Mumbai formerly Bombay

 

Left Taj Mahal Hotel, Right Gateway to India

We arrived in the morning of one day and departed the evening of the next, so we had time to really explore this city.  It is a huge city – population 22 million and growing.  Like New York it is the city many people from small towns go to “make it”.  It is also India’s commercial and entertainment center – Bollywood is based here.  Not many people come to Mumbai by cruise ship and the cruise terminal showed that lack of importance and I will just say it was not a great first impression of the town.  We learned that Mumbai was originally 7 islands.  There are still many smaller islands around it and lots and lots of various types of cargo ships.  It is in the state of Maharashtra which meant greatest or best something like that.

Tour of Mumbai

Jeff found a tour guide on “Tours by Locals” who is a local Lifestyle writer and Deputy Editor of Traveldine.com.  Priya Pathiyan,  was wonderful in combining a knowledge of the sites with knowing the pulse of the city.  We shared the tour with Tom and Linda.  Priya and her driver drove us around and pointed out many sites such as:  marine drive, St Thomas Cathedral, National Stock Exchange, an area where an Apple TV show is based including a local restaurant that Madonna ate at, spots where they are building their new rapid transit, and then we got out and walked around some neighborhoods too.

St Thomas's Cathedral            Top Right Pew Mother Teresa used
Middle Right one of many memorials to British officers who died

Fishing Fleet

Our first walking tour was of the black horse area or arts area.  The area is called the black horse because there is a statute of a black horse in the center of a traffic roundabout.  Priya pointed out an old hotel that used to be quite snobby and encouraged the building of the Taj Mahal Hotel and a place that was known for its vinyl records.  We then walked around the block and saw a synagogue that is now maintained by non-Jewish people since most of the Jews left when Israel was formed.  This area plus most of the above area is called the Fort Area.  There is no longer a fort here, rather it is where the British fort was at one time until the city outgrew it.  A tourism official had given me the names of a couple of shops to visit one of which was nearby – FabIndia so we all wandered in. We enjoyed the shopping, purchased a couple things and enjoyed the cool air conditioning.

Top - Black Horse
Top - Fancy Hotel left side of frame, synagogue on bottom right

FabIndia shop sign above Carol

Then it was back in the car for more exploring.  We went past the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Rajabai clock tower, cricket fields, the Chhatrapati Shivalji Terminus (Queen Victoria Train station), central building for the city and many other sites while heading for the Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link which is a long curved sea bridge linking the 2 edges of a bay (Mahim).  Our goal was the Portuguese fort or Bandra Fort.  It is a popular site for locals to visit since it has gardens, a beach and great views.  Directly across from it was another British Fort that is now surrounded by a fishing village.  We all enjoyed the view and then drove back across the bridge to the mainland.

Rajabai Tower

Looking down from Portuguese Fort

SeaLink

I had no idea what to expect when we headed for the world’s largest outdoor laundromat.  It was amazing.  Had to say that and leave it on its own.  The laundromat consists of lots of clotheslines, barrels with soap and water and people’s homes.  The laundromat is partitioned into numerical areas and each area is owned by a specific family.  Someone goes door to door in the neighboring areas of Mumbai to get people’s dirty clothes and put them in huge bundles to bring back to the laundromat.  The clothes are sorted by color and then the men in the family wash them.  Priya said it is amazing how accurate they are in getting the correct clothing back to the owners as in someone did a study and they are at the six sigma level of accuracy.  There are other outdoor laundromats in Mumbai but this was the largest.

Housing is on a second floor with no apparent stairs

Bottom - Bundles of clothes

Men washing clothes in barrels

After that we all agreed it was time for a tea break and Priya took us to a popular tea café.  While the menu was in English I really had no idea what I had ordered and I think Jeff was in the same way.  I knew I had ordered a cold bubble tea drink with blueberry in it.  I was thinking tea would be the prominent flavor but was mistaken since it was very sweet and fruity with nice big tea bubbles that tasted like tapioca.  The drink was nice but a little too sweet for me.  

The driver then dropped us at a dead end street with some small homes.   A broom was blocking a narrow alley.  Priya approached an old women and asked her something.   The women removed the barricade and we entered a small space with the Hindu Temple below on the left and a couple steps further on the right we saw a large water pool surrounded by what looked like grand stands, which is the Benganga Tank.  It is believed to be a tributary of the Ganga River which is sacred to Hindu.  People were swimming in the water and we could see where fresh water was flowing in.  There are large steps/benches leading down to the water.  Priya said that they used to set up stages in the middle of the water and have concerts there until it was realized that the vibrations were ruining the foundation of the area.  The tank was surrounded by at least 6 temples around it.  We saw various roof lines from our vantage point and wandered around one.

Benganga Tank

While driving around some more, we saw the hanging gardens which look like a nice park as you drive by but our called hanging because they are built over a body of water.  Priya then pointed out an unusual tall building that she said belonged to one of the wealthiest men in India.  The entire building below is occupied solely by him and his wife.  

