(5) Old and New Worlds collide in Mumbai
The land of Bollywood --- the glittering, dance-filled theatrical movies (made me think of Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan --- my long time crush, with those mesmerizing eyes sino ang hindi maloka valah!)
I arrived early at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or most popularly known as the Victoria Terminal (VT). It was truly chaotic inside. There must have been at least 5 trains going in different directions at the same time! When I went outside they have these quaint yellow cabs waiting in a queu parang 70’s movie sya. 
I just walked past them and headed out to the main street. When I looked back, the place looks absolutely amazing. Feeling mo you are looking at a palace or a parliament building or even a cathedral (being Pinoy, I always assume that anything big will either be a mall or a church!), ganun sya ka regal-looking.Mumbai is definitely the most expensive city in India, the room rates here are really over the top – so now I’m heading out to the Marzaban Road (just straight across from the VT). I’m looking for Hotel Outram, the most marginally cheap place in my budget range and preferred location. It has dorm and single rooms – I chose the latter for more privacy, I had enough of penny-pinching!
One thing I always do when I go to places, I always want to live near the business district as it saves me on taxi fares!
Near my hotel, you will walk past huge Maidans sometimes with ongoing cricket matches and football games from youngsters who are most likely students from the nearby schools.
Yehey!…. I’m on my 2nd week already and so far, the state of Maharashtra is my fourth!
A Bout of Sickness
On my second night, I planned on staying in and not going out. Well, it turned out I couldn’t really possibly go….I don’t really know what hit me! Nanghina lang ako bigla after lunch (pinaghinalaan ko yung green sauce ng McDo) and then I started to have high fever and was really shaking badly, going back and forth to the toilet and vomitting my food out. I later checked it out as ‘traveller’s diarrhea” --- I think my body just cave in from too much travelling, lugging my very heavy backpack around, walking nonstop in the sun and in not stopping in a place long enough to take a rest. The following day, I decided to sleep in just to recuperate… buti na lang kasi it’s April 7th – birthday ni Papa and I was able to call him even if medyo late na in the day.
Foodie Heaven
Marzaban Road -- its just 2 blocks away from the Victoria Terminal and scattered around is a Shakeys, McDonalds, Coffee Day or a Barista! After the culinary challenges of the previous places (except Goa), I am really in ‘foodie heaven’. One thing though, there is no Fried Chicken in McDo! As in na-shock talaga ako, super unbelievable talaga. Its like for me, McDo = Fried Chicken. Pero ginulantang nila ang bulate sa tiyan ko --- they don’t have fried chicken! The closest thing they have is the chicken burger with a green sauce filling (eeekkk! Ano yan!). Hindi dahil sa adventurous eater ako kaya I try out local dishes kundi dahil sa dikta ng estado ng aking pitaka! So far, I am addicted to Tandoori chicken…. As in, yan lang yata ang ino-order ko palagi wherever I go!
Mahalaxmi Temple and Dhobi Ghats
One of the interesting things that I wanted to go to is to visit the place where the ‘dhobi wallahs’ do the laundry. It is said that around Mumbai they have a place wherein all the clothes in the hotels are being laundered. Dhobi wallah is what they call the laundry man and there’s like hundreds of them who beats the dirt out from your clothes, as in literally hinahampas nila ang damit into the concrete walls of their washing areas, or the ghats.
One thing I always do when I go to places, I always want to live near the business district as it saves me on taxi fares!
Near my hotel, you will walk past huge Maidans sometimes with ongoing cricket matches and football games from youngsters who are most likely students from the nearby schools.
Yehey!…. I’m on my 2nd week already and so far, the state of Maharashtra is my fourth!
A Bout of Sickness
On my second night, I planned on staying in and not going out. Well, it turned out I couldn’t really possibly go….I don’t really know what hit me! Nanghina lang ako bigla after lunch (pinaghinalaan ko yung green sauce ng McDo) and then I started to have high fever and was really shaking badly, going back and forth to the toilet and vomitting my food out. I later checked it out as ‘traveller’s diarrhea” --- I think my body just cave in from too much travelling, lugging my very heavy backpack around, walking nonstop in the sun and in not stopping in a place long enough to take a rest. The following day, I decided to sleep in just to recuperate… buti na lang kasi it’s April 7th – birthday ni Papa and I was able to call him even if medyo late na in the day.
