Downtown Mumbai

It’s about 30km from the hotel to the centre of old Mumbai. We were picked up by our driver at about 2.30 and sat back to enjoy the trip. It took us about an hour. The roads are as entertaining as ever, with a whole new set of road rules to what we are used to. See my Delhi blog for the full set of traffic rules. I’d add that each motorbike must have <=1 helmet per bike (not seen a single bike yet where more than one person is wearing a helmet. I’ve seen plenty where the helmet is nice and safely tied to the back of the bike). We drove around a lot: didn’t stop many places, which was disappointing. I think the driver probably “knows” what guests expect, and perhaps didn’t think we could cope with the excitement of getting out of the car very often. I would have liked to go into the Victoria Terminus railway station (VT) as it’s in the guidebooks as one of the top attractions in Mumbai, so there are two alternatives: either there are very few attractions in Mumbai and this one is acceptable, or it’s an absolutely fantastic station. I suspect the former. Anyway, we went past the outside. The driver kept pointing out railway stations all the way down into Mumbai, which got quite funny, as they were just little suburban stations, not really interesting at all. He’s obviously not been on the advanced sightseeing training course. The weather was at the soggy end of acceptable. There was a fantastic drenching at one point (we were in the car), then some intermittent rain, then it cleared up a bit with some sun later. My trousers got totally mud-spattered below the knees. Should’a worn shorts or a skirt (or then again, maybe I’ll just let the laundry deal with them). None of had our umbrellas (hotel or otherwise) so this is obviously what encouraged the rain.

Our first stop was at an Emporium (regional crafts) – nothing like the fantastic CCIE in Delhi, this was tiny and only really had carpets and jewellery and silk scarves. Nothing I wanted to buy. Just around the corner from the Emporium is the Gateway to India
which is a bit of a monument and worth stopping off for a photo. There were not many Western faces at all. Many tourists, but just from other parts of India, probably. Phil & I were invited into a private (locked) garden right in front of the Gateway… obviously for the sole purpose of asking us to pay something to get out again (not like kidnapping, more like trying to guilt us into giving them money).

We drove around a bit more, ending up at the tip of Marine Drive (we saw the other Intercontinental hotel – much tinier, but restaurants nearby and the sea).
There were some fantastic sea defence concrete construction blocks: like giant Jacks. We also saw a group of fishermen setting their net. Their boat was just a big airbag and they had a makeshift paddle. Looked rather too exciting! The sea was quite up-and-down.
We drove on, up past Chowpatti beach (apparently on weekend evenings this is standing room only, and more), and on to the Hanging Gardens. Some nice views over the bay, down Marine Drive. Then there were some pretty bits of topiary in the shape of animals which I’ve failed to get a close up picture of. A peaceful place in the busy city. But it was funny walking through the ornamental gardens and avoiding the puddles: sort of like a maze – “how do we get out?”

Then we drove home.

For the evening, we had a very nice meal in the Chinese restaurant (as I think I’ve mentioned before! Sizzling. Walnut. Fudge. Brownies.)

Then I stayed up late, maximising my internet use (24 hours – and I’d started at about 2 in the morning). I called home and got in touch with Seattle – all free(ish). And uploaded some blog entries.