Mumbai, Maharashtra (by Mel and Kev)

Namaskāra from Mumbai,
We are in Mumbai, one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the world (in the top 10) with 22 million people living there! Mumbai used to be called Bombay, until 1995 and is in the state of Maharashtra, on the west coast of India. The official language is Marathi, but a lot of other languages are spoken here. For example, we took a guide during our stay here and he said very casually that he spoke 5 languages (4 from India and English). Mumbai is the commercial, financial and entertainment capital of India.
We arrive on Friday the 28th of March after a night in the train coming from Goa. The first impression is: that is a lot of people!! We took a local train as our night train stopped on the east of the city and our hotel is on the west. The train was packed. We got on at the first station, so we found seats, but very quickly it got absolutely full. When it was our time to get out, with our big bags on our back, everyone got out to let us out and jump back on quickly. I was expecting having to wrestle to get out, but no, everyone was super helpful.
When I was reading to get ready for this trip, I read a lot about you have to be careful, hold your bags close, there are a lot of pickpockets… So far, yes we got asked some prices that were a bit bigger that what they should be, but overall, we had a lot of help when we looked lost. People are kind and helpful here. We have not had a very bad experience so far.
On the day we arrived, we settle in our room. Then we venture outside and had to learn to walk in the streets of Mumbai. The traffic is crazy, more that what we saw before! And noisy! Car horns every 5 seconds! It is an adventure in itself to walk around trying to find an ATM! Kev found a park on google map called Deer park, we thought it would be nice to be in a bit of green area. This was a disappointment! Very small, the playground was very run down. Well, let’s find something else. We found a place where we can play boardgames! Yeah! Let’s go there. And this time, it was great! We end up spending 3 hours playing various board games which were all very fun! Then we end up having dinner in a restaurant with a live band playing music. It was current Indian music, and we really enjoyed that. The music is catchy and pretty soon, people were standing up and started dancing. People love their music and dancing here and it is really awesome to watch. Men and women dance with no shame. It was a great evening.
The next day, we went to see the Gateway of India. This is a massive arch, built in 1924 (started in 1911) to commemorate the visit of King George V in 1911, the first British monarch to visit India. It has been used since as a symbolic entrance for other dignitaries. It is facing the Arabian sea and near it are 2 very famous hotel in India, the Taj Mahal palace (not the real Taj Mahal, this is in Agra) and the Tower hotel. Unfortunately, the Gateway of India was under scaffolding and some part under black tarp, so we couldn’t see all of it, but it was still an impressive sight to see. From there, we took a boat to go to the Elephanta caves on Elephanta Island. This is one of the small islands around Mumbai. This is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name comes from the Portuguese finding big elephant statues when they arrived. Those statues are not there anymore but got moved into a museum. There are still the caves dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The caves have been cut from the rock itself during the 5th to the 7th century. When you arrive on the island, there is a little train that took you to the beginning of the stairs that brings you to the caves. We decided to walk to do some exercise (we took the train on the way back though as we were pretty tired by then!) There are 5 caves. In the first one, gigantic statues (some up to 6 meters high) are visible, though some have been destroyed. In the other caves, slightly smaller, you can see some remaining of statues and painting on the ceiling. This was a wonderful place to visit. The amount of work to excavate those caves and create those magnificent statues is impressive. I am always fascinated about the dedication to honour diverse gods. This is a must see if you are in Mumbai.
The next day, I had a list of temples and places I wanted to see, so we started early. The first stop was Shri Walkeshwar Temple. We took a taxi to get us there and we got dropped a few streets away as the streets were getting too small for the taxi. And I am very glad. We walked into narrow streets, with small temples every few steps, colourful houses, people going about their business of a Sunday morning. We came about a water tank/lake, called the Baganga tank. It is a spring fed tank and is part of the temple complex in this area. We didn’t know about it, until we stubble on it. We saw people washing themselves in one of the small basins, where it looks like the spring was flowing in. I don’t know if people do that every day, or if it is because it was a Sunday. It seems to be a place where people gather to chat and to pray. Despite having a fair bit of rubbish around, like everywhere in Mumbai (it is one of the things I struggle the most with, there are rubbish everywhere here), it was a restful place. I wish I could have asked questions to people about it, but we are always scared of intruding and being inconsiderate. We watch for a bit and then kept on our walk to go visit the temple we came for. It was another beautiful thing to see. It is a modern Hindu temple, made with marble and amazing wood carving on the ceiling. After that we went to visit the hanging gardens, which was a big disappointment. Nothing was hanging, and it looked nothing like the pictures I saw online when planning the day!!! That is one of the things we are having issue with: online pictures are not always accurate, or maybe they were 10 years ago, but it doesn’t look the same anymore! Anyway, next stop please! It was something I was looking forward to: Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya. “Mani Bhavan, a modest two-storied building, served for about seventeen eventful years (1917-1934) as the nerve centre in Bombay for Gandhiji’s activities. It belonged to Shri Revashankar Jagjeevan Jhaveri who was an ardent devotee of Gandhiji and his affectionate host during that period. Today Mani Bhavan is a hallowed memorial to Gandhiji, to his stay here and to the activities he initiated from here.” (taken for the museum website). I wanted the kids to know about Ghandi and his concept of non-violence. For those who are not sure who Gandhi is and what he did, a little history lesson: “Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit, meaning great-souled, or venerable), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world.” (Thank you Wikipedia). Gandhi applied non-violence methods, like marches, civil disobedience, fasting. In his life, he tried to improve the right and situation of the poorest in India, ending the Untouchability, he fought for women’s right, he fought for the Independence of India with success. In the museum, we saw a lot of pictures of his life, of his actions and words from him. It was very interesting and being a non-violent person, it resonated for me. I am hoping that some of it will reflect on Andrew and Emma.
