the journey continues…

Seems like a travelling season for me !!. This week we are in Mumbai,the financial capital of India.
It was a business trip for my husband and I thought of accompanying him as well. We booked Service Apartments this time as I was not much interested in staying at the hotel all alone. I also feel service apartments provide a good and cheaper service compared to 5-star hotels.
As this was my first time visit to Mumbai, I was little excited about the city as they show in movies..Mumbai a city of dreams…But as soon as we started entering the city, my excitement levels came down very fast.80% of the city is full of slums and these slums have become a part of the city. People are so used to these slums, they will continue to live like this further 10 more generations and hardly would ever think of removing slums from the city.I remembered Slumdog Millionaire !!

A day evening we went to Gateway Of India. Whole of the Mumbai has been connected by taxis and local trains.Taxis are very costly compared to trains. They have meters for these taxis which starts from 0.When we reached GateWay Of India from Marol the meter showed 22. We had no idea whether the meter shows the kilometers,rupeese nothing. The taxi driver took a card from his pocket and asked us to pay 350. I didn’t understand the logic behind these cards!!.Also these taxi drivers are very smart. If they come to know that you are not from Mumbai they will show one more card which says 500Rs for the same kilometers!!

Mumbai

Gate of India was very crowded as it was a weekend. You get boats from here to go to Elephanta Caves.We couldn’t make it to the caves due to time constraint.
In front is the Taj which reminds us the terrorist attacks of 26/11. They are still renovating some parts of the building.We enjoyed a nice chariot ride here.Horse Chariots are very common here as they would be used for weddings.The old guy who was running the horse said,One good horse costs around 1,50,000.If he gives it for a day he will earn around 3000/day.Everything is business here..people will sell anything to get money here..I was surprised to see people were selling mats for sitting in the Beach ..10rs each!!

A few kilometers from India Gate is Marine Drive.Marine drive is 3km long stretch along the natural bay of the Arabian Sea.People sit,speak,eat,walk ,sleep on this.
Next point is Chowpatty beach.Beaches in Mumbai are famous for eating than swimming and sunbathing.A part of the beach area would be occupied by stalls which sells bhel puri,pani pur,pav bhaji,faloodas and paans [Remembers Amitabhs' famous Paan song ] etc.You can see people sitting on mats and eating in a group.When we went to Chowpatty it was 10:30 in the night.But beach area was filled with people.Mumbai is 24/7 active city.You get taxis ,cabs all the time.Only thing is they should come to the place where you want to go!.
If you have enough time and energetic enough to walk,then you can start walking from Gateway Of India , stroll down to Marine Drive then to Chowpatty Beach.Its a beautiful stretch to walk in the evening times.
My itinerary would be really incomplete without temples in it. Where ever we go inside/outside India I make it a point to visit temples there.Its a kind of feel good factor for me! .So one evening we visited the famous SiddiVinayaka Temple of Dadar. Security is very high here and you are not supposed to carry cameras,handy cams etc.They scanned my bag and didnt allow me to enter the temple as I had camera.There was no locker facility for keeping the camera. Logu started convincing them that we have come from far but policemen there did not have the minimum courtesy to talk to him properly.They will never speak in English even though they knew and above that a bad behavior.I smelled this rudeness and unfriendliness in everybody, from taxidrivers to businessmen.Thats there in Mumbai’s air I feel!!!.
Still we went inside the temple & saw the god as Logu kept the camera in his hand only !!!.
Continued…..

Related posts:

1. Bekal Fort
2. Hampi Trip
3. A weekend trip to coffee country – Coorg