Taj Mahal Palace And Tower Mumbai (Bombay)

Mumbai: The Gateway of India. Until recently, this city was known as Bombay. The Mumbai airport is over 1 1/2 hours from the city center so we braced ourselves for another long, and bumpy ride. The ride from the airport to the city actually takes you through the largest slum in Asia. It can be extremely overwhelming, and incredibly heartbreaking. We arrived at the Taj Palace and Tower hotel, which is actually a tourist spot in and of itself. The Palace hotel is 103 years old and Tower was bui...

I did a walking tour of the city starting at the Gateway of India, took in the architecture of Churchgate and Victoria Train stations, fountains, parks, and some old buildings including a really cool library with a reading balcony that has big comfy chairs. Took a boat ride in the harbor just to get out of the city for a while. Had a drink at the posh Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel. Good thing I only had one, it cost more than I typically spend for a room for the night, ouch!

The flight to Bombay left around 18:30, and took 4 hours or so. Due to the time change it didn't arrive in Bombay (now called Mumbai) until about 01:30 on Wednesday. I went through formalities without a problem and prepaid for a taxi into the Taj Mahal Hotel. As I exited the airport two fellows insisted on leading me to the taxi. I told them I didn't need or want their help but they insisted anyway, telling me "it's our job." Once at the taxi, of course, they insisted on being paid. I refused...

Last night Susan took me out for a walk down the street from her place and I found a slice of heaven - shoes galore! Pretty sparkley sandles...and cheap! Although it was crowded and we got hassled a bit by the vendors because we were so obviously foreigners and they all wanted us to buy something from them, it was lots of fun and I bought the cutest pair of red sparkley sandles you ever did see! Because it was night, it was a bit cooler, but still quite humid. Today we started out early with ...

General impressions so far (of whole trip): Dirty - garbage everywhere. Shanties, shacks, tents, poverty. No sense of personal space, decorum. Pushing and shoving, burping and *******. low season - not many tourists at any place we went. Flight from Goa to Mumbai Spice Jet Airlines Depart Goa 2:30 Arrive Mumbai 3:30 Hotel: Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel Apollo Bunder Mumbai, 400 001 Tel: 011-91-22-6665-3366 http://www.tajhotels.com/Palace/The%20T aj%20Mahal%20Palace%2 0%26%20Tower,MUMBAI/...

For the journey from Varanasi - Agra we had decided to travel in 2AC which basically means you are in carriage divided into berths which accommodate 4 people with just a curtain to separate you all from the main passageway. This would usually be fine, however, there was another single berth opposite the entrance to ours and halfway through the journey it was taken by a gentleman who was a Professor of History from one of the local universities. We four awoke at 6am anticipating the timely arr...

Greetings... So my time in Mumbai is now slowly dwindling. Our program officially ends tonight, although our truancy is at an all time high as Dave, Jesse and I ended our clinical experiences at Dr. Mehta's on Wednesday night. Wednesday afternoon Dave, Jesse, Marcus and I finally made our way to a Bollywood movie. The intense love of these CHEESY movies by the Indian people is just unreal. They put our some ridiculous amount of films each year and the starts are more revered than those in Hol...

Back in Mumbai! Basically we have shopped, partied and smoked sheesha for three days, good achievement I think! As it has been our last few days together, we were determined to make the most of it by being as hedonistic as possible! I think we may have succeeded :o) We arrived on Friday - the train journey was never-ending because the monsoon was buggering things up but we got there eventually! Tried some green-apple sheesha at Mocha, the best cafe in the world (after Starbucks of course!) th...

We got up around 10 and had breakfeast in the house's upstairs living room. Jaime ordered 5 hard boiled eggs and I ordered 3. The lady looked at us like we were out of minds. After breakfast we got everything ready, used the internet for a bit and got a taxi to the airport. This time the taxi didn't stop midway. At the airport we went around the souvenir shops for a bit. I practiced my Kathakali face movements and dances with the guy working in one of the cafes and he had to have thought that...

Just about 27 hours from Stowe to our room. Didn't know the trip would take us, at least according to the display in the cabin, not too far north of Baghdad and over parts of Iran. "Was that turbulence or flak?" Tough to really give first impressions of Mumbai; it's dark, we're tired. Obviously, lots and lots of people, even the Manhattanites would have to see it to believe it. Heard so much, from so many about how dirty things would be, how all of our senses would be assaulted the moment we ...