Mumbai is OK
Sean | June 30, 2009Not great, but OK… The air quality is better than Bangalore (’cuz BLR rickshaws are 2 stroke, MUM cabs are 4 stroker or CNG) but it’s really just another big city…
After about 4 hour of sleep, I flew into Mumbia. You could easily tell when you’d moved from country side to the city.
I checked into a decent but cheap hotel in the Colaba neighborhood, and promptly fell asleep. The next day I booked a car to show me the sights.
The Gateway of India (built in 1911)
..Which is right next to the Taj Palace that was the terrorist target last year.
Marine Drive and Chowpatty Beach (which up close looks like crap - the dark line near the water is trash)
Hanging Garden (astonishingly unimpressive - even the animal sculpted bushed needed labels for you to tell what they were)
Mani Bhavan (Ghandi’s house and an inspiring memorial museum)
Tower of Silence - a creepy place where Parsi people put their dead here to be eaten by vultures and let the bones fall into the tower - yuck!
Washing Laundry (the biggest open laundry in Asia)
The Victorian Area of town
And a few more sights that were either not worth a pic, or pics not allowed:
Nairman Point (the Official area of Mumbai - kinda booring)
Jain Temple (a 100 year old silver temple that was surprisingly dull on the inside)
Malabar Hill (Where some of India’s billionaires live - booring)
After the tour, I checked out the “SOAK” exhibit at the museum of modern art - which detailed the 2005 monsoon flood where parts of town received over 3 ft of rain in a single day (while other parts only got 3 inches). It was very interresting to see the evolution of the city from a collection of low-lying islands to what it is today. Many different land reclaimation and waster control projects over the last 200 years explain why this city seems exceptionally unorganized. Much of the current “land” did not exist 200 year ago, so the major routes around town are often quite oddly placed.
After than I swung by the Leopold Cafe - a favorite hangout of travelers and ex-pats, and another place that was targeted by the terrorists. There’s even still bullet holes in the upper windows…
After that, I wandered the market main drag in Coloba and of all things - ran into an Egyptian girl that I had met in Ushuia, Argentina back in February.
