We were on a plane to Mumbai (aka Bombay) after a great trip to Hosapete and the UNESCO ruins in Karnataka State. As the plane made its approach to land, we flew over one of the world’s largest slums - Dharavi, with over 1 million people crammed into 2.1 square kilometres of Mumbai land - a very sobering moment.
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| Flying in over the huge Mumbai slums |
We grabbed a taxi from the airport and the ride took us alongside the sad-looking slum area, then through the economic heart of Mumbai with its many high-rise buildings, before reaching old Mumbai with its heritage buildings.
Our accommodation was here in old Mumbai, at Hotel Elphinstone. We pulled up outside what we thought, was the hotel entrance and our hearts dropped. We saw the outside façade – just a dirty looking doorway leading who knowns where!
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| This where the taxi dropped us. But our hotel was 200 metres back |
There were lots of men sitting around the outside, and vehicles randomly parked. We were aghast. But it turned out that the taxi had gone past the hotel entrance, which, when we did eventually get there, turned out to be slightly better.
We plastered on a smile, said 'namaste' to all the men sitting out the front, and lugged our suitcases along the road then up two flights of stairs, hoping we were finally in the right place.
At the top we arrived at a doorway that led into a smart, tidy hotel reception area – whew what a relief!
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| Happy feet in Mumbai |
We received a lovely welcome and lead to a smallish but neat and clean room. Marg wasted no time in trying out the electronic foot massage machine in the foyer!
Mumbai, once seven swampy sparsely populated islands, is now a joined-up megalopolis of around 20 million people, and India's financial capital. We were looking forward to seeing as much as we could of this interesting city.
The next morning, we went for a walk around old Mumbai. We were staying in the Fort area so were in a great area for walking to many of Mumbai's historic sights.
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| Chattrapati Shivaji Railway Station (UNESCO) |
Just up the road was the jaw-dropping Chattrapati Shivaji Railway Terminus, formerly known as the Victoria Terminus, built in gothic style between 1878 and 1888. This beautiful building is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and still serves as one of Mumbai's main railway stations. It is really quite stunning, and also huge.
This was only the first of many amazing buildings we saw in Mumbai. What a fascinating place.
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| Mumbai UNESCO art deco building |
One highlight for us was the area called ‘The Victorian and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai’, another UNESCO site. The ensemble, is a collection of 19th century gothic-style and 20th century art deco-style buildings, all in a cluster around a large park called The Maidan.
Some of the art deco ones seemed to be rather tired and not looked after, compared to the Gothic ones. But they were all spectacular.
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| Top (L to R): High Court and Municipal Corporation. Below: David Sassoon Library and Oriental Bldgs |
The Gothic one included the High Court, the Municipal Corporation building, the David Sassoon Library, the Oriental Buildings, the University, the Rajabai Clock Tower at the Maidan, and many others. It was a gloriously ornate collection of Gothic buildings all fairly close together.
These buildings are a legacy of British rule
during the mid-19th century when Mumbai was called Bombay. The name
was changed to Mumbai in 1995 to better reflect its Indian origins.
We visited many other places such as museums and markets, then a few days later, we took a ferry out to Mumbai's Elephanta Caves.
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| Elephanta Caves (UNESCO) |
These are Hindu and Buddhist caves carved into basalt rock on an island in the Arabian Sea, off Mumbai. They date back to the 2nd century BC and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Mumbai ferry dropped us at Elephanta Island near a little train, which then transported us to the bottom of a very long flight of steps. We climbed the steps through many, many wee shop stalls, until we reached the entrance to the caves.
We spent quite a bit of time there. We've seen other cave temples but these are so old - they are spectacular!
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| Taj Palace Hotel (L) and the Gateway of India arch (R) with modern Mumbai behind |
The return ferry dropped us back in Mumbai, beside the grand Gateway of India monument. This is a giant arch built to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1924.
Close-by is the imposing Taj Palace Hotel which is a very grand building. The temperature was in the high 30's so we popped into the Taj for a cooling drink, but ended up having a very fancy high-tea instead.
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| Views of the boats in the Arabian Sea from the Taj Palace Hotel, Mumbai |
The cakes in our high-tea were huge and there were so many of them - they were delicious. We tried them all, so it was not good for either the stomach or the credit card. However, it was worth it if only for the stunning view over the bay.
It was almost time to leave Mumbai. We’ve seen some of her smart shopping malls and
high-rise business houses, plenty of places of worship for various denominations,
men delivering huge quantities of lunches to office workers, animals in the street, markets, beaches, historic
places and architecture, and abject deprivation.
It is a vastly diverse city in terms of modern v’s ancient architecture, sophistication v’s basic, wealth v’s poverty, and
functioning v’s non-functioning infrastructure.
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| Sunset on our last night in Mumbai |
On our last night, we wandered along the waterfront to view the spectacular sunset with hundreds of locals, then found a nice restaurant for dinner.
After several days of visiting the historic sights, museums and monuments, and dodging street sellers and cows, it was time to move on. Our next stop will be Aurangabad and some UNESCO sites in central India.
The above blog is part of our 2-month tour of India. The first blog on this tour is called "Off to Delhi".