JHattery

And yes, I've tried to read the forum already to pick up what I can.

Hotel suggestions? Sightseeing around Mumbai? Shopping?

I fully understand the "dehli-belly" issue, so don't really need advice in that regard.

Thanks in advance.

oliver2002

First question: when are you in BOM? Winter things to do are quite different from the things you can do right now with the onset of the monsoon.

Regards Oliver

JHattery

Should have mentioned that.

Late July.

oliver2002

Well, BOM is pretty much under the monsoon rains in late July. Be prepared to face rains with marble sized water drops. Temperatures are around 25-30°C, so you will not feel cold like in european climates.

The typical thing to do in BOM is take a walk of 'downtown' Mumbai and admire the archtecture. Start at the former Victoria Terminus and take a stroll down to Colaba by following D.N road. On the way you will pass flora fountain, the university, the high court, the jehangir art gallery, the modern art gallery, and end up at the gateway of india. The place is touristic and you will/may be followed by so called 'touts' who try to sell you anything for money. Feel free to agressively chase them away verbally. Nothing else helps. When I've taken friends around, we were never approached, but collegues from europe who did it alone were irritated. Foreigners hang out at cafe mondegar, altough I don't like that much.

If you still have some energy left, take a taxi to nariman point from the gateway of india. Take a stroll through the business district and go to the marine drive, which is a artdeco sea face built in the 1920s, which ends around nariman point. During the monsoon the sea will be pushed onto the embankment, making some spectacular splashes. There are a few hotels on marine drive, which have bars overlooking the panorama (oberoi is one). So if it rains and your legs hurt, go into the oberoi. You can take a taxi down marine drive to get to girgaum beach on the other end and observe mumbaikars/bombayites spend the evening. On that end you also have the so called hanging gardens which offer view of the marine drive. That area also has a few nice restaurants to hang out in.

In the suburbs, you can visit a few other beaches in Bandra or Juhu, but beware that these might be littered with the material washed in by the sea.

If you have time to spare, a must is Matheran. Here you take a local suburban train to Neral on the Central Railway and then hike up a few hundered meters on paved roads to Matheran. This place is a so called hill station which was established by the british rulers to escape the summer heat. An array of hotels and places to stay are available. You can also make your way up using a an ancient narrow gauge train that leaves only once a day or haggle for a taxi. Once up there you can experience the monsoon clouds hitting the hillside and blowing into your face. I found it memorable. You can take many trails exploring the hill side. You will get wet to the bone due to the rains, but it is bearable.

Mumbai is the largest city in India and has a LOT of people. Everywhere you will go you will find people. So be mentally prepared.

Mumbai has a lot of shopping opportunities and especially textiles are dirt cheap for their quality. Cotton world in Colaba and Santa Cruz is wonderful!

Regards Oliver

Odysseus

1. even if you have traveled in the 3rd world, be extra careful about hygine - india is extra special in that regard. brush your teeth with bottled water.

2. on the assumption that you won't be doing a hell of a lot of travel in india, take a boat to elephantine island. the best example of hindu sculpture near a big city. you will also get a chance to see the monkeys, which often you won't see in the big cities.

3. go to the india gate (you need to to catch the boat, anyway). walk around the "fort" area, there are pretty nice shops for tourist stuff, and you can see a little bit of real mumbai. if you are staying at a good hotel, you can have the driver drive near you, so that you can escape if the masses get to much for you.

4. the art museum and historic museum are worth seeing

5. crawford market - if you can get a local or a driver to walk with you

6. victoria station (if possible at 9 am), the strand book store and the bombay store

7. oberoi shopping center

8. the main ganesha temple

9. have a driver take you to the red light district. make it very clear that you are not shopping. you will be amazed

10. the laundry. ask the driver, he knows what I mean

11. eat at the cream center, the kulfi center, the golden dragon (in the taj), copper chimney and khyber.

have fun

JHattery

Arrived about 1AM on a Friday morning, 22July. Picked up by driver from Hotel. Stayed in Sheraton Grand Maratha near airport. View out of very nice hotel room window was of a deplorable shantytown. Up in early morning, picked up by supplier - tour factory, have lunch, have business meetings, back to hotel.

Lunch with supplier was very good at a local restaurant. Stuck to bottled water & beer. Vegetarian host kept trying to feed me chicken - vegetarian dishes were much more flavorful & interesting.

Hired driver from hotel for Saturday to take me sightseeing. Determined that Elephantine Island was a bit far away, and a pretty significant hike to boot in monsoon season/heat/humidity. Would have been interesting though. Stuck to mainstream Mumbai. Saw open air laundry, Gandhi residence (really moving for me), Victoria Station, Gate of India, Queen's Necklace, Red Light district (really depressing - amazed I saw some westerners apparently "patronizing." Driver said cost was about ~$1-2USD), did a bit of shopping (spent too much on hand embroidered pashmina shawls for wife/mom/mother-in-law, rugs were beautiful but too expensive), saw lots of shanties/tarps, beggars & cows. Cost for a day of sightseeing (~8 hours) with generous tip was about $75USD.

