Massive Monstrously Monumental Megacity (Mumbai)

Mumbai is quite simply the biggest place that either of us has ever been. There is more there in terms of people, history, cultural mixing, food, entertainment, and commerce than all but a small group of entire countries. Bollywood, an enormous port, the most expensive mansion in the world, and the world’s largest slums all cohabit on a now far too small peninsula. As you’d expect, this makes for an exciting place – it seems that Mumbai is at the heart of every new trend in India and naturally it holds massive appeal for the ambitious, the bright, and the beautiful. We had an unbelievable time there, and the week we set ourselves to explore was laughably inadequate.

Skyscrapers, one of the more famous bridges in Asia, Portuguese ruins, and the Arabian Sea, together composing a rare vista that merited properly asking another person to take the picture rather than selfie-ing

When we visited, Christmas decorations were out in force. Despite India being a predominantly Hindu country, Christmas looms large as a chance for people to buy stuff

Although the city is packed with people from all walks of life, there are two things which seem to unite everyone in Mumbai. The first is a massive rivalry with Delhi – like LA and New York, we know they love each other deep down, but you’ll constantly hear people in each city listing the many inadequacies of their rival. The second is the completely ridiculous traffic, created by a perfect storm of generally terrible driving (as previously discussed on this blog), lack of adequate public transportation, and the inherent geographical limits of the city. We’re going to diplomatically sidestep the Delhi vs. Mumbai question, but having spent several cumulative days of our lives sitting in tuk tuks and taxis, we can definitely relate on the latter issue.

People of all backgrounds go to the west of the city to watch the lovely sunsets over the ocean

Stars in Our Eyes

We stayed our first few days with a truly amazing host in the north of Mumbai, which is home to many in the entertainment industry, and consequently bristles with amazing restaurants and cocktail bars, as well as the gyms, beauty parlors, and health food / supplement stores that keep the residents in proper form. Our host was a member of the entertainment industry himself, with a set of popular viral videos, in addition to more conventional works. To our delight, he graciously took time to show us around, introduced us to many of his friends, and also gave us a great set of recommendations for places to explore on our own.

The northern edge of the city, hosting high-rises packed with actors and models

We started by diving into the restaurant scene, eager to compare various hotspots with those of New York and London. We were not disappointed, and learned more than a few things about new combinations of flavors, generally involving international dishes improved by reasonable application of curry.

Mumbai’s hipster cocktail bars can easily slug it out versus those of Williamsburg and Shoreditch

I know none of you will believe me (Ethan, obviously), but this ended up being one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. A combination of (non-bovine) meats, luscious tomatoes, and spicy onion chutney, all served on a bun that could keep its head above the juices

That’s right – in Mumbai, beans on toast are on the cutting edge of fashion. We weren’t really sure whether to include these in the “hipster cuisine” or the “colonial legacy” portions of this post since they fit with both

Like New York, Mumbai seems to have a serious brunch obsession. The highlight was this one, half a loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with meatballs, sausage, tomato sauce, and cheese. Made healthy by a small salad

A surprisingly good exemplar of modern Mumbai is Global Fusion, an upscale, buffet-style restaurant focused on Asian items. It serves a multi-hour, all-you-can eat buffet comprising Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian delicacies served on individual plates. This covers (1) fine dining, (2) high-quality service, (3) pan-Asian decor, (4) value for money, and (5) gluttony. We strongly recommend it, although don’t plan on moving at all afterwards. It’s also great if you’re the sort of person who believes that Thai food makes for better appetizers, while Indian provides a properly heavy main course of carbs and oil. If you have trouble making decisions this may not be the place for you, at least unless you have a truly capacious stomach.

The interior, combining gazebo, koi pond, and cricket match

On-plate fusion (1 of about 6): lo mein with curry eggs, stewed chickpeas, and bak choy. Naturally with a side of hot and sour soup

Perhaps the highlight of our stay was when our host invited us to an Indian wedding between two of his friends, both actors. An Indian wedding is something that’s been super high up on the bucket list for both of us. Unlike in the US or England, Indian weddings have a flexible guest policy, and it’s apparently natural to bring extra people if you think they’d get along with the other guests.

