– personal travel notes
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| BACKGROUND
Mumbai has a population of 16 million people.
Read that figure one more time!
Yes: 16 million people, squeezed together in an area of 600 square kilometers. It is more people than you find in Denmark, Norway and Finland together.
In short, Mumbai is like a huge country in itself!
Mumbai is said to have India's best nightlife, it is India's city of the film industry with all its glamour of Bollywood cinema, (biggest film industry in the world, bigger than Hollywood. The Indian box office sells a billion tickets more than Hollywood does worldwide), and it is India's finance centre.
In short, if you ask people of Mumbai: This is the “real” capital of India.
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| MUMBAI AND BOMBAY
Mumbai used to be called Bombay by the British colonialists.
The name was changed in 1996 to signify its emergence from a colonial past.
The Portuguese used to call it Bombain, and when the islands were donated to the British, they anglicised the name to “Bombay”.
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| TAXI
Be somewhat aware of swindlers when catching a taxi from the airport. Don't listen to those who approach you, instead go to one of those parked and waiting at the roadside.
If you want to hire an airconditioned taxi for a day in Mumbay, you might try and call Dube on 9323220908. Haven't tried him myself, but had a short ride with him and he seemed okay. His price in january 2005 was 1,000 rupees (DKK 120) for eight hours.
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Mumbai
“Big city” is the word for Mumbai. Mumbai is responsible for 40 percent of India’s Gross National Product, and when coming in from rural India as I do, it feels like stepping from the past into the future. People are “modern” here!
After having experienced the pollution terror of Bangalore, it is a relief to see that the traffic of Mumbai is not as bad as I had feared. Maybe because they have a subway system here which transports millions of people every day.
On my first night in Bombay I'm invited to come along to a hindu wedding.
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Bride and groom, greeting and having photographs taken of each of the more than 500 guests who attend the evening reception. |
Immidiately getting a feel for the café-life of Mumbai! ‘Mocha Coffee & Conversation’ is a great place (on 82, Nagin Mahal, on Veer Nariman Road, near Churchgate Station Road) where they serve the most delicious coffee beans from all over the world, while Buena Vista Social Club plays in the loudspeakers. On every last Sunday of the month, they organise meetings of “The Mocha Backpaker Club” where travellers tell tales from faraway places, from 11 am to 2 pm. |
At Mocha, we meet two of Klara's friends, David and Charmayne (Sjar-men). David is a photographer, Charmayne is, as I understood it, a poet and a councellor, among other things.
Charmayne tells me about Arnold Mindell who has written several books and runs courses about dreams and their “shadow side” – at Process Work Institute in Portland Oregon.
Klara, a Brazilian Bollywood-bellydancer, and her boyfriend, Ankur, who is a DJ and computerwiz. |
posted by Mik Aidt on Jan 5 at 08:39
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Sunday, January 9, 2005
I think I am simply happy! So good to see Deb again. It has been three long months since we last were together. |
Klara and Deb – two old friends reunited. They've spent lots of time (doing African dancing, etc) together in Thailand and in Australia.
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Deb arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and on Thursday we have been out shopping, visited the Prabhadevi Temple (funny experience, very modern temple – rolling neonsign to promote their website, www.siddhivinayak.org, etc), Deb had an hour-long ayurvedic massage (at Kerala Ayurvedic Health Spa), I had a shave, and so on. In the nights we have been going out together with Klara, and spent most of Friday next to a swimming pool at the Sea Princess Hotel.
Klara lives in a neighbourhood which is called the “Beverly Hills of Bombay”, near the beach. |
Sunday morning we get up early to experience Mumbai on a fresh, this day with an intention of playing tourists, heading straight for the main tourist attractions of the city.
Taking off on a boat outside “The Gate Of India”. |
A 2000 year old temple, dug out in the rocks of the Elephanta Island, nine kilometers from Mumbai Harbour. |
In front of this Shiva figure the Lonely Planet Guide Book had promised us “one of the most serene moments we'd ever experience in India”. It was Sunday, and crowded with Indian tourists, so... – no, it wasn't serene at all!
But an impressive place, nevertheless, not to mention because of its history. |
Eventually, the delegates take off for IMC3 (the Third International Mush Conference) in a silver horse carriage.
You probably shall not expect to hear from them again until the conference is over. |
The Mush conference takes place in Goa
posted by Mik Aidt on Jan 9 at 20:44
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Mumbai [2]
IMC3 and our honeymush is over, and we are back in Mumbai for a few days before taking off for Europe.
A wedding is happening right outside our house, and it appears to be a long ordeal. It has been going on for three days now already, with new types of music and new ceremonies every day. Last night the drumming was so loud it was difficult to fall asleep.
Not doing too much else, apart from a bit of shopping, packing, listening to music, watching videos and those sort of relaxing activities.
Bombay skyline as seen from Jogger's Park in Klara's neighbourhood, Bandra. |
What to do? Such two uncontrolable naughty girls! |
Klara winking and Deb doing an arm trick. |
posted by Mik Aidt on Jan 30 at 11:37
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Sunday 30th of January, 2005
Two glimpses from our Sunday in Mumbai:
Thinking we should see a bit of “modern Mumbai”, so in the late afternoon we head off to a major shopping centre, Crossroads, to look for some “ethnic fashion” which we have seen in a magazine advertisement.
On third floor in the arcade building, we stumble over a shop entitled Home D'elite which – with a Bhagwad Gita quote as its slogan: “Purity of mind follows... purity of diet” – sells all sorts of snacks, dry fruits and health foods. Sugar free, milk free, organically grown, without additives, colour, preservatives, and so on.
Trying and testing and tasting ...til we go bananas! – over all the delicious healthy stuff they sell at Home D'elite. |
We end up spending a long time there, tasting an overwhelming amount (more than 100 varieties available) of different delicacies, from sugar free and milk free chocolate to masala tea and spicy papadums.
Interesting shop, and apparently one of its kind in all of Mumbai, possibly in all of India.
(Tel 022 5660 3091 / 92, email. They give delivery anywhere in Mumbai and also outside Mumbai by Value Payable by Post (V.P.P.))
Sunday evening, Klara shows us a really special restaurant of her neighbourhood this evening, Roshan's Jinie's Seafood Restaurant & Grill.
The music, the ambiance, the interior and the food: all in match for some enlightening dreamweaving. |
We are the first ones there. In Mumbai, people eat out very late, like in France. Usually, restaurants begin to fill up after 22:00.
Excerpt from the menucard:
Weave dreams.
Listen to your thoughts.
Rediscover love, life.
Or maybe, just yourself.
At Jinie's there are no rules.
(...)
Let the mystique take over
til at least for a while
life is dreams
and dreams are life.
(The whole text can be read at Jinie's elegant website at www.roshansjinies.com).
Wonderful Indian cooking, and excellent service. We have a long talk with the owner, Juned Shaikh, who sits and has his meal at our table, talking about Indian spirituality, his belief in sufism, his travels in New Zealand, the dream he fought for while setting up this restaurant, his enthusiastic interest in beads, and things like that.
The restaurant has a bead shop at the entrance.
posted by Mik Aidt on Jan 30 at 23:42
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