After that museum, we went to visit the Indian cinema museum. It was a lot bigger than expected! We learnt about Indian cinema which start in 1913 with Dadasaheb Phalke, often hailed as the Father of Indian Cinema, when he released 'Raja Harishchandra,' India's first full-length feature film. Since then, Indians have been crazy about cinema and Bollywood is getting bigger and bigger every year. It is currently bigger in number of films created per year than Hollywood (not in money though). In the museum, we learnt about cameras, filter, censure, sound, special effect and more. It was a lot of information, and I am sure a little bit will stay in my brain! After that, we went on the last stop of the day, Haji Ali Dargah Mosque. This mosque was built on an islet on the coast of now Mumbai in 1431. It is only accessible at low tide. A lot of different religion comes to that mosque as it is a considered a sacred place. It was not as impressive as I thought it would be and as always, the rubbish around the place makes it less pleasant to visit, but as we are trying to visit a lot of different places of worship, this mosque was a good place to go.
After all those visits, we were pretty exhausted, so back to the hotel for a rest, then a small dinner, movie night and bed.
The next day was one of my favourite days so far. We went to see some Bollywood! We booked a tour as it is the only way to get to visit a set. It was a private tour, so I didn’t mind that too much. We got picked up by our guide, Rahul, and started by driving pass the house of an extremely famous Indian actor, Shah Rukh Khan (the richest Indian actor). He wasn’t even there, but a couple of hundred people were there taking pictures in front of the massive gate. And apparently it is like that every day. Then we went to a studio where we watched a live filming of one of the current soap operas, we got to chat quickly with one of the actors, Bhavya Shinde, who was super nice. We then looked at other set. What surprised me was the mess! When they are not using a set, they put props and things that they don’t use in it. Those studios were full! What was very interesting is all the people needed on set, from the makeup to the sound, the guys who checked the script, the light… I knew it, but seeing in real was pretty cool. We got to put on some costume and take some pictures. I got a dress, not my favourite but well! We learn about special effects, green and blue screen (did you know that those colours are use because they are not in the skin ton?) We watch some Bollywood dancing, as no Bollywood movie is complete without some dancing! We got to dance ourselves and it was so fun. We talked about sound effect on movies and Andrew and Emma recorded a song in a studio. It was a really good experience, and I think we will remember that for a while.
To finish this great day, we went to watch some cricket in a spot bar. We couldn’t get ticket to see it live, so we wanted to see in with other people in bar, but being Monday, the pub was very empty. Never mind, we still enjoyed it! It was a good game and I finally start to understand more about cricket! Yeah!
Tuesday was school work and blogging day. Then we went back to the coffee board game place we went a few days ago and spent another few hours playing games. We really enjoyed it!
Today is packing and moving day again. We are on our way to Udaipur. But as always, we have some time between the check out of the hotel (11am) and the night bus we are taking at 6pm! So we might go back to the board game place one more time to kill some time!!
See you all in Udaipur!!!
Mel

28.3.2025. We arrived in Mumbai. Thought we'd try the inner city train for the first time. Got crowded with our bags. When all the locals saw that we were getting off they prepared themselves. One said to Mel “go fast”. As soon as we got to our stop everyone in front of us got off, let us off and got back on again. It would seem they'd all dealt with tourists and bags before. Uber works here in for taxi's and Tuktuk's, we thought we'd give this old guy and his taxi a go first tho. Never again, he wouldn't listen and ended up asking someone in the street to help. We eventually got to our hotel, where he asked for more money than was agreed. Not a chance mate, you got lost and wouldn't listen, not us. Yep, uber from now on. We went inside and even though it was around 9:30-10 they let us check in, yay! Later that afternoon we went out and visited a small park. Kinda crappy, playground things broken. Mel found a board game cafe, we had some drinks and played some games. Three hours flew by. Now it was time for dinner. Found a place called The Finch, live music and they make their own beer. Tried their stout, not bad, think I have made better at home tho. The live band was good and before long people were up dancing. We had fun tonight.