Immediately following our immense excitement at being invited came the realization that neither of us possessed appropriate attire. Most of our clothing was very casual, and by this point in the trip, full of holes and discolorations from the ravages of Bulgarian garage washing machines. The highest of the sartorial barriers was footwear – after the demise of the white H&M $6 espadrilles (see the Italy posts for details), Ethan possessed only flip-flops, torn up running shoes, and some hiking boots that trekked to Everest Base Camp and were held together by super glue and nylon thread. This teed off a full-afternoon quest to locate size 12 dress shoes.

Early in our quest, we were stopped by many places topping out at size 10 or 11 shoes. Fighting despair, we searched for all possible sources of inspiration. Given that every single purchase of this sort entails a huge amount of bargaining, we found this sign particularly ingenious in its syllogism. It’s most entertaining if read aloud in an oxbridge accent with an “ergo” inserted before the final part

After a couple hours, we finally happened upon a stall with a few pairs in the proper size, to Ethan’s great delight. Ultimate price: about $10

The wedding itself was amazing and involved all sorts of suitably over-the-top celebrations. This being a gathering of actors, nearly everyone in the wedding party performed some sort of song or dance. Great times were had.

Holding court in true resplendence

The bride enters in procession, captured by dozens of photographers

Behind the Blockbusters

After the decadence of the wedding, we realized that it was time to get serious and start digging a little further into the city’s roots. Bandra, the long-time hub for all things Bollywood, was just down the road from us (albeit an hour’s drive), so it seemed like a good place to start. During an excellent walking tour we were treated to a concentrated dose of Mumbai history – this suburb rose from humble roots as a small fishing village to become a key hub for first the Portuguese and then the British, before taking on a new image as the pricey, fashionable place-to-be with the arrival of the movie industry. Before the dive into history, however, we did take time to look at a couple Bollywood shrines.

The house of Shah Rukh Khan, a pilgrimage / selfie site for apparently everyone

The admittedly unexciting exterior of one of the first movie studios built in Bandra

Ambling around Bandra for the afternoon, we were treated to a beautiful jumble of gated mansions, imperial oddities, and street art

As in most parts of modern Mumbai, Bandra’s early occupants relied on fishing to make a living, and a few fishing communities still dot the Mumbai coastline. Walking along the seafront, we stumbled across the remnants of more than a few fish markets – mostly by absent-mindedly wandering into a sea of shrimp lying out on the sidewalk.

Where the tide recedes, the swamp invades

The traditional method of drying shrimp involves laying them out in a thin layer in the sun. They are then raked into piles, sorted, and sold. We couldn’t determine whether this dog was the most disciplined guard dog ever – fighting all impulse to feast – or just physically unable to move from consuming so many shrimp

The Portuguese had a heavy presence in Bandra for little more than a century, but they left a lasting legacy via their passion for proselytizing. The new arrivals embraced the local language and culture, and converted the local fishermen en masse to Catholicism. Churches sprang up everywhere, and many remain heavily attended today by descendants of those original converts.

One of the better pitches we’ve seen

The atmospheric St Andrew’s church was the first constructed by the Portuguese, in 1575

Relatives of the original parishioners all have the right to burial in the graveyard, and demand is such that administrators have had to employ complex reshuffling and rationing systems

One of the most amazing sights in Mumbai turned out to be tucked in a corner of Bandra, where a close-knit portion of Mumbai’s Christian community resides. Our guide led us down a series of unassuming, narrow streets, and we found ourselves transported to a kind of big-city Narnia – a meticulously preserved collection of colonial style houses, complete with tranquil verandas and friendly neighbors, worlds away from the congestion and noise surrounding it. We chatted with a few locals, who took huge pride in their heritage and were clearly working tirelessly to maintain their unique “village” within a city.

