The thing that most stood out to us about Mumbai is how extreme the contrasts are. The obvious example is the extreme wealth vs the extreme poverty. This also extends to the slick skyscrapers vs the tarpaulin sheets for housing. The expensive Gucci and high end shops vs the on the street fruit sellers. The generous welcoming people vs the scammers. The BMW’s vs the local train.
I’d say we didn’t do a typical tourist trip of Mumbai but we loved our time here.
On our train to Mumbai we met a really nice guy & his friends who insisted on buying our local train tickets & helping us get to our hostel. This was our first of many experiences of local Mumbai generosity!
The local trains in Mumbai are a great way to get round but be prepared for a true Indian transport experience. If you don’t like the thought of being squashed up against strangers in a more intimate way than westerners are used to then avoid rush hour! With tickets costing between 10 & 20 rupees (approx 10-20pence) it is a very cheap & quick way of getting around the city. People were always kind & generous on the trains to us. If you’re female there is a female only carriage so don’t feel like you have to miss out!
With both of us still making our way through Shantaram we wanted to visit Leopold cafe which features heavily in the book. So we set out on our first full day to the affluent area of Colaba. With both of us still feeling exhausted from the 16 hour train journey the day before we weren’t in the mindset for Colaba! Avoid the “monks” who will try to give you a “blessing” before insisting you give them money & women who will follow you insistent they give you some “free” flowers when they actually want you to buy them over 1000rupees worth of food in return.
My biggest advice for visiting Mumbai is to walk confidently & as though you know exactly where you are even if you don’t. If you look flustered or unsure you are easy pickings! I kept joking with Matt that I perfected a don’t mess with me strut for Mumbai especially for the touristy areas!
Leopold’s was good & it has more to it’s history than Shantaram. It was founded in the 1800’s and has long been popular with tourists. It was also one of the sites attacked in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Many rallied round the cafe after the attack to ensure it stayed open as a sign of solidarity.
Feeling like we needed to get away from the hassle for a while Matt & I went to the Regal Cinema to watch a really good film called Hichki. If you’ve not seen it then you should! It was the pick me up we both needed!
Taking a walk down marine drive gives you a beautiful view over the city. It gets busy after sunset when the intense heat starts to ease with many people hanging out there.
England women’s cricket team were playing India on our second full day so with free tickets we headed down to see the match. England lost which was highly embarrassing given we were the only English people in the crowd! We had a great time though & it gave us a taster before the IPL later this month!
When wandering round Mumbai there were times we accidentally wandered into slums. We were surprised that we were not hassled at all when this happened in contrast to walking around the tourist areas!
Unfortunately the 3rd full day struck Matt with a bad stomach. We think he probably ate something with dairy in it because it only lasted 1 day.
The fourth day we had booked a slum tour on the advice of some people we’d met in Agra. Lots of the hostels offer slum tours but I would recommend going with Reality Tours to ensure your money is going directly to support the slum. Javed our guide lived in Dharavi slum & had learnt English through the education programmes provided by Reality.
He explained that the tours help them to tackle negative stereotypes & the education classes the charity provide open more opportunities for people living in the slum. We learnt so much from him. The main learning point for me was the level of industry in the slums. People who live in slums pay rent so they all work. This is why you won’t find the begging you see on the streets. There are many manufacturing, recycling & pottery industries. Some are extremely bad for the workers health (e.g. melting the plastics & metals in recycling) so are not technically legal in the city. Javed took us to a leather factory & showed us some of the amazing products they make. Many of the factories there export to retail businesses such as timbalands.
Javed discussed the issues with the rehousing projects put forward by the government. The difficulty is that when they propose to build new housing they clear the slum which also means clearing all the factories & so in effect many people’s livelihood.
In the residential side of the slum there are many blue collar workers, policemen etc. who live in the slum due to the unaffordable rent in Mumbai. This means the slums are actually surprisingly safe with low crime rates.
The open sewage going through the slum & there being only one toilet for thousands of people means that there are the sights & smells you would expect. There are tiny alleys & electric cables hanging down. Despite the living conditions I think we left the tour feeling admiration for how hard the people work & how they continue to make something out of nothing.
We were unable to take photos in Dharavi for privacy but you can have a look at some professional photos via the link. http://www.bit.ly/dharaviphotos
Dharavi itself is a slum of, unofficially, 1.6m people across 2.1 square km. The first migrants started building over the former rubbish dump in the 1880s and it has grown exponenitally since then. There is 1 toilet for every 1400 people. It is the 2nd biggest slum by population in Asia and 3rd biggest in the world.
You can find out more about reality tours and travel via the link: http://realitytoursandtravel.com
On the Sunday we found a church to celebrate Easter which was great. We were invited out for lunch so had a lovely day celebrating Easter with Christian family. After that we walked along the seafront & again ended up going through a slum before arriving at Juhu Beach which was a hive of cricket matches! We met a lovely group of kids who were very proud of their dad’s who were playing!
All in all we missed a lot of the very touristy spots but we had such a good time neither of us feel like we missed out.
There are so many places to eat out in Mumbai that you’ll never be short of options but be prepared that it is expensive. Bandra is a good place for food and drinks as is near Khar road station.
We stayed at Basti Backpackers in between Khar Road and Santacruz stations on the western line which heads straight to Churchgate and the tourist centre (about 35 mins on the train).
The poverty is an emotional rollercoaster in India. You shouldn’t give to people begging for money because they may not get to keep the money. Give food but most of all donate to projects. Going on something like a Reality Tour is 1 way you can give back to a community whilst becoming better educated about the issues.
Next stop Goa.
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