Mumbai Sojourn

 

I’ve always dreamt of going on a holiday with the kids-show them the world, explore places and cuisines with them. Things aren’t so great for us at home with my FIL suffering from dementia, he lives in a perpetual hell with his fragmented mind but that doesn’t make our lives any easier. It was beginning to affect the kids. They had their spring break and I needed a getaway. Wasn’t brave enough to go too far and didn’t want to go yet again to Bangalore even though I love the city. Chose Mumbai because I knew a few people around and incase I ever had an SOS situation there might be someone I could call.

So off we went embarking on an adventure. I had looked up many many blogs and even asked a few friends about what they thought was a must see and do with Mumbai but never really found anything that would help in the days to come.

Since the kids had a week off, I thought I would take it slow and booked my flights with a weeks gap even though a lot of people told me I could finish seeing whatever there is in a day, I believe they were wrong and I so wish people had told me these instead. So here’s my account in a bid to help anyone who’s planning a trip to Mumbai in the future.

I had asked a friend earlier that week if I could stay over at her place, she is single and works so I knew I wouldn’t be getting in her way and I thought it would help me feel reassured that I wasn’t alone in an unfamiliar city. Her place was in Ghatkopar East which isn’t too far from the airport and most things seemed around the vicinity. She was happy to accommodate me and the kids which just made things a lot easier.

Day 1: Please ensure you know which terminal you land in. I had T1 stuck in my mind for some strange reason and tried to book an Uber from T1 only to be told I was in T2 after several minutes of conversation with the driver which included ‘haat upar kijiye’ so he could identify me from the scores of people looking out for their taxis. I wasn’t the only one with my ‘haat upar’ yet they all found their cabs pretty quickly. Tried to hail another cab but just couldn’t and there we were sat for the next half an hour wondering how to get out of the airport. I then trekked back to the airport and booked a pre paid taxi where they had tonnes of questions-where I lived, how many bags I had, whether I needed the AC etc etc etc, the fare was also significantly higher than Uber but by this point I just wanted to get out. Got the cab only to be berated by the driver that my bags were too big for his car. He softened up slightly when I told him I was new to the city. He tossed my bags up in the metal carrier on the roof with S’s help, secured it with a rope and we were good to go. We use google maps on my phone to get to my friend’s place and that was that. I noticed in the days to come that when you mention that you are new to the city, people can be nicer instead of the brusque demeanor they usually have. There is a lot of city pride people have here and needless to say it’s one of the cleanest Indian cities I have seen. People do use the bins consciously here and don’t litter around unlike Hyderabad.

My plan was to reach home early and go out exploring but with the cab fiasco and traffic, 3 hours were gone just like that and we had energy to do little else so we went to the nearest mall to grab dinner-Phoenix Market City. It was pretty nice, the kids spotted a sushi place. Wanting to do something that was 'familiarly nice' we went in to Shizusan. The place was lovely with its rose gold interiors which T fell in love with instantly and decided that was going to be the colour of her future room! The sushis were quite good, S wanted to try the ramen which was really nice and definitely cheaper than Hyderabad. We had a pretty good meal. Got back home and tried to plan the rest of our stay with my friend. That is when I made mistake number 2!

Day 2:Since I knew nothing of the city and just had a list of places I wanted to take the kids to based on the various blogs I had read online, my friend suggested that I hire a cab for the day. She knew someone who knew someone who owned a kaali-peeli (which is the iconic black and yellow taxis in Mumbai-non AC) and he was willing to show us around for a paltry sum of 2000 rupees or so I thought.

First stop Byculla zoo: It’s a pretty decent zoo, well maintained but most of the enclosures were closed. We didn’t get to see tigers, lions and wolves much to T’s disappointment but we got to see some Humboldt penguins and lots of birds apart from the rest of the animals. Took us a good 2 hours around the place. We also grabbed some potato twisters from the food court-which is very strategically placed on our way out.

