Having our first breakfast in the hotel in Mumbai, we had the idea, that we already had captured the spirit of the city. So what should we do on our second day here. Ticking off sights from a list is not really what I’m into. The old, victorian train station building was said to be worth seeing and it would at the same give us an orientation for the next day when our train was supposed to leave from there. So we set out for that and already a minute after we were in the street we thought “is this the same city we walked yesterday? While on the bank holiday only some food stalls were opened, today the streets were full of business of alls kinds, clothes, shoes, bathroom fittings, watches, fashion jewelry, to name only some. Merchants usually extended their shelves onto the walkway, if this was not occupied by parking scooters anyway, so many pedestrians shared the street with taxis, scooter and bicycles. A lot of honking accompanied our way-finding all day long. The railway station building actually was impressive and in good condition.
From the inside, the today active CSMT (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) railway station, which was renamed after a King, introduced us to the railway system that appeared partly modern, but mostly ancient. I’m curious to see more once we actually use it.
Looking for Crawford market, an indoor market for all kinds of daily articles, which was said to be near, we strolled around more streets and got lost in more and more small streets with to-go food besides plastic flowers next to textiles to make clothes and other kinds if things one might use.
While we already used tip to by some buns and bread in the very traditional Yazdani bakery, we also For the evening we chose another recommendation and went to Pancham Puriwala, a small restaurant with also over 150 of tradition, that served delicious food that also could be taken out.
My “Regular Thali” included different pots with gravy from lentils (dal), spinach, yoghurt, potatoes and rice pudding with puri (some kind of fried wheat bread). All of excellent taste and this for nearly no money (my dish was only around 1,5 EUR).