We then headed for the neighborhood where Mahatma Ghandi lived 1917-1934.  While there he launched his “Civil Disobedience” in 1932 which led to Indian independence in 1947.  It was a nice area but nothing memorable.  Priya taught us a little about his life how he was from a well to do family and went to law school in London.  It was while he was in South Africa that he first ran into racism and started to develop his ideals of peaceful resistance and change.  The museum is his former house with a library on the first floor with books he read (he was well read) and his bedroom in the top of the house maintained as it was when he was living.  They had his correspondence back and forth with President Roosevelt and Tolstoy.   There was also a letter to Adolph Hitler requesting he end his nation's aggression.   It was quite interesting to see the stories of his marches and how the world transformed him into the man/legend we now think of as Mahatma Ghandi.  

He would speak to crowds from the balcony above

his bedroom as he left it

At the museum we learned about the meaning behind the Indian flag.  I have heard 2 different descriptions of the colors one being each represents one of the 3 main religions in the country and the other pointing out the traditional meaning of the colors themselves.  Here at the Ghandi museum, I learned that the symbol in the middle represents a spinning wheel.  The spinning wheel dates to one of the first protests against British rule.  After the American Revolutionary War, the British needed a new source of cotton and chose India.  So the cotton was being exported to Britain where it was being turned into fiber and then coming back at expensive prices.  Ghandi was part of the group that encouraged people to start making their own fiber and cloth from the raw cotton thus cutting out the British.  It became quite popular to burn your British made material and to move over to the less soft Indian material to show your alliance with India itself rather than Britain.

Dinner time – Priya had recently reviewed a new northern Indian restaurant, Nksha which we all agreed sounded interesting so off we went to it.  It is located on a street with several other restaurants. Seems it is rare for a nice Indian restaurant to open these days.   It was quite nice inside and with Priya ordering for us we had a great family style meal.  We drank a white and a red wine from an Indian winery.  We started with an amuse buche that included edamame wrapped in a dough and a sauce.  We also had little cracker/breads that we ate with various sauces/curries.  Then the real food started with our first dish being a pita bread like concoction with soft cheese stuffed in it – it was wonderful.  An order of 2 types of Naan one with onions in it.  We quickly moved on to our other dishes. Which I guess the wine kicked in because all I remember is the lamb that was too spicy for me, but that the others all enjoyed. Ending with a small dessert.

Jeff, Carol, Tom, Linda and Priya

After dinner, we went out to enjoy the city after dark.  The prettiest site was the Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and the neighboring city building they even have a little park/roundabout that you can stop at to take pictures.  The train station was built originally for Queen Victoria.  It is currently the train station for the central line of the city train system.  Between their 2 train lines 7 million people use the trains daily so it is a hopping place.  We never made it inside but are told it is quite impressive which makes sense since the outside is.  At night they shine different colored lights on different aspects of the building and of the neighboring city building.  It is rather magical.  Then it was time to return to our ship for the night.

Administrative Building

Train Station

Elephanta Island, UNESCO World Heritage Site

The next morning we took an excursion that took us by boat to Elephanta Island.  The boat ride originated at the Gateway of India which was originally built in honor of the visit of King George V.  It is a tall archway right at the entrance of a harbor which used to be the main entry to India.  

Gateway of India

From there we had an hour long boat ride out to the island.  Elephanta island got its name from the Portuguese who noticed the huge elephant sculpture at the entrance to the “cave”.  I put cave in quotation marks because it is not a natural cave rather it is a manmade cave carved out of solid rock at the top of a hill on this island.  It is impressive for the number of carvings in it and for the skill that was used in making them.  The entire structure and carved images is one solid piece of rock rather than individual items placed in a room.  Unfortunately, the site was damaged when the Portuguese arrived and objected to the Temple.   The statue of the Elephant for which it was named, now resides at the Mumbai City Museum.   Click here to see it and learn more.  

The cave is a tribute to the Hindu god Shiva who is one of the 3 main gods in that religion.  He is known as the destructor, but as our guide explained that is not necessarily a bad thing since everything must die and he sometimes protects people.  There were about 10 different carvings or areas of the cave honoring different aspects of the deity.  One was when he got married another showed him angry so he gets extra arms at that time, a happy one and the last was honoring the fact that he is the god of yoga.    I said this cave is up a hill.  There are 129 steps to be hiked to get up this hill to his cave.  On our way up we were told to keep drinking water, don’t feed the monkeys and not to stop at any of the shops along the way.  You see it is maybe a 6 foot wide path with little stalls along much of it that merchants have set up shop and are trying to entice you into buying something from them.  On our way back down we did peruse a little for the huge sum of a single US dollar we bought a key chain of Mumbai and a silver metal ring band for me.  

entrance to the cave

This was a very aggressive Monkey who scared someone into giving up their water.  

Then it was back to our boat ride to return to our ship.  Jeff and I took a side trip from the excursion to hit another shop with items exclusively made in India that I had been advised about from the tourism people.  It was a further walk then we had been led to believe partially because the Indian Navy has a large presence in the area so a block when it is a Navy institution is a big block!  Anyway we were proud of ourselves because we learned how to walk along like locals and not get killed crossing the streets.  It was worth it because it was another nice shop.  I got a Mumbai tee shirt, Jeff got a decorative tree he has been eyeing for awhile and a couple of presents.  After we made it back to the ship it was time to go through Indian immigration one last time (they were serious about immigration and checking our papers each time) and then hitting the high seas for a 2 day crossing on our way to the Gulf of Oman and United Arab Emirates.

Tour Boat returning to Mumbai