It's been 10 years since we were last in Mumbai and we had looked forward to returning from the moment we booked the cruise. It took a while for me to love this place but it will forever hold a piece of my heart after spending almost three years of our lives here. When Mark asked he could get ideas from us about what to see we were excited to just show them around ourselves so we booked a car and driver for the two days and made plans of what we'd like to see.
When we came out of the "Green Gate" at the port we met Anthony, who we thought was our driver but ended up being a guide that Mystical Mumbai sent with the driver. I was told that the driver spoke little English so it would be better to have the guide as well...for a relatively small increase in cost. We decided why not and were glad we did, Anthony was a great addition to our days. First stop of this long day was the Leopold Cafe, an institution in Mumbai since 1871. It was also one of the sites targeted by the terrorist attacks of 2008. You can see they still have many of the bullet holes in place.
During the attacks there were 167 people killed, including many foreigners. More on Leopold later as we had breakfast there the next day.
It never ceases to amaze me when people ask to take a photo with me. This family asked for one so I wanted one of them in return. I just love talking to random people.
We wanted to share the grand old lady that is the Taj Mahal Hotel with Mark and Jane. I don't know how many times I came here to visit Ravi in the jewelry store, or just to use the bathroom. This was the hotel where I learned to walk in and act as if I belonged, just to be able to look around.
Mark and Karl posed with one of the beautiful receptionists
while Jane and I just took a selfie in the lobby. Security is always tight now whenever you enter a five-star Indian hotel. Any bags you take with you have to be screened and you are frisked before entering, ladies are checked behind a privacy curtain. During the 2008 terrorist attacks 31 people lost their lives here and many hostages were taken. Karl's boss, K.K. Singh was almost one of them as he was dining at the hotel that night but was able to escape with the help of hotel staff. A three day battle ensued here until Indian commandos killed the terrorists who had barricaded themselves in the hotel.
As you can see from these photo, many, many of the famous and powerful have visited the Taj Hotel over the years.
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel has been one of the finest hotels in the East since the time of the British Raj. It was opened by Jamatji Tata after he was refused entry to the "Europeans Only", Watsons Hotel. These are views of the beautiful stairway in the older part of the hotel where every room is like a mini museum. There was live sitar music going on nearby when we were there.
Opened in 1903 this hotel was the first of the Taj Hotel brand, a name synonymous with luxury hotels.
Is it any wonder the lobby smelled amazing?!
Just across the street from the Taj is the Gateway of India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of King George V for his coronation as the Emperor of Indian in 1911. He was the first British monarch to visit the country.
Turned out that King George never saw the actual gate, only a cardboard cut out! The landmark wasn't completed until 1924.
You can see from this photo how close the Taj Hotel is to the Gateway. It was this area next to the Gateway where the old sailing ships would moor.
Another group of friends I made after they asked to take a photo with me.
Signage commemorating the visit of King George & Queen Mary.
One thing I always love seeing around India are the colorful sarees.
Near the Gateway are the boats that take tours out to Elephanta Caves, we opted for Kanheri Caves instead, more on those later.
Statues of the Maharashtran hero, Chatrapati Shivaji abound throughout Mumbai, with all kinds of things named after him as well. He founded the Maratha Kingdom in this part of India in the 17th century.
Next place we stopped was somewhere I'd never been before and really never want to visit again, the Mumbai Fish Market. Above are some of the fishing boats.
It wasn't terribly busy as we arrived, most of the buying and selling having gone on earlier in the day.
I wish there was a way to put a smell in a picture so that you could get the full experience we had here at the fish market, it was the most putrid, rancid, foul, rotting fish after days in the sun odor that you can imagine. It was so strong that Jane, who can't stand the sight and smell of fish, had to get back in the car almost immediately so she didn't throw up. This photo shows you how far I was able to get, breathing through my mouth, until I couldn't take it anymore either. Karl was in the car pretty quickly too because he was ready to gag. Mark of course made his way down the pier to get more photos. Every time someone got back in the car they brought a whiff of the market with them. It was truly one of the worst smells I've ever experienced.
Back where things smelled better, we visited a part of town that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles (Examples) in architecture. This portion of it is the Oval Maiden, a place to play cricket in the midst of British Raj Bombay (the former name of Mumbai), also known as Fort.
Here's a glimpse of the Big Ben of Mumbai, aka the Rajabal Clock Tower.
Another of the Victorian treasures in the Chatrapati Shivaji train station, also known as Victoria Station, one of the grandest structures in Mumbai, one that took ten years to complete.
Typically, 7.5 million people travel through this train station every day. As we were there on a Saturday we didn't see the normal crazy commuting crowds that often fill the terminal. Mark really wanted to see people hanging on the outside of the train!
There is some lovely stained glass that decorates this massive station that was built between 1878 and 1888.
Lots of guys around and available to shine your shoes.
A surprisingly clear platform.
This dusty old clock is original to the building and still keeps good time.
One more exterior view of the station from the photo spot that has been set up in the middle of the street. Guess they got tired of pedestrians taking photos and holding up traffic.
Another of the Victoria buildings is the BMC Headquarters. BMC originally stood for Bombay Municipal Corporation so this was the governing headquarters for the city. Today it stands for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
And then you have buildings like these that appear to have been around since the British Raj but have never seen a bit of upkeep since the British left in 1947. There are a lot of them throughout the city.
Final stop on this post was the Crawford Market which was completed in 1869 and named after the municipal commissioner of the day.
The thing Karl really wanted to find here was Alphonso Mangos which he knew were in season. We were on the search for some and found thousands. The mangos themselves heat when packed, thus the straw to help distribute the heat and keep them from getting too ripe too quickly.
Are these not things of beauty!
And as you can see there were plenty of Alphonsos to be had so we bought a dozen of them to eat later in the park.
Everyone in this photo must have had a busy day early, or they were just exhausted from the unseasonable heat.
Here in the heart of the market you find this reminder that Cowasjee Jehanghier, a wealthy and prominent in the Parsi community in Bombay, donated this market space
Lots of other eye candy in the market besides the mangos! I just love going to these places to see how beautifully everything is laid out and to see the different kinds of fruits and veggies in country.
All they sold at this shop was garlic, who knew there were this many varieties!
Lots of fun spices here as well. I bought some for making Butter Chicken.
Anybody remember when we used to bring those delicious cashews home from India with us? Well, we found some more at a shop in Crawford Market. They won't make it all the way home, Karl will have them eaten long before then, but they are just as delicious as we remembered.
Besides food, the market also had birds for sale, lots and lots of them in different varieties as you can see above.
And there were even a few colorful chicks, although way too many for this small cage. I didn't take pictures of the puppies and kittens that were for sale, it was too hard to see them there and then be out and about and see ill-cared for dogs that needed a home. The market was great to walk through but we were ready to move on after this part of it. More Mumbai to come in more posts!
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