Mumbai @ 2345

We had been to Bombay over the weekend. We took an early morning bus from Pune rather Chinchwad for 140 bucks each. After a short stop for breakfast we reached Dadar at around 9.30 am. We took a train to Mumbai CST, checked into to a hotel near Victoria Terminus, because we were warned about the price of hotel rooms in Mumbai and that it might get difficult to find accommodation during the late evenings. But we found this not so luxurious room for 400 a day. So we dumped one backpack and took only the necessary in the other and set out.

From the Hotel it was just one straight road to all the necessary "Places to Visit" in Mumbai.

The first on our list was Bombay Natural History Society; sadly we never could enter this place. We located the building but ironically we didn't know how to enter the building. We found this main door which remained locked on both the days we tried to visit it.

The second on our list was the Prince of Wales Museum. We recognized it by the gleaming doom that was as described in the travel guides. We paid for the tickets 10 bucks each and also the fee for using the Camera, boy that was 30 bucks :(

Well that was one good Museum. Everything on the 3 floors of the building was worth the sight. My partner is a history freak and he enjoyed it more that I did.

The third on our list was Jehangir Art Gallery. This time we did not find the building at all. Instead we found the National Gallery for Modern Art. We entered this place with a ticket of 10 each this time no cameras allowed. Some of the paintings though abstract were pleasing.

One artists' work we observed most was A.A. Almelkar

Note: They were selling copies of some of the paintings at one counter. We happened to like this painting of a young women holding the ropes fastened to a couple of goats. We paid 50 bucks for it. The picture was similar to the one we had seen on Omar Khayyam book. I had gifted that book to my friend.

The fourth on our list was Haji Ali Darka. That was a pleasant trip. We stepped out of the art gallery and asked the security guard as to how to get to the Darka. He gave a couple of bus route numbers. And right outside the gallery was the bus stop. We didn't spend even a minute there the bus came by immediately. The Darka was a B-E-A-Utiful sight, it was like an island, connected to the main land by a pathway making a visit possible only during the low tide.

Obviously the fifth on the list was the Mahalashmi temple. It was not crowded during our visit. So that was ggggoooooooddddd. We got a sacred thread tied around my wrist :

We had planned to go to Church gate and then return to CST so on our way back the sixth place on our list was the Chowpathy beach. We took a bus to Sur sager. I'm basically from Chennai which boasts of the second largest sea shore in the world "The Marina Beach". So I was not that excited about the visit to Chowpathy. Moreover the water as well as the beach was dirty. And oh boy, there were some 6 to 8 benches under parasols. So we ran and sat under one, had a sip of water and tried to relax, just then a guy walks up and asks us to pay 60 bucks... we were pissed off. Told him we are new to the city and we got up to walk towards the sea.

After a while we walked back to the bus stop. Took a bus to hanging gardens on Malabar hills which was the last stop. This was seven on our list. We found a park bench and rested for a while. And walked around the park, got a wonderful view of the sea from above.

We stepped out of the park; saw a vendor selling nuts again.

Nuts, now that was mandatory during the whole trip. Whenever we found a vendor selling nuts, we would do him a service by offering him 4 bucks for 2 small paper cones of peanuts. :D

Then we walked down to a tea stall had a refreshing cup of chai. Took a bus to church gate, the eighth on the list.

We walked around church gate; we saw the high court, the goal maidhan and then did some book shopping on the roadside. I picked up this book about Lance Armstrong - "it's not about the bike". And my friend bought a book called "Vedanta Treaties" some spirituality stuff, that's what he informed me:

The ninth on the list was hutatman chowk and the tenth the Flora Fountain. The two places are almost one. The hutatman chowk is known for business and the flora fountain for shopping. Shopping was not part of our itinerary so just walked down the streets and headed straight to the Hotel, had dinner and crashed.

The next morning we checked out at around 7. Walked towards the eleventh place on our list the Gateway of India. :) Something we were excited about. We clicked lots of pictures of the stone archery. There were statues of Chhatrapatin Shivaji and Swami Vivekhanda near the garden in front of the gateway.

Across the street was the famous Taj hotel.

It was 7.50 when we started hunting for a place to have breakfast. Sadly none of the restaurants were open except for one; we didn't like the place so we settled for a glass of sweet lime each.

At around 8.30 we got our tickets for the ferry to visit Elephanta caves the twelfth place on our list and the final. That rounds' to a dozen places we visited in Mumbai.

We bought "Luxury" tickets that cost 120 bucks each just 20 more than the usual. We realized we just wasted 40 bucks for the luxury that we found "written" only on our tickets and seen nowhere else.

Anyways, we were on our way to the caves, it took one hour in that slow as a tortoise motorboat. The ticket charge includes the fee for a guide. That was pretty cool. After we reached the dock we had to walk for almost 20 minutes to reach the cave.

The guide explained precisely about the cave, how it was excavated, how it was named and how it was destroyed.

We found a Maharastra tourism restaurant on our way back to the dock. So we stopped there to have dosas and a cup of chai. The price of which was our first ferry back to Mumbai :(. Yep we missed it.

It was 1:30 when we reach gateway of India. It was hot. We though of doing some shopping and then head to Dadar to catch a bus back to Pune. We took a taxi from gateway to flora fountain and we paid 13 bucks. Well it may not seem significant to mention it here but I was awestruck because in Chennai I would have to pay 40 bucks for a rick for the same distance.

We didn't do any shopping, simply to say the shops were not "my type". I wanted to check out cameras but being a Sunday most of the authorized outlets were closed. So we decided to head to Dadar immediately. My partner was never interested in shopping anyways.

So we walked to CST and took a train to Dadar. We found an air conditioned restaurant for Lunch around 3:00. Then headed right to the government bus stops to get a ticket back to Pune that was 155 bucks each. The bus started at 4:00 and reached Pune rather Akurdi at 10 to 6.

Well why the title Mumbai @ 2345? That was our "total" expense to, in and from Mumbai.
P.S: Includes all the pennies we spent for peanuts too ;)

Credits' to my partner!