29.3.2025. We're off to the Gateway of India. A big arch constructed for the visit of King George the V in 1911, or something like that. Unfortunately for us it's getting some repairs done, so it's mostly covered with scaffolding and other stuff. Oh well, let's go to elephanta island. Booked seats on a boat and set off. Took around an hour to get there, the island is near the mainland on the other side of the massive harbour in Mumbai. We grabbed lunch then walked up to see the caves. Yep, caves, excavated from solid rock. The Elephanta caves are a UNESCO listed site that is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. Built between 600-1000ad, it was absolutely fascinating to wander around inside something built that long ago. Exploited and damaged by the Portuguese in the 1600s, there are still lots of carvings that remain. We made our way back to the boats and from there back to the Gateway. Then taxid back to our room.
30.3.2025. We hopped in a taxi and set off for a temple. This was a smaller temple with a beautiful wood carved ceiling. A short walk from here we stumbled across a lake that seems fed by a spring in the middle of all these buildings. It was Sunday morning and people were washing in the water. Some research later tells me it is a sacred place for Hindu's that was built in the 1100s. It's good to find places and go for a look, don't forget to just wander around too! You find so much more. After that we started walking towards the hanging gardens. Found some snacks on our way to keep the worms occupied. The hanging gardens were a bit of a let down, nice park but that was it. We set off for Mani Bhaven, a building where Mahatma Gandhi stayed when in Mumbai, now set up as a museum. We learnt of his accomplishments with human rights issues. Afterwards we went to the museum of Indian cinema. We were given audio guides to listen to as we walked around, some famous indian actor voiced it no doubt. I knew none of the names or faces but it was interesting to see how cinema progressed through the years. They had old cameras and lights and a still frame machine for making cartoons. We heard that the museum would take us roughly 1-1.5 hours to get through, we were there for three hours as there was so much to see. We weren't far from a famous mosque, built on rocks out into the ocean so we went for a look. Built with lots of white marble, it looked nice against the ocean backdrop. Afterwards we headed back to our room. It had been a long day of walking and visiting. We washed and headed out for some dinner, then back for a little tv and bed.
31.3.2025. Today we are doing a Bollywood tour. We got picked up from our stay and driven over to look at a couple of the houses of some very famous Indian actors. Then we were taken to SJ Studios. A real set where we got to see behind the scenes of a soap opera being filmed. We were standing right behind the director, and watched as he guided the actor during the scene. Afterwards we got to meet the actor briefly, he was happy enough to have a chat. While we talked and had a quick look around, they had changed the set for the next scene and began shooting that. We saw more of the actors and more of the rooms they have set up for the show. We moved on with our tour. We passed through a jail set up, a hospital, pharmacy and a big presidential office. We then saw some dancers perform some traditional Bollywood dances and some short films about the special effects that go into movies. The kids recorded a quick song in their sound studio. We had a quick lunch and were driven back to our stay. A fun, full day. We had planned to watch some IPL live here in Mumbai but our bank is a pain in the arse and we couldn't organise tickets. What's the next best thing to do? Watch it in a sports bar in Mumbai. The crowd was smaller than we'd hoped, we wanted a loud Indian crowd but oh well. The Mumbai Indians easily beat the Kolkata knight riders and we had our fill of cricket. Back to the room and sleep.
1.4.2025. April already, where is the year going? Today is a slower day, with the kids doing some school work and blogging. It's now lunchtime, so we headed out looking for something to fill the void. We had walked past this little family restaurant straight across the street from our stay a few times, and decided to give it a try. I had looked on Google maps so I knew what to expect. On the outside it looked nothing special, with a small seating area just off the street and looking a little dirty. Just past that however, was a door, which opened into a large air-conditioned, well decorated and clean dining area. That's not the best part. We ordered, asking for things to be “not spicy please”. Our food turned up and… nothing was spicy! When I say spicy I mean hot. There's still lots of spices, otherwise it'd taste bland. It was the most the kids had eaten since we were in India, at a restaurant at least, they smashed the cheesy pasta I made. Mel was happy for a break from the spices too, everyone had a great meal. Afterwards we went back and blogged some more. Later in the evening we went back to the board game cafe place we visited a few days before, Mel and the kids really enjoyed the place. We had dinner there, was kinda shit, played games until almost 9 before heading to bed.
2.4.2025. Packing, yay! Coming up with a plan on how to spend our day with all our bags , until we hop on our bus at 6 tonight. We'll see what we come up with.
KevEn savoir plus