Next stop: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, originally named Prince of Wales Museum of Western India. Thought we could soak in some history and this is a museum which documents the history of India from prehistoric to modern times.

Do note that the route passes through the CSMT.I didn’t know at that point nor did my cabbie point it out to me so I completely missed it even though I can’t figure out how. The kids had a good time at the museum although their interest did wane off after a certain point. Also the children’s section of the museum was closed for maintenance which was a downer.

There was a canteen right outside the museum so we grabbed a few things to eat while waiting for the cabbie to pick us up.

Next stop: Marine drive, the sea was pretty breezy. It was quite sunny so just took a few pics and left.

Next stop: Hanging gardens at Malabar hills. T was exhausted from the sun by the and so the cabbie asked us to take some shelter at the park. There was none available and the kids didn’t want to explore the place anymore-also meant we missed the iconic Boot house. At that point I had missed my notes that it was there and not somewhere else as I thought D’oh!

Travelling in the summer in a non-AC cab can be exhausting so by the this point the kids wanted to just go home. Cut our ‘Mumbai darshan’ trip short and told him to take us to take us to Phoenix again so we could grab some dinner and get home. Why the mall you ask? Well it wasn’t planned initially but as got closer to home I realised it was the only place I knew at this point and would be ok for us to go around for a bit as it was closer to home and since the kids seemed ok. Got dropped and requested him to pick us up after two hours. After a little fretting,he agreed. Dinner was at Döner and gyros because that was my ‘familiar nice’ having been brought up in the Middle East. The kids also had a Turkish Ice-cream cone each complete with the ‘tease play’ and we headed home as the cabbie had arrived as promised.

Note: Had I known better, booking an Uber with AC to all the places we went to (just 4) on day 1 would have been a lot cheaper than the 2K I paid!!

Day 3: At this point I didn’t know anything about the city as yet and since the cabbie was familiar,I rehired him again to see the places I had missed on day 1.

First stop was Siddhivinayak temple. Since it was Gudi padwa,there were way too many people and I didn’t have the confidence of wading through the crowd with my kids so I apologised to the Lord for not being brave enough to come in and left after paying my obeisance from the outside.

Second stop was the Nehru science center. It was 11 in the morning when we reached and the guy at the ticket counter insisted we would get a better VFM if we bought a family ticket that included 4 shows. The walk to the center from the gate was pretty long but beautiful with some interesting installations along the way. The lady at the reception gave us the timings for the four shows which didn’t seem to far ahead of each other and that’s all we had time and patience for.3 of the 4 shows were in Hindi. While undoubtedly informative and great to look at. S & T didn’t really enjoy it that much since they couldn’t understand most of it. Having been to VST in Bangalore they didn’t want to go around the museum either and preferred to play outside with the installations instead. We did that for a while and they vetoed against going to the planetarium for the English show that was supposed to start at 3pm because by then they were quite saturated with the 4 they had already seen.

So Lesson Learnt: It’s pretty pointless to do both on the same day. Visit the science center without the shows and go to the planetarium for the nice long show.

I had to meet a friend in Bandra so took the kids to a wonderful bookstore called Titlewaves while we waited for him. Requested the cabbie to take the route from town(as the area is known) to Bandra via the Sealink since I saw there were two routes to get there and I really wanted to see what the Sealink looked like. Wasn’t disappointed.

Title waves was lovely. I wish they had such spaces in Hyderabad. Would have been nice for bookworms like me.

Met the friend who took us to Juhu Chowpatty for the Mumbai experience and we had chaat and pavbhaji there which was pretty good. The festival had brought in way too many people at the beach so again I wasn’t very confident of going around with the kids so after watching the sunset we drove around Carter road making pit stops at Mannat and Bandstand. It just had to be done! That was it for day 3.

Again the cabbie charged me 2K for the entire day even though I had gone to just one place this time stating he had lost a lot of customers that day since it was a festival and I had hired him for multiple stops. Having no choice I paid up promising myself never to hire him again.

