Peace and Quiet in Mumbai
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2007
1
41
62
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Mumbai (Bombay),
India
Saturday, February 23, 2008
We've learnt on our travels that whenever taking public transport it is a good idea to befriend some locals. On our train to Mumbai this proved correct again. On the platform waiting for our train (which was late as usual) we got chatting to some Indian students who had been in Goa on a break from their studies. I had a passable cricket conversation with one of them and in fact even Roz joined in saying, "didn't England win something big a couple of years back? All I know about cricket is that the England players get drunk a lot!". The Indian guys were on the same carriage as us, so took us to the right part of the platform so as not to repeat the previous train drama.
We were heading to the station in Mumbai called CST, which is the terminus. But before we got there (90 minutes late at half-past midnight), the whole train seemed to empty at Dadar station
CST station, Mumbai
. As we were looking confused as to why everyone was getting off, a man told us the train stopped there and that we had to get off quickly before it set-off back the other way. So we grabbed our bags and jumped off wondering why the train wasn't going to CST. On the platform we saw our cricket-loving student friends and asked them why the train wasn't going to CST. They told us that it was going to CST and that we should get back on - so we quickly jumped onto a completely empty carriage, and sure enough we arrived at CST, where we were the only passengers to get off the train!After a good night's sleep, we got up and left the hotel prepared to face the mayhem that awaited us outside. A friend of ours who travels to India a lot on business told us that Calcutta was nothing compared to Mumbai. "They drive on the pavements in the rush-hour!" he told us. We stepped outside the hotel and were really quite shocked! There was no traffic, no noise and very few people. We could even cross the roads without having to hide behind Indians! So we had a very pleasant stroll around Mumbai, as a testimony to the peace and quiet there were even young men playing cricket in the street - and we have the pictures to prove it. Arriving back at the hotel in the evening we asked the man on reception why it was so quiet, he said that every Sunday was like this. But even today (Monday) it is not as busy as we thought it would be
Street cricket in Mumbai
.Out of all the places we've been in India so far, Mumbai definitely feels the most modern. The roads and pavements are mostly smooth, there are no tuk-tuks and the cars are mostly modern (apart from the taxis of course, all Indian taxis were made in the 1950's). We also noticed that there must have been a big cricket match being played; every street we walked along had groups of men staring at TVs inside bars or in some places grouped around a TV on the pavement. Not that we were complaining. We saw the Gateway to India, which was the only place that had crowds of any description, although the Gateway was partially covered in scaffold.
We weren't expecting to like Mumbai as much as we do, and we'd love to stay a few more days. Unfortuately it is pretty expensive, our hotel (which we had to search for long and hard on the internet, as most hotels here are REALLY expensive) is costing 1,300 rupees a night, but would probably cost half that amount elsewhere in India - thankfully it's nice and well located but still we can't afford to stay here for too long. So tomorrow we're going to head for the hills.