A community project encourages street artists to create thematically complex works in order to liven things up on the edges of the historical neighborhood

Within the old portion of Bandra, it’s hard to go more than a block or so without spotting a figure of Jesus on the cross

The British inherited control of Mumbai as, if you would believe it, a wedding present, when Charles II married the daughter of the king of Portugal in the mid-17th century. However, the island on which Bandra lay was excluded from the dowry, and only became British territory around the turn of the 19th century. Bandra maintains a distinctly Portuguese feel to this day.

The altar of Mount Mary’s Church, which holds a much venerated statue of St. Mary that was rescued from the sea following a Maratha invasion

The church’s exterior wouldn’t be all that out of place in Lisbon

One of the most interesting aspects of Christianity in India that we observed was how it seemed to inherit certain ritual practices from Hinduism such as a love of marigolds, fire, and offerings. Also, like in Hindu temples, many people remove their shoes when visiting churches.

These wax models were hugely popular at Catholic churches we visited – shapes correspond to the focus of the day’s prayer (for example, body parts affected by specific ailments, or books representing academic success), and once purchased they are left as offerings inside the church

In Mumbai, Christians celebrate with marigolds and lots of fire, very similar to some Hindu practices

Although removing ones shoes is not required to enter the church (as pointed out by several helpful signs), many people did

A 19th Century Megacity

Much of the south of Mumbai was built by the British, and their grand boulevards, imposing imperial edifices, and geometric gardens remain to this day. We spent a very enjoyable day wandering around and taking in the scenery. While there are plenty of places in the world with equally massive buildings, the colonial era structures in Mumbai just mesh so well with the ample foliage surrounding them, and also exude an aura of character – history feels like it happened here.

Although it was technically constructed in the early 20th century, the Gateway of India is one of the most recognizable structures in Mumbai, and was built at the port where many visitors first entered the city (and the subcontinent)

Imposing, but nonetheless quite artistic, the Gateway incorporates traditional Indian architectural style

The Taj Mahal Place Hotel, opened by the Tata family, Mumbai’s most famous industrialists, at the beginning of the 20th century

The David Sassoon Library

The famous Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) rail station

As many of the British working in India during the Raj were very far from home in an unfamiliar setting, they did as much as they could to recreate some of the traditional comforts of home for themselves. As in Kolkata, we noticed the remnants of this sprinkled around the historic center of the city – even more striking, in this case, thanks to the rather tropical surroundings.

Where would a colonial administrator be without his gentlemen’s barber shop?

Sans palm trees, this wouldn’t feel out of place in Cambridge

We also moseyed by the yacht club, although given our poor state of attire we lacked the courage to try to talk our way inside

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, the British introduced India to what is now a core national pastime (or full blown obsession in many cases). This 25ft “bat of honor” recognizes one of Mumbai’s most successful cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar

Every day, the half mile Oval Maidan is filled with thousands of cricketers practicing their bowling and batting, with the High Court of Bombay in the background

The British also built more than a few churches, with styling to remind themselves of home. Some of these are truly impressive, particularly St. Thomas Cathedral, which is almost 300 years old

Many of the churches we visited contained a multitude of memorials to soldiers and members of the colonial administration who died on duty. Reading these, we gained a great appreciation for our Malaria pills and the various vaccines we’d been pricked with before beginning the trip

Tasting the Breadth

It’s difficult to give a proper sense of the sheer scale of Mumbai. We put in some of the longest days of our trip so far in an effort to take it all in, and still we left feeling we’d barely scratched the surface. Heading north from the imperial tip of the peninsula, one is quickly drawn into a claustrophobic warren of fashion boutiques, mosques, dingy offices, tuk tuk ranks, churches, food stalls, makeshift cricket grounds, and street shrines – a tangle of cultures and lives that continues well past Bandra (which these days is less suburb and more city center).