Day 4: Decided to take it easy today after all it was supposed to be a holiday. Thought I’d explore the other closest mall- R city.They have a Kidzania and Snow Kingdom which I thought T would like. After looking at pics, wasn’t too impressed with SK since I’ve seen the one in Dubai.So decided to go with Kidzania only to be told that it was fully booked until the 31st and I needed to come back in April!!! At this point I did wonder if I had stepped out of Hyderabad at some inauspicious hour because clearly nothing seemed to be working my way. So forenote: Call Kidzania or check on the ‘Book my show’ app if tickets are available before heading there. Anyhoo T didn’t seem to mind walking around so we went to IKEA, picked up a few knickknacks and discovered the mall had a Chuck E Cheese. Since we’ve heard so much about it from the American/Canadian cousins, thought we’d give it a try. Took the 40 minutes package which was enough to keep her entertained before losing patience. Be forewarned the game plays are too short and aren’t that many. I didn’t want her to do too many video game arcades because the point of this holiday was also to be as device free as possible. We also took a picture in the phone booth which was a mess because T hit print way too quickly and I ended up looking like my face was growing mouse ears which made for good giggles. After a quick snack at the food court we headed home to get S.A quick look at google to see if there was anything I could do told me that there was this thing called the ‘Fountain of Joy’ at Jioworld which was akin to the Dubai fountain and started at 6pm to go on till late night. Sounded great to me time wise so picked up S and booked an Uber to go there and reached at 5:50 which I thought was perfect. But as jinxed as my Mumbai trip seemed, the fountain was closed for repairs and maintenance indefinitely-something they failed to mention online. Thoroughly disappointed and having to deal with equally disappointed and annoyed kids isn’t easy. I remembered my friend’s recommendation of this old cafe called Aromas that served pretty good garlic butter prawns so in a bid to salvage the day, decided to head there. Luckily the wait for a cab wasn’t too long and that’s where we went for dinner-Aromas at Hiranandani gardens. Thankfully the food was pretty awesome and I managed to get the kids to smile! Headed back home soon after because at this point I still wasn’t confident enough to stay outdoors post 9pm.

Our good for giggles pic from Chuck E. Cheese

Day 5: My penultimate day in Mumbai and we still hadn’t seen the Gateway of India. My initial plan was to do this and the ferry to the Elephanta caves but the fact that it would take 1.5 hours to get there with no clear picture of the ferries back, I decided against it. The kids weren’t too keen anyway. They had seen pictures of the caves at CSVT. Decided to head there once the sun was a bit down. When we got there, the gateway was blocked because there was a concert happening later that evening. The security was tight and the view was out. Told you my trip was jinxed. Got some pics clicked by one of the tourist guides only because they print them out instantly. Note you can be easily taken for a ride here if you don’t know what you’re doing. Each picture costs 30Rs and you better specify how many pictures you want and insist on it. I didn’t know and before I could say anything the photographer went click crazy and I ended up with 7 pictures I didn’t need nor did I get a chance to even look and see if they had turned out ok. It was click-print-pay. Happens so fast that you just wonder if it was a dream!We took the ferry behind the gateway that goes around the sea for about 40 minutes and back. The kids seemed to be calm and loved it. It wasn’t crowded because they only take in enough passengers that can be seated. What I missed was the seats at the very front and back, these have the best and uninterrupted views. After the ride I wanted to take the kids to the iconic Taj for some eats. Because of the tight security around the place we were denied to go across by the policemen. At this point by I wasn’t ready to submit to fate just as yet. I happened to see someone in the Taj uniform and asked him if guests weren’t allowed today because of the concert. Again saying that you’re a tourist helps most of the time(it didn’t at Kidzania) and he escorted us in after telling the police that we were with him! (Thank you Abdul, I’m so glad and grateful you decided to come to work early that day and was so kind to us)

In the lobby and since I love paisleys

The kids were in awe inside. Not only was the place so gorgeously beautiful, the staff was unbelievably gracious and welcoming. Even though the service was terribly sllllllloooowwww, the ambience more than made up for everything. S wasn’t too comfortable with me going click crazy so I had to tone it down a bit although now I regret not taking so many that I could have! We went up to the Sea lounge and I requested for table by the window which we got and the view was simply gorgeous.

