November 17, 2009 – Day 326 – Mumbai, India

We really packed in a full sightseeing tour of Mumbai today! We started the morning with a taxi ride to the Hanging Garden for a nice view of the beach and a bit of the city. The garden is very pleasant and extremely well maintained and for this reason, many Indians like to spend time walking around and people watching (yes, they stare at each other too), especially since the park is free to go in. Across the street is another smaller park where we passed a mini-market with 8-10 tables of random wares for sale and the giant shoe to check out the view.

Hazy day on the beach

We walked down the hill via a long, wide stairway that looks like it leads into the woods but really it takes you down a shortcut into the city, just across from the beach. After making our way through many lanes (yes, real lanes—with stoplights too!) of traffic, we crossed onto the sandy city beach, Chowpatty Beach. It is the first beach our feet have met since Croatia! Chowpatty is a place for lots of young Indian couples to hang out but it is also home to thousands of fluttering pigeons and a number of homeless families who use overturned boats as their homes.

Not rocks but Pigeons on Chowpatty beach

There is a huge amount of trash where you would normally enjoy a stroll through the surf. The trash is so thick that is does not break to let you sneak into the water even if you really wanted to (but seriously, you wouldn’t want to!). The water is a blackish color and even the Indians don’t venture in. There were a few cows roaming around the beach but mostly there are groups of teenagers and young couples that dot the sand. Frankly, it really is not a nice place.

Trash back by the docks

Walking along Marine Drive is a decently pleasant experience although it is unlikely to be thrilling or stunningly beautiful. It is a rare place in India with a side walk and the trashed out sea shore is still pretty trashy. If you are visiting Mumbai and are near the area, it is worth a stroll if you are bored and have nothing else to do but it leaves much to be desired as a “lovely seaside promenade.”

After lunch we saw the famous India Gate shrouded in a hazy gloomy grey sky and lined with hundreds of Indians snapping photos of every foreigner that was walking around the grounds. There was a very unlucky blonde girl trying to sit in the shade and read a book in peace who was no doubt bothered for “one snap, one snap!” more than anyone else, poor thing!

India Gate registers an ehh... on the awesomeness scale

With most of the day still ahead of us, we decided to seek out one of Mumbai’s many shopping malls to restock a few important supplies (it’s surprisingly tough to find good bug spray and sunscreen in much of India!). On the way, we passed the train station and the clock tower—both very nice examples of British architecture.

A better idea of India than any photo of a clock tower will give you.

As it turns out, Mumbai is not really a great place for tourists and sightseeing. We easily saw the main sights in a single day at a very slow pace. The main draw to Mumbai is the Bollywood scene and it’s touted tourist attractions (India Gate, Marine Drive, etc) are not in any way time consuming or necessarily interesting examples of Indian culture/architecture. Still Mumbai is a really attractive city with lot of greenery, fantastic palm trees, cool looking taxis, and some very pretty buildings. Even though we really enjoyed being in this city, we decided to skip out on a night bus to Goa since Mumbai is expensive and we would be doing nothing. Instead, we decided to do nothing in Goa!