driving in India is to keep to the left side of the road).

After a delicious brunch, Reema and Kaashvi were kind enough to help me aquire a SIM card for my phone (which required me to submit two passport photos and a copy of my passport). Kaashvi then dropped me off at a nearby area called Bandstand, which has a long promenade along the west coast of Bandra and is popular with young couples, families and joggers enjoying the sea-side breeze.

Later that night, I accompanied Dolly and her friend Bakhu to bar in central Mumbai called Ghetto. According to Dolly, this place has been around for 25 years and was Mumbai's first pub. As my guidebook accurately describes it, Ghetto is "a grungy, graffiti-covered hangout blaring rock nightly to a dedicated set of regulars." The bar is a bit dated by Toronto standards, but this ain't Toronto and it was a fun time shooting pool with Dolly and Bakhu while listenting to classic rock hits.

Monday, January 6

Today was another great day.

Reema, who works as a journalist for the Times of India, offered to accompany me downtown on her way to work. As she put it, a foreigner's first time taking the train in Mumbai can be a harrowing experience. I met her at Bandra station where we caught the train. We paid more to get tickets in the first class car, which apart from the padded seats is the same as a standard car, though less crowded. It was still busy, but not any more so than a Toronto train at rush hour... but this wasn't rush hour. If I did choose to return to Bandra by train, it would likely be during rush hour, so Reema advised me simply to take a cab if I wanted to avoid the stress. The fun (or maybe scary) part of the train is that there are no doors; people are free to hang half way out of the car if they need the space. Thankfully there are lots of bars and things to hold on to.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus

Once downtown, we took a short cab ride to Reema's office building where we parted ways. My first stop was right across the street: the famous Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus) station. VT station was completed in 1887 and is a mix of Victorian, Hindu and Islamic styles. It's also Asia's busiest train station and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2004.

I then made my way south through the bustling Fort Area, which is lined with old Victorian buildings. I continued on though the Kala Ghoda art district where I had lunch at an art gallery and then further on to area known as Colaba. Colaba is the city's southernmost peninsula and is home to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel and the Gateway of India, which was built to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George V. Walking around the Gateway was interesting as there are many Indian tourists there as well; it was fun to watch them getting their photos taken, etc. Nearby was the famous Leopold's bar (heavily featured in the book Shantaram), but it was cramped with disgusting tourists, so I didn't bother going in.

Gateway of India

The next couple of hours was spent strolling around the streets of Colaba, simply oberving the daily life of locals, including street hawkers and vendors, mechanics, salespeople, amateur cricketeers and students. At around 4:00 I caught a cab home, which took about 45 minutes due to traffic, but only cost $3!

That night I attended a yoga class taught by my friend Tanvi, who is in the process of opening her own studio, but interim gives classes on the roof of her apartment building. After a day in downtown Mumbai, it was magic to spend an hour doing yoga under the (smog covered) stars and amid the sounds of the city (i.e. incessant honking).

To be continued...