One of Mumbai’s largest and most spectacular Mosques – apparently close to being engulfed by the surrounding market

At nightfall, the shopping is still going strong, and the street food vendors are out in force

Mumbai-ites are really passionate about sandwiches – they pop up everywhere, in every incarnation possible

The king of the sandwiches, though, is the vada pav, a potatoey treat which combines Mumbai’s love of sandwiches with India’s love of deep fried carbs on top of other carbs. And it comes with a side garnish of a chili lollipop!

Like in Kolkata, flourishing trade attracted immigrants from all backgrounds, stoking a truly diverse culture. This synagogue had at some point been squeezed into a row of terraced houses in the middle of what is now – you guessed it – a bustling market area

Another immigrant community to leave their mark on the city were the Zoroastrian Parsi. Although we didn’t have time to pay a visit, this is a replica of the Tower of Silence, a place where their dead are ritually left out for vultures to devour. The real one is still operating in a tree-surrounded park in the city! 

No, this is not actually torture. Just very intense yoga

A standard dose ‘a dosa – if it’s not bigger than your torso, you should send it back

Life as a pedestrian in Mumbai requires sharp wits and a good deal of agility – note the blocked sidewalk, the cow helping itself to some stray veggies, and the ludicrous loads being ferried down the street

Space is at a premium in Mumbai, but this was a bit macabre even for Ethan: chickens and chicken meat being sold from the same, multi-level table

Since Gujarat sits right next to Maharashtra, there is a big community of Gujarati people and they exert a strong influence on the culinary scene (justifiably, based on our experience). We sampled plenty of authentic Gujarati food, which had great combinations of spice and creaminess, bound together with some sweetness 

Although Marine Drive is crowded, and it’s definitely best to avoid actually swimming in the sea, an evening stroll along the shore is a great antidote to the close, hot streets inland, and thus a regular habit for a lot of locals

Staying Grounded on the 34th Floor

We try to make a point of exploring all sides of a given destination, and in this case there was one clear gap in our experience – with heavy hearts, we acknowledged that it was time to scrape together all of our loyalty points, brush off our least road-worn clothes and dive into life in the Mumbai elite. It should be noted that the Four Seasons staff maintained utter composure when we turned up on foot, hefting dusty backpacks. And they didn’t show the faintest surprise when they screened our shopping bags later that day and unearthed several steaming bags of fried rice, fresh from the stall down the road. Truly, it was an excellent hotel.

One of our more decadent moments of the trip. Even with the two-for-one happy hour special and the room resident discount, our eyes watered at the cost of our single cocktails at the rooftop bar. But the view looking down upon the whole city was well worth it

Smarting from the loss of our bankroll at the rooftop bar, we adopted the classic “soda nalgene” technique to reduce the cost of libations when we went to the pool the following afternoon. A man at peace with himself and the world

We reveled in the fluffy bedding, blissfully cool air conditioning, and the well-equipped fitness suite (oh, how we needed it). But as you might expect, it was jarring to be living in such comfort while surrounded by relative poverty. The Four Seasons overlooks a chunk of Mumbai’s slum housing, and stands in bold contrast to many of the buildings surrounding it. For many of our fellow guests, the Mumbai experience amounted to being taxied from one air conditioned high rise to the next, between gourmet restaurants, designer boutiques, and gelato parlors. In fact, there wasn’t even a path for pedestrians between the street and the hotel – we had to dodge cars in the driveway when we felt like escaping. But escape we did, and in the end we managed a pretty fun (not very classy) blend of luxury and basic.

Not for us, the $20 room service offerings – we preferred to stick with what we knew, street fried rice, out of a plastic bag

Along with another well proportioned dosa, we enjoyed the best omelets in the world (no, seriously) for breakfast each day from a small hole in the wall on the street near the hotel

Dhobi Ghat, in the vicinity of the Four Seasons, is a massive outdoor laundry operation. It’s spellbinding – and, sitting as it does at the feet of an ever-growing collection of towers, it is a classic example of the clash of lifestyles in Mumbai