Mumbai, India (01/24 ~ 01/26)

After one hectic morning of airport confusion and flight delays, we made it to Mumbai where it was sunny, warm and still early afternoon. A guy working with our tour company met us at the airport when we came out and then passed us off to our driver for the day. We were only there for two nights so the first guy explained everything quickly and completely concerning our time in Mumbai before we headed for our hotel. They made the process ridiculously easy and we were very thankful for that. One of us may have said this in a previous post, but there is something really nice about getting off an airplane in a new country and having someone already there with your name on a sign to get you to your destination. No hassles of having to haggle over transportation type and price.

There was plenty of traffic but we made it to our hotel, Hotel Suba Palace, by mid-afternoon, and we were extremely hungry due to the early morning and flight delay but had to find a post office to send some stuff home first. Our hotel told us there was one close by but we didn’t find it from the directions they gave. We asked some locals and finally found one, whose employees then told us they only had domestic service so we then had to jump in a cab and tell them GPO Post Office, their international one. The cabs in Mumbai look like they are from the 1970’s; floral interior, no air conditioner, and only one door works (if you’re lucky). But, they are extremely cheap! It only cost us about $1 for a twenty minute ride. We had a bunch of gifts and souvenirs from our two weeks in Rajasthan that we needed to send home. All of these things were just in a couple of big plastic bags and we thought we could just get a box at the post office to put everything in.

However, once we got to the international counter inside they told us we needed to box it up ourselves. I asked one of the security guys who then went to find someone to help us. A few minutes later, some guy in regular clothes asks us to follow him if we want box up our stuff. But, he proceeds out the front door and says to follow him because we have to get a box from his shop. I was fine with this but Madison thought it might be some kind of scam so we stopped, went back and double-checked with the security guy. He confirmed that this was what we had to do so we then followed the box guy across the street to a makeshift covered area. There were about 4-5 guys sitting at little tables there who provide boxing services. This was really strange for us but apparently this is how it’s done.

The first box they showed us was some used fruit box with water stains on it, so we said no, we want a new box. The guy runs to get one, gets our things boxed up, and then proceeds to cover the box with cloth and actually sew the edges up tightly around the box. We were both confused but also amazed at how fast he did this part. I also had to take our address page and go next door to get two copies made, which were only 2 rupees total (so cheap). We got the proper addresses on the now cloth-covered box, plus our two copies and the guy only asked for about $5 for his services. The price was fine with us, what other choice did we have, so we were now ready to go back inside the post office.

We got the box and some post cards sent off with no problems after that and could now, finally, get some food in our bellies. That whole post office experience was something else though…

Mumbai is quite a big city with a current population of 13 million. Honestly, it was kind of cool being back in a big city again after the dirty towns in the north but at the same time it didn’t have as much culture and was pretty anticlimactic compared to Rajasthan. We’re used to big cities after spending so much time in Seoul, but they all kind of end up looking the same after a while. When we got back to the area our hotel was in we decided to try and grab some pizza. I was craving some western food after all the Indian food we’d been eating recently. We found a place that was nice, the food overpriced, but overall it did the trick for the time being. Then, we went and walked the shopping street near our hotel. It was a street market with stalls lining one of the main streets for many blocks. They sold all kinds of stuff like bangles, scarves, magnets, bracelets, and much more. The prices all seemed decent too, so we just did a little price scouting, listening to the offers the sellers gave us at different places so we could get an idea of what amounts to haggle with the next day. We were pooped from the long day and just headed back to our hotel for the evening after that.

Inside the Central Train Station

The next day, we were picked up by a new driver and a local guide for Mumbai. This was the first time we had gotten a female guide and she was quite the talker. Madison wasn’t a huge fan. Most of the main sights we saw that day weren’t very far from our hotel, so the tour seemed to go quickly. We went by Mumbai’s central train station, which is where some of the scenes from Slumdog Millionaire were filmed. We learned that the Mumbai train system is the deadliest in the world with two fatalities every day! Like many of the buildings, its architecture was strongly British-influenced. In fact, most of the town areas we saw reminded us of being in London or some other European city.