Foodie Heaven
Marzaban Road -- its just 2 blocks away from the Victoria Terminal and scattered around is a Shakeys, McDonalds, Coffee Day or a Barista! After the culinary challenges of the previous places (except Goa), I am really in ‘foodie heaven’. One thing though, there is no Fried Chicken in McDo! As in na-shock talaga ako, super unbelievable talaga. Its like for me, McDo = Fried Chicken. Pero ginulantang nila ang bulate sa tiyan ko --- they don’t have fried chicken! The closest thing they have is the chicken burger with a green sauce filling (eeekkk! Ano yan!). Hindi dahil sa adventurous eater ako kaya I try out local dishes kundi dahil sa dikta ng estado ng aking pitaka! So far, I am addicted to Tandoori chicken…. As in, yan lang yata ang ino-order ko palagi wherever I go!
Mahalaxmi Temple and Dhobi Ghats
One of the interesting things that I wanted to go to is to visit the place where the ‘dhobi wallahs’ do the laundry. It is said that around Mumbai they have a place wherein all the clothes in the hotels are being laundered. Dhobi wallah is what they call the laundry man and there’s like hundreds of them who beats the dirt out from your clothes, as in literally hinahampas nila ang damit into the concrete walls of their washing areas, or the ghats.
It had cost me big bucks to go over to the place as I had to take a taxi kasi masyado siyang malayo from the city center. Afterwards I took a walk and proceeded to the Mahalaxmi Temple, no photo ops here kasi bawal ang picture taking inside.Walking Tour of the City
According to the guide, it will take roughly 3 ½ hrs to go around the main areas around Mumbai… starting from the Gateway of India (I took a tuktuk para medyo talagang sumunod ako sa starting point baka kasi maligaw na naman ako no!). And speaking of authentic talagang I used the Indian shirt na nabili ko on a previous visit to the hawker’s area in the Veer Nariman Rd but I think I managed to look like a Mongolian or Nepalese instead of Indian!!!
I walked past the Prince of Wales Musuem (eto ang totoo nyang pangalan – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya – napagod yata sila kaya pinalitan ng bago!).
Trying to navigate your way around India can truly try the patience of a saint. Can you imagine, one long avenue will have a different name at every junction! From MG Rd, I turned towards Veer Nariman Rd towards the St Thomas Cathedral and onwards to the Horniman Circle 
where all the old buildings circa 19th century are located. Walking around, you feel as if you are a modern person living in the old world. The old and new, past and present co-existing.It is not anymore a walking tour, my poor feet were complaining already. I am so exhausted but I still have 1 more site to go to (I can be such a victim of guide books.. I get so carried away with their ‘places to visit’ and will really try to go to each of them!), the East Indian Christian mini-village, Kotachiwadi. It is said to have at least 30 wooden mansions. It was a nightmare finding the place! I walked….. asked questions….. walked more….took at least 2 different tuktuks… past a marketplace (well, it was congested with shops! So maybe it was a market area) and then you go inside a small alley and yes, there are really wooden houses there but not all you can consider as “mansions” and most of them are in bad condition. Medyo nakakatakot na nga kasi feeling ko the place is full of slum dwellers.
On my last day, I visited the house that Mahatma Gandhi considers home whenever he is in Mumbai, the Mani Bhavan, now turned into a small musuem with a gallery of photographs of Gandhi’s life and his struggles. Would you believe, he loved only one woman in his life, his wife Kasturba, and when she died in 1944 he was said to be devastated (who wouldn't be if you have lost a person you have been with for the past 61 years!!). Isn't it romantic???
Shopping
For a die hard ‘fashionista’ the place to visit is the Khala Goda and Colaba districts – from classy boutiques to hawkers alleys, the whole stretch of the Colaba causeway is lined with it. I went to one of the Fabindia shops, pang-elitista ang dating nya. Of course I couldn’t get out without getting something di ba? I got some organic food (honey and some jellies) na I’ll give back home as pasalubong. Crossroads is another place to get the latest designer items – as in out of my budget range!
One thing though, sometimes its better to buy souvenirs from government emporiums to eliminate the risk of haggling for a cheap trinket which might break even before you can give it as a present back home. But yeah, it does kill the fun out of haggling for the price and going through the bazaars. This time around I went to visit the Khadi & Village Industries Emporium and the medyo high end Bombay Store for souvenirs.
The vibrancy of life pulsing in the marketplaces is really something, that’s why wherever I am I always in a new place I make sure I visit market bazaars sometimes not even to shop but to just soak on the atmosphere, you can really feel the local ambience in the market areas. People from all walks of life converge in these bazaars and its so colorful and culturally rich. Pero medyo takot pa rin ako to venture into the unknown so I stuck with the two most popular markets – Chor Bazaar (or the Thieves Market) and the Mangaldas Market.
I’m heading out to Rajasthan afterwards – the land of the camels and the desert dunes but my God! I have to go all the way to Bandra Station, which is parang 2hrs from the city (maging 2 hrs coz of the traffic!)
Comments