Colaba Mumbai (Bombay)

Looking at the display showing my flight route from Hong Kong to Mumbai, I notice how it crosses several of the countries I've traveled in since December. I am feeling an odd sense of sadness leaving this part of the continent. And especially, to be leaving HK where I had a blast and felt I had fully arrived back in civilization. Before I return …

Apologies all for the radio silence of the last few days.  There we were, floating along in vacation bliss... not counting days or hours, swimming and eating and napping as we wished... Then - BAM! We were in the chaos of Mumbai.  What a shock to the system! Max and I spent the two days that we had here together seeing all of the sights …

6h30. Après une nuit agitée où je n'ai dormi que par demi-heure (et Ariane à bien dormi elle), notre wagon se réveille rapidement. Le jour commence à poindre, le petit déjeuner sera bientôt servi. Pour changer, jus de mangue, omelette et tranches de pain de mie accompagnées d'une gelée dont le goût et la couleur ne sont pas sans rappeler la gelée …

... road. My 15-minute walk back to the hotel reveals a city wider awake. Merchants arrive to set up their stalls along Colaba. Bicycles balanced precariously with single-stemmed roses careen past to some other vendor. I meet my first cow in Mumbai, a ...

... at the Gateway of India and then take cover in an air conditioned coffee shop. The Gateway of India is a beautifully constructed archway that is Mumbai's most famous landmark. It was the first sight to see when entering Indian during the British Raj ...

Honk Honk! I'm in Mumbai, arrived at noon, jumped in a cab to the Colaba district, all I heard for an hour driving though the city were car horns, it's complete chaos. Luckily managed to get a room at the Red shield hostel. It's better than expected. I ...

... streets. Even at that time in the morning Mumbai was one heaving, stinking, noisy and hellishly hectic city. We headed into Colaba, Mumbai's 'tourist centre', where the first couple of hotels we checked out seemed to double up as shelter for the ...

... it is they do. I actually pass this everyday to and from the office. We headed down to Malabar Hill and on to Colaba and went to the Gateway of India. On the way we ran into a couple of cows just chilling in the road. While I am getting used to it, ...

... loads of exciting countries! We arrived after a very pleasant BA flight from London yesterday morning, here in Mumbai, or as this huge city is better known...Bombay. At the airport we sorted out a cheap hotel in the travellers district Colaba, at ...

... very little but still enjoyed a few treats from the road that luckily stayed down. One of my highlights of Mumbai was seeing the Gateway of India. The arch faces out to Mumbai Harbour from the tip of Apollo Bunder. It was built to commemorate the 1911 ...

Entry into Mumbai went pretty smooth. Going through immigration was easy. No problems. Mumbai is a pretty dirty town. There is debris and rubble every where, garbage everywhere, and rows of people sleeping on the streets. There are many shacks and run ...

... of the India trip had come to an end...bye bye goa, and easy easy life!!! We thought we'd ease ourselves back into it, Bombay is hot sticky crammed rammed smelly and all those beautiful things a city can be, but I'm quite enjoying it oddly, Claire not ...

... cruising past a row of slum shanties is an image that has stuck. And there were plenty such images. Bombay (I like it better than Mumbai) is a crumbling metropolis groaning under the weight of a massive population. Apparently it's something like 16 ...