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| A Steel Beauty-Bandra Worli Sea Link Mumbai |
Mumbai is heart-wrenching, interesting and energizing for a first time visitor.
I agree many Mumbaikars live in slums. So when we say Mumbai is a city of extremes, it's not just for dramatic effect. However, you can find it all in the streets of India's commercial capital, along with some of the most colorful culture imaginable
Mumbai is India's richest and most populous city. It's home to Bollywood and the nation's financial institutions. The juxtapositions can be termed as mind boggling, but the other face of the city is exciting and once a life time experience!.
People from all walks of life all congregate in Mumbai, referring to it as the maximum city of India, hoping to reinvent their lives in this place of opportunity. Everywhere you turn there's a new business or new slick restaurant. Or another tout with a better sell and the fact is visitors to the city are over-stimulated in the best way.
Let me start our tour of Mumbai with a recent survey on honest and dishonest towns of the world where it is stated Mumbai is the 2nd most honest city in the world
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| A lost wallet |
Mumbai world’s second most honest city: Survey
Kounteya Sinha, TNN | Sep 26, 2013, 04.22 AM IST"LONDON: India often finds itself embarrassingly high on the corruption index, rating among the most corrupt countries in the world. However, in a recent experiment, the country's commercial capital Mumbai presented a different picture. The ruse was a simple, abandoned wallet lying on the road, and recording how many people stumbling on it return it to its owner.
This uncomplicated trick established Mumbai as the second most honest city in the world.An average Mumbaikar returned nine out of 12 wallets he or she found lying on the road, each carrying Rs 3,000 in cash- not a small amount. The experiment was carried out in 16 cities across four continents with 192 lost wallets, dropped in crowded places like shopping malls, sidewalks and parks in cities as diverse as New York and Zurich. Each of the wallets contained a cell phone number, business cards and a family photo.
Read moreIn a CNN Travel survey “World's Greatest City: 50 reasons Mumbai is No. 1”
Here are some of the best of Mumbai (Leaving first 2, are from the above article)
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| Sanjay Gandhi National Park Mumbai |
Sanjay Gandhi National Park Borivalli, MumbaiBorivali National Park is the miraculously preserved green oasis in the center of urban sprawl. This national park is
"one of the very few" that is surrounded by a metropolis like Mumbai ,
yet sustaining sizable population of big cats like panthers. It is hard to believe that with in just less then an hour and half from Gateway of India, one is transported from hectic and fast life of Mumbai city to a serene and tranquil atmosphere of pleasing verdant wilderness.
Astonishingly, there is a Lion Safari inside the park with a guaranteed encounter with Tigers and Lions!
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| One of the Ancient Kanheri Caves |
The Ancient Kanheri caves (Inside 7 Kms the park) These caves are dated from 1st century B.C. to 9th century A.D.0 A major point of interest, presenting a accessible and interesting glimpse of the history and the culture of Buddhist India. Most of these 109 Buddhist caves, chiseled out of the volcanic rock are simple small chambers, known as viharas (cells for monks). A few are larger and deeper chambers known as chaityas (for congregational worship).
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| Elephanta caves in Elephanta Island near Mumbai |
Elephanta Island CavesIn the middle of Mumbai Harbour, 9km northeast of the Gateway of India, the rock-cut temples on Elephanta Island (Indian/foreigner Rs 10/250; caves 9am-5.30pm Tue-Sun) are a spectacle worth crossing the waters for. Home to a labyrinth of cave-temples carved into the basalt rock of the island, the artwork represents some of the most impressive temple carving in all India. The main Shiva-dedicated temple is an intriguing latticework of courtyards, halls, pillars and shrines, with the magnum opus a 6m tall statue of Sadhashiva – depicting a three-faced Shiva as the destroyer, creator and preserver of the universe. The enormous central bust of Shiva, its eyes closed in eternal contemplation, may be the most serene sight you witness in India.
The temples are thought to have been created between AD 450 and 750, when the island was known as Gharapuri (Place of Caves).
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| Challenging Travel by local train Mumbai |
Fitness testing suburban trains where women travel hand print-free!You will never see anywhere in the world suburban railway stations where thousands of commuters are running around and jostling around either to enter or exit the compartments. More so for women where it might sound like the title of your next book group novel.
The Ladies Special local train pulls into the Gothic-style Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station (which travelers mistake for a huge cathedral) at 10:09 am every morning. Of the thousand trains that run daily through the historic station, the Ladies Special is a sanctuary for some 35,000 working women who don’t fancy being groped on their way to the office. On the 5:55pm ride back home, the Ladies Special turns into a portable kitchen with mums peeling vegetables, a communal office for lap toppers, a mobile shopping center, a meditation and prayer room and whatever else it need be to accommodate the endless demands placed on India’s tireless working women. Wow!
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| A thali in Swadshakti Ayurvedic Herbal restaurant Mumbai |
The world’s only Ayruvedic (Herbal) restaurantMumbai may be cuckoo for sushi and fugu (Japanese cuisine), but many still bow down to traditional fare, eating well to live well. At Swadshakti Café, Mumbai’s only Ayurvedic restaurant, the Panchakarma Thali, with five saatvik vegetarian dishes is cooked with healing herbs -- and without oil, garlic or onions. Designed to detox, the menu was created by Dr. Smita Naram to put her chunky husband, Pankaj, on a healthy path -- and it’s a proven winner.
