First Day Explorers
After a good night's sleep, we woke early...ish for breakfast. We were hoping for a traditional Indian spicy fair but got a traditional boiled egg, bread and jam. We washed it down with a hot cup of Chai, so all was good.
We ventured out in search of a few sites, however were easily distracted by fresh fruit platters, mango lassis and mobile phone cover shops. Next, an ATM stop to test various SBI machines. One small branch failed but the head office one worked. This was near the Mumbai stock exchange, complete with bull outside.
We ended up at Horniman circular garden. An interesting name but the garden was being 'refurbished' - dug up.
Marine drive is famous amongst the people of Mumbai. A huge boulevard next to the sea for romantic strolls. The stroll today wasn't filled with romance, more noise pollution as the whole sea defence boulevard was being fixed. Almost all of it for mile after mile. We had to walk on the dual carriageway but soon got fed up and headed inland.
A fancy hospital caught our attention. We crossed the train tracks and headed to an old Portuguese area, followed by the red light district, chow bazar, full of various things including broken up cars, antiques and a number of 'His Masters Voice' gramaphones! Lunch was in an Islamic area. A delicious Keema and naan.
Later and we headed to Crawford market. Lots of spices and animals too. Some cute colourful birds and puppies in cages. We almost bought them all ...
The old Victoria train station is a little special. It is now called Chatrapathi Shivaji MarharajTerminus and is a magnificent building with UNESCO world heritage status.
Dahi (curd) was purchased along with a huge bottle of water to cool us down. Mumbai is hot!
Staying next to the big fancy Taj Hotel means late night eats are more like snacks than full on meals. Meals are available but cost much, much more. So, we ate again at a great restaurant that provided a rather magnificent veg thali. It had everything, basmati rice, popadums, chapatis, pickle, dal, channa masala, mutter masala, onion, raita ...WOW!
We started heading back towards our accommodation, stopping for a chai along the way. We were approached by a man selling maps of India. Having politely refused the chap then wanted to tell us all about the festival which had just taken place all across India. He then invited us to join him for chai and a chat. He told us about a government scheme where tourists can buy an India Pass to use on all public transport. He took us to the office, which turned out to be an agent charging an extortionate amount of money for a pass. We politely declined, thanked the chap for his help and headed back to base.
