Mumbai, city of twenty-one million

 

My planned month in Mumbai was intended to be mostly ‘down time’, to process and recover from my time in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, and so I didn’t feel the need to base myself in one of the expensive hostels in the upmarket Colaba area.  Instead I headed to Saki Naka, a cheap part of the city only a few kilometres from the international airport (thus I could walk there from my early morning arrival, rather than having to negotiate taxi fares in a city I didn’t know), checking into a small dormitory most of whose other guests were Indians working in Mumbai.  £3.25 a night, with light and socket next to the bed, a locker, and a kitchenette with washing machines!  It served the purpose well, even though it was here that I discovered that most Indians go to bed very late, and that the culture does not include showing consideration to others through keeping the noise down after a certain hour…

Whilst I did spend most of the first two weeks on my bunk bed resting and getting through some of my admin, I also went out exploring a couple of times, to some caves, and to the Colaba area.  The latter includes two UNESCO World Heritage sites: a train station, and the Victorian Gothic & Art Deco Ensembles, being a collection of 94 buildings and monuments representing the Victorian Revival period of the 19th century and the Art Deco style of the 20th century.  Quite hard to photograph as this is a busy and built-up area of the ninth most populated city in the world, and every day I was there the air was full of smog, but still the buildings were very attractive and this area of the city nice to see.  A little easier to walk in than the part where I was staying, as rickshaws are banned from this 'higher class' area!

The picture at the top is of the Police Headquarters, whilst this to the left is the Municipal Corporation building. 

Even better though were the caves, hewn out of the rock by Buddhists during the first few centuries AD.  Showing the effects of time, of course, some were quite damaged and others which had only been intended as places to study or meditate were probably always quite plain.  Others, however, were spectacular, whether through their scale or through the beautiful carvings.  The Elephanta Caves (another World Heritage Site) were very similar but carved by Hindus, so with different statues (eg this carving below of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu in one).

After two weeks in the super cheap dormitory I felt that I needed the company of other international travellers, rather than just of Indians (most of whom spoke no English), so I upgraded to a more expensive place a few stops along the metro line.  There I was told by fellow travellers of the Kanheri Caves, within the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which was a long day out as there are more than 100 caves, plus I walked 7km to them through part of the National Park as I hoped to see some birds, animals, etc.  I did see a few spotted deer, and signs warning of leopards, but that was about it.  So ... final cave picture!

My final memory of Mumbai, however, was of the sheer number of people.  This was most apparent when I came back from my visit to Elephanta Caves in what was apparently still rush hour (around 19:30).  I was on a slow train, which filled up with more and more people as we went north.  I was told by a fellow passenger to make my way towards the doorway as soon as we left the station before mine, but as we started to come into my station, the people around me started to jump off the still-moving train.  I didn't feel comfortable doing that - it looked dangerous - so I waited until we came to a stop.  However before we had reached that stage (ie whilst the train was still moving) the others had got off and a sea of people started to push their way on.  I still have no idea how I got off, I just remember panicking, and then finding myself on the station platform, panting and shaking, but safe...

Back at the hostel, locals told me that I should never take a Mumbai train during rush hour (17:30-21:00. roughly).  So two days later, noticing that it was already 16:45, I cut short my walk around town and boarded a train back north - later to be told that rush hour 'lasts all day' on suburban trains such as the one I took this time.  Firstly there was a long screaming match, which almost turned physical, between two groups of women after one stop.  Then I had to somehow get through the crowd to the door, which I somehow managed to do, squeezing through the crowd inch-by-inch ... but somehow during the squash someone had managed to partially unzip my bag, and I discovered as I got off that my bag was partly open and my purse was missing.  Not a huge amount of money lost as I split my cash between different places, but more importantly my debit card, which I needed to withdraw cash from ATMs, was gone.