Swadshakti, Bhadran Nagar Cross Road 2, opposite Milap Cinema, Malad (W), +91 (0) 22 2806 5757
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| U.S. counselor with Mumbai Dabbwalas |
Illiterate business gurus (the dubbawalas of Mumbai)Prince Charles and Richard Branson have met with Mumbai’s famous dabbawala lunch deliverymen to learn how 200,000 identical steel lunch canisters (‘dabbas’) are transported by 5,000 mostly illiterate deliverymen from the homes where the humble lunches are made to offices and workers around town -- daily, punctually and with barely one error in every six million deliveries. Dabbawalas now give management lectures at top Indian business schools, explaining how the 125-year-old dabbawala industry continues to grow at a rate of five to 10 percent a year.
The Dabbawala Foundation is currently developing software that will allow users to book dabba lunch delivery online. In the meantime, you can email info@mydabbawala.com to sign up for service.
Potatoes are religion (and politics)
The awesome and tasty Wada Pao! They’re fast, cheap and political. Every day thousands of vada pav (potato dumplings) are fried and deftly placed in pav bread quickly enough to keep up with Mumbai’s voracious appetite. The fiery red chutney that goes with vada pav can be risky -- not unlike Shiv Sena, the local political party that has made Mumbai’s five-rupee signature street snack its mascot. It’s hard to go wrong with vada pav, but we love the ones at a stall called Ashok, off Cadel Road, Kirti College Lane, Prabhadevi.
World’s largest Laundromat
Watch Mumbai wash its dirty linen in public at the Dhobi Ghat, the world’s biggest laundromat turned tourist attraction. You’ll find over 200 dhobi families washing and drying a bright patchwork of saris, kurtas and boxers in the open with the smell of detergent in the air.
Dhobi Ghat, Dr. E. Moses Rd, near Mahalaxmi Station
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| Chor Bazar (Thief Market) Mumbai |
Chor Bazaar
Welcome to Mumbai’s famed Chor Bazaar, the market of thieves, home to heaps of wonderful and neglected objects -- old rotary phones, Coca-Cola coolers, wicker picnic baskets, massive carved Ganeshas.
If you’re willing to hunt through the flotsam and jetsam you’ll find something worth carting home, guaranteed.
Mini Market, 31 Mutton St., Chor Bazaar; A-1 Corner, 99 Mutton St., Chor Bazaar
Exciting something more...
Walks to remember
Mumbai bazaar walk: Witness the city's famous street shopping culture by enrolling for one of the bazaar walks. Organised by Mumbai Magic A-lacarte Tours, these walks are restricted to six people per walk, and are popular with both residents and tourists alike.
The walks take you through the various iconic markets in the city, including Crawford Market, Chor Bazaar, Mirchi Galli, Mangaldas Cloth Market and Zaveri Bazaar. The history and specialties of each market are explained in detail during the walks.
Cuisine-sea food
Highway Gomantak: This little restaurant in Bandra, is the answer to all your seafood needs. Fish varieties like pomfret, Bombay duck, mori (shark), shinani and suramaee fry are standards on their menu.
Often frequented by Bollywood celebrities, the restaurant has a Goan feel to it in both, food and ambience. A glass of the kokam kadi, a typical Konkan drink is highly recommended after your meal.
Average meal for two: Rs.1,000 including taxes.
At: Gandhi Nagar, Bandra East.
Tel: 26409692.
Buried in time
Japanese graves: A unique and lesser known site in the city, this cemetery built in 1907 is a reminder of the relationship between the two nations in past times. The cemetery named Nipponjin Bochi is the only Japanese cemetery in the city and probably the only one in India.
Goodwill between Gandhi and a Japanese priest Nichida Tsu Fujii, fondly referred to as Fuji Guruji, led to the construction of a Japanese shrine in 1952 and later the cemetery. Bhikshu Morita who now takes care of the cemetery and the temple says that there are over 50 graves that include those of the Japanese businessmen who were settled in India along with their geishas.
Burmese Peace
The Global Vipasana Pagoda: This state of the art pagoda which opened in 2009 was built keeping the aesthetic of a Burmese pagoda in mind. It is the world's largest structure with no pillars, also the only one which houses Buddha's relics in the tomb.
A twenty minute ferry ride from one end of the Gorai creek takes you to the Pagoda. Halfway through the ferry ride, one can see this magnificent golden structure. For those who like to meditate there's a meditation hall which can accommodate over 10,000 people at any given time.
Timings: 9 am to 7 pm.
At: Gorai, Borivali West.
Floating faith
Haji Ali Dargah: Yet another popular religious site in the city, this dargah is located in the middle of the Arabian Sea and is spread over 4,000 square metres. A meandering concrete footpath running over the sea leads to this holy place which is visited by thousands of people every day. Avoid planning a trip during monsoons, as the pathway gets flooded during high tide, and access to the dargah is cut off.
This beautifully designed marble structure has Arabian scriptures inscribed on the walls and mirror artwork in the interiors. Haji Ali Dargah has also become a landmark feature in a number of Bollywood films. After your visit to the dargah, step out and indulge in fresh fruit juices, sandwiches, pizzas, cheese rolls and more at the popular Haji Ali Juice Center.