Sunday, supplier picked me up to go shopping. Wanted to make sure I did not go anywhere "bad." He took me to a very nice western shopping mall. Took a great deal of convincing that what I was really interested in was Indian handicrafts, not Levi's. Finally got him to take me to some local stalls. Bought some interesting brasswork ("jewelled" elephant) and stonework (marble Lord Ganesh & painted stone coaster set) for almost nothing. Back to hotel, rested/packed. Checked out at ~9PM, dinner at hotel and drive to airport for Monday 25July 1:55AM flight out to CDG. B/E Lounge at BOM is pretty tacky.

Overall, stuck to hotel for meals, drank bottled water & beer or tea (nice with cardamom). A few G&T's in the hotel bar. The last stop by host was at a local Indian confectionary. Host wanted me to try local delicacies and I could not vey well be rude. Tried a bite which was quite good. That I believed later was my downfall. No traveller's dilemna until about 24 hours after that unavoidable slip. Not too bad though, thankfully I had made it to hotel near FRA by then.

Overall impression of India via Mumbai was that it is in incredible country with a rich culture that is stuck in a deplorable state. Never seen such filth & deprivation anywhere. Like Brazilian favelas, but worse and on a larger scale. Very sad. Wonderful hardworking people though.

Got out day before floods hit.

agtoau

Dear JHattery,

Thank you for a nice account. I am glad you had a relatively pleasant time in Mumbai.

I would only suggest that you withhold judgment (good and bad and everything in between) about India unless you have had a chance to see more of it. It is a very large country, bewilderingly diverse and very complex. Imagine how distorting it would be if I made an evaluation of America after visiting only New York City or Los Angeles.

JHattery

I guess I should amplify my earlier comments, in order to clarify my "judgement."

India was fascinating, I would go again, and I would encourage others to go. I would particularly like to go in order to see more of this vast, diverse, beautiful and complicated country.

But, I stand by what I said. What is casually accepted in India can be shocking to a visitor, particularly a Westerner. I am well travelled, and even I was taken aback. The chasm between "have's" and "have-not's" is immense in India. To go from a luxurious hotel room to a child sorting through garbage for food, next to the tarp he calls home - all in the space of less than 100 meters is psychologically astounding.

I realize it is a generallization, but I would posit I might find similar circumstances in New Dehli, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, or many other cities. I am sure Mumbai might be an extreme, being such a magnet for intra-Indian immigrants. And I am sure that rural village life might be somewhat different. But, my experiences and perspective were and are valid.

That being said, I would still go back.

agtoau

Perhaps you misunderstand the motive behind my initial rejoinder. I was not being defensive about India. If you had simply trashed India, I would not have bothered with a response. But your reaction was a sincere expression of what you saw and experienced, and I felt impelled to counsel a modicum of caution before one takes in India. Surely your observations are what they are and there is no denying them. But it is often said of India, and with good reason: Whatever you say about India, the opposite is equally true.

There is the raw, in-your-face visceral interface that India presents, the range of human experience one sees there running from the sublime to the ridiculous to the utterly desperate. But there are layers of nuances that are not apparent to the casual Western eye without a closer, more considered examination.

oliver2002

As someone who grew up in an indian village, calcutta and who studied and worked in mumbai, I found Mumbai very much 'in your face' where you go from extremes within a couple of feet.

My fiancee who comes from a little town in north sweden, was surprised how India actually turned out compared to all the things she heard about it. She found it most interesting how everyone co-exists and goes about their business in (the non-touristy areas of) Mumbai be it the extreme poor, the average, the middle class and the extra rich.

Just my two cents.

parnel

I am in India right now,third trip this year, and think that is a very well put sentence. It can be a very "deep" society and the nuances spininng from that deepness can be profound.

B747-437B

Gandhi never had a residence in Mumbai (I assume you mean Mohandas Gandhi here because it is quite a common name otherwise).

If you referring to Manibhavan near Gowalia Tank, that was actually a private residence that belonged to the Jhaveri family, friends of Gandhiji and somewhere that he periodically stayed at when in town. It has very minimal historical significance other than for the excellent collection that the trust has put together for their little museum/library.

Glad you enjoyed the city though.

JHattery

Yup - that's where I was. Represented as his "residence" while in Mumbai. Even if that is not purely technically true, it was still pretty cool.

arzan

Pig out on the food...thats one of the best things about bombay. Delhi Darbar in Kamathipura, even though in a shady neighborhood, is awesome, as is Baghdadi, behind taj, and many many more

Sweet Willie

In Saveur magazine, they come out with the Saveur 100 which lists food items/restaurants they found profound.

This year they listed a restuarant in Mumbai called Trishna where they serve large crab caught off of India's west coast, Hyderabad-style jumbo prawns and a South Indian squid fry.

Bombay

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