The gorgeous view

I got thinking at this point, there were a few iconic structures that I really wanted to see and everyone I knew kept insisting it was in ‘town’ which is where we were so a quick glance at google maps told me it was within 700-900 months distance range from one another and I thought we could make a trek out of it, which the kids instantly agreed to. So off we went to what turned out to be the best night of our lives in Mumbai. First stop, bademiyan kebabs. S’s friend at school had said he couldn’t leave Mumbai without tasting the kebabs at this place, so torn between this and Leopold’s which was on my list, I decided to go with S. We had a variety of rolls and the food was pretty good.

Google maps showed me that the BSE was about 750mts from where we were. S is developing an interest in the share market thanks to his dad and I wanted to show him where it all started. A quick look at google told me that there was a statue of the bull outside the building just like the one in NY. When we reached there, we couldn’t exactly spot it after going around the building so decided to ask around. Asked a pretty serious looking guard who looked at us and gave a stern “Bola?” And I stammered “Bail ki statue kahan hai? Hume dekhna hai” the way his face lit up was so awesome, he gave us proper directions-turns out the bull is behind grills when the BSE is closed for the day. But they let us take pics because tourists you see. It’s really amazing how everyone is so proud of their city here.

The BSE bull

We then reached the Rajabai tower which is known as the Big Ben of India. We stumbled upon it to be honest and luckily so. I was headed to the Flora fountain and this just came en route to it!! I recognised it instantly. The architect commissioned to design the tower had modelled it on the Big Ben and the tower at 280ft used to be the tallest structure in Mumbai during its time. It was added to the list of the World’s heritage sites in 2018.It certainly was pretty regal looking.

Rajabai Clock Tower

Next stop-the covered Flora fountain. Not a functioning fountain anymore but it did have all the European feels. Had I had more time-still wasn't too comfortable being out late, we would have stuck around looking at the hordes of books. There are hawkers all over this place. The fountain was beautiful and has a lot of meaning over the elements in it.

Last stop and totally walkable even though many said it wasn’t-CSMT!! What a beautiful sight it was. Although it was too dark and crowded to appreciate the details of the building ,it felt like I had finally completed a milestone of my Mumbai sojourn. My friend later told me that there is an elevated platform outside the CST to take great pictures, specially made for click-crazy people like me,

I didn’t know at the time and I didn’t spot any such thing. Maybe you can if you go now that you know!

And that concluded my entire adventure with the kids to Mumbai. 

Did I have fun? Yes it was a good break but I really wish I hadn’t missed what I did.

Did I try out the local cuisine? No, I don’t think my children have developed a palate for it just yet. We did try some street food like pav bhaji, chaat and vada pav but a whole Maharashtrian meal? Maybe another time.

Will I ever go back to Mumbai? Maybe not very soon as a tourist. Although there are far far far too many things to see which I think was just dismissed by people who I spoke to. To each his own and Mumbai definitely caters to individual interests depending on what they are. My plan was to see new things and see if I could explore a relatively unknown city on my own with the kids and I think I was pretty successful on that front. It certainly gave me a renewed sense confidence that I can do this.

Also I have to state that with all my fears of staying out late, I have never felt so safe as I did in Mumbai. There are policemen(I believe they are called Beat marshals) everywhere within reach-walking through empty dark roads such as the one leading to the Rajabai clock tower, I could see that as I lost sight of one policeman behind, there would be another right in front. Not only were they friendly(smiling welcoming faces) but it felt good to know that help (if needed) was there at all times.

So dear City of Dreams thank you for letting me keep my faith and I certainly hope and wish this is a start to more adventures and exploration in my life!

  ~Vive Valeque ❤️