India Part 7: Mumbai

Of all the places in India, we spent the most time in Mumbai. We were the periods of May 28 to June 3, June 8 to 10 and June 13 to 15. So a total of 13 days.

There were a couple of reasons that we spent so much time there but thhe main reason was that Kiran was born in Mumbai and he wanted to spend some a lot of time there.

It also helps that Kiran's parents own a flat in Mumbai that we were able to stay at for free. That managed to save us a fair bit of accommodation money.

While were in Mumbai we were able to see the tourist sites, experience Mumbai living and hang out with some of Kiran's old friend.

Mumbai vs. Bombay

Most people are more familiar with Mumbai's old name of Bombay. Well it turns out that back in the 90's the government changed the name of Bombay to Mumbai.

The reason for this is that Mumbai is original name of this city and Bombay was the name the British assigned to it when they gained control. The whole name change is all about asserting that India is independent from foreign rule.

There's actually several things that have been renamed from their British names. Examples include the city of Calcutta being renamed Kolkata, the main train station of Mumbai having it's name changed from Victoria Termius to Chhatrapati Shivagi Terminus and my personal favorite, Prince of Whale's Museum being renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum.

Monsoon Season

Due to the timing of our trip we hit Mumbai just before the monsoon season began. However, we still got some rain. For about half the days we were in Mumbai it would rain for about an hour. This rain could be good or bad. If it happened at night it would cool the night down. However, if it happened during the day, it would just make the day hot and humid.

Actually you could describe most days in Mumbai as being hot and humid. The temperature ranged between 30-35 degrees while we were there, but it was the moisture that killed us. Whenever, I walked for 5 minutes outside I would become covered in sweet.

For the time in Mumbai I was covered in a moisture. It made me long for the imposing deserts of Rajasthan. Sure it was hotter, but at least sweat would evaporate.

Mulund

As I mentioned before we were lucky that Kiran's parents still had a flat in the Mumbai suburb of Mulund. Mulund is pretty nice area and is basically a middle class suburb.

Kiran parent's flat was actually quite nice. It was two bed room flat with a living room, kitchen and all the things one would need. I was too lazy to cook myself, but Richard took advantage of the kitchen to make several meals.

Odd thing about Mulund is that is greatly resembled the suburbs back home. For example, there were several malls that were similar to the ones that one would find anywhere in Canada. It was strange contrasting this to the poverty we had seen in most of places we had gone.

One day while we were walking around Mulund when we saw a fire break out in a near by rubbish/recycling pile. It was interesting to see people react to the fire. It was also interesting to see that it took about 45 minutes for a fire truck to show up. Fire insurance would probably be a good investment for a flat owner in Mumbai

Trains

The one downside with staying in Mulund is that it's pretty damn far from downtown Mumbai, most tourist sites and the main train station. That meant that we had to brave the local Mumbai train system in order to get downtown.

Mumbai doesn't have a metro and it's road system is over crowded. Therefore the only way that most of the population of Mumbai can get around is one the train and trust me, it feel like each train has the complete city population on it.

Most trains are packed. Not busy day C-train packed, I mean sardine, people being crushed to death packed. Every part of ones body is being touched by someone else. People literally hang on the outside of the door frame to stay in the train.

The most difficult part of the train comes when the train stops. If it's your stop, you have to push with all your might to get out. If you want to get on the train, you have to push with all your might to get on. It should be noted that this happens at the same time with half the train pushing to get out and the other half pushing to get on. It's not uncommon to see a shirt ripped or similar event.

You have to be on top of your game if you want to get off. The first time Kiran took the train he wasn't close enough to the door at his stop. No matter how hard he pushed he wasn't able to escape the train and had to get off at the next stop.

Based on what train we caught it'd take anywhere from 45-90 minutes to get down town to the main train station.

Down Town Mumbai

If you look at a map of Mumbai you'll see that there's a peninsula located in the southern part of the city. It's in this area that most of Mumbai's tourist sites are located.

Richard and I spent a day walking downtown Mumbai and it really interesting. Perhaps the most apparent thing was the fact that most of the tourist area was made up of huge Victorian style buildings. Combing the huge buildings with the palm trees and plants of Mumbai, the area was quite beautiful.

We hit all the major sites such as the Gateway to India and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum. It was a nice way to spend a day.

Old Friends

It turns out that Kiran had kept contact with some of his old friends from when he lived in Mumbai. This was a really great for us because we got hang out with them and experience what Mumbai was like for locals instead of just being tourists.

We ate a couple of meals at a family friend of Kirans and I tell you it was good cooking. I probaly ate my 3 days of food in one sitting there.

Kiran's other buddy is in his early 20's so he was able to take us to some of the cooler spots in Mumbai. This was a great break from the usual tourist hot spots. We also got to see how somebody our age would live in Mumbai.

Almost Done

Today is our last day in Mumbai/India. Tommorow we fly out to Singapore. Sometime in the next couple of days expect one last India blog (I promise).

Next time: India Roundup