We also saw a place called Dhobi Ghat, considered the world’s largest outdoor laundry cleaners. There are rows and rows of open-air washing pools, each with it’s own flogging stone to beat the clothing with. The washers (Dhobis) work in the open air there to clean clothing and linens from many restaurants, hotels, hospitals all over Mumbai. Residents can also have their laundry done here and Dhobi Ghat provides a pick-up and drop-off service. This was probably one of the more interesting things we saw that day.

Another interesting stop was a house called Mani Bhavan. This was a residence in downtown Mumbai where Mahatma Ghandi frequently stayed and worked. It was the focal point of Ghandi’s political activities between 1917 and 1934. Nowadays it is a memorial to Ghandi and still houses a library of books that Ghandi and other locals have used in the past, along with a museum dedicated to Ghandi’s life and work.

Some of the other attractions on our itinerary that day were a couple of museums as well as another Jain temple but we declined going to those. We generally don’t care much for museums, and we’d seen a number of Jain temples by this time. So, that left us with the option of going for lunch. We told our guide that we like the local experience when it comes to food – relaxed atmosphere, delicious food, and cheap prices. However, they proceeded to drop us off in front of a high-end restaurant that seems like just another tourist trap. Our guide told us it was a great place and we decided to humor her and look at the menu. Once inside, we saw that it’s quite expensive but also very quiet and boring. So, we just went looking on our own and found a much better option just down the street. Our whole meal at that place was less than half of what it would have cost at the first place. Small victories!!!

Our guide saw us walking up and looked a little worried that we’d ditched them. We explained again about our restaurant preferences, and how we walked to find a better option. She immediately apologized a bunch of times for not following up on that comment earlier, but whatever…

On our way to our next stop, we saw an Indian wedding going on and we told them how much we’d love to see one. Our driver pulled over, and our guide took us into it a little to give us a closer look. Everyone was dressed up in brightly colored formal outfits and many of the men wore long, multi-colored head scarves. The women were done up in vivid Saris of all colors, sparkling jewelry and intricate henna designs on their hands and forearms. The wedding party was dancing to some popular Indian music in a big circle of people. The groom was perched on a white horse off to one side, a colorful umbrella was giving him shade and the women of the wedding party were coming up to pinch his nose or face. Our guide explained that this was a traditional, playful way for the girls to get better acquainted with the groom.

We then moved on to see the Crawford Market and finally the Gateway of India. The former of the two is a fairly well-known, open market in the middle of town that sells fruit, vegetables, pets, snacks, and other goods. We probably only spent about 20 minutes there though as our guide explained a few things. I don’t want to sound snobby, but we’d seen much bigger and more impressive markets in Korea and Vietnam so this one wasn’t such a big deal in our opinion. Our guide was a little annoying at the market because she kept rushing us through and seemed bothered if we wanted to stop and look at or buy something. On our way out a man from the market started walking next to Madison and pointing at our guide saying, “Not good, not good.” It was a little weird. Our last sight was the Gateway of India, which is a big monument right on the coast, overlooking the Arabian Sea. It was built to celebrate the landing of King George V and Queen Mary when they visited India in 1911. We didn’t stop though because there were so many people there that it looked too crowded and not really worth it. It was also only about 5 minutes from our hotel, so we had seen it once or twice walking by on the previous day.

We did a little more shopping at the street stalls near our hotel that evening, then grabbed a little wine and beer from a wine shop before heading back. We ordered room service that evening while enjoying our drinks and watching Slumdog Millionaire. Overall, we feel like Mumbai has a cool city vibe to it that seems fun in certain ways. However, having just come from the amazing sights and experiences in Rajasthan it just made us miss those a bit more. To be fair though, two nights in Mumbai wasn’t truly enough to make an honest opinion so we’ll just have to come back some day and visit again! We also wish we would have had time to do a tour of the slums which we heard from friends was really interesting.  Like I said, I guess we’ll just have to come back someday!