travel broadens the mind

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). 

The 15th August is India’s independence day. A coincidence that we arrived at just this day, but a positive one. The colors orange white and green guided us through the day, along with thousands of happy Mumbai citizen – and this is only a small fraction of the over 15 million inhabitants of the most populous city of India.

Illuminations of buildings could already be seen the night before, in the morning of the day itself, a public holiday, the flag was raised with a ceremony opposite to the old Victorian train station (CST). With most spectators already in place a rain shower brushed though the crowd but ended just in time for the ceremony to take place.

As it was our first real day, we still had to make some arrangements like getting our mobile phones online with a local prepaid SIM card and getting some food. We were supported by the locals, this time the staff of the Residency Hotel Ford at it’s best. An employee walked us to a SIM card dealer, who got to work on the day of the celebrations just for us and two more tourists. “Always at your service” appears somehow like a baseline of any action, at least towards me as a westerner.

In the afternoon, we walked for some Victorian buildings. All on the way towards the Gateway of India, the must see number one in Mumbai as every travel guide says (the printed ones and the personal ones). The formerly English buildings we found in Mumbai show a broad variety in condition, from well renovated or preserved to widely deteriorated.

Following our path towards the stream of citizens accompanying us (or we accompanying them) grew bigger and bigger. And as especially the blond Levin attracted the views of many young Indians, the stops for “can I have a selfie with you” became more and more so we did decline several requests in the end. Especially when you agree to one you won’t get away with it as then also the more shy guys dare to ask for a selfie. Yet, even if it was stressful at some point, none of the men were impolite.

Reaching the Gateway of India, the place was full already, for what action exactly we did not know, but the stream of people seemed not to end. We felt that for the day we had enough of a bath in the crowd and returned to our hotel while we could still enjoy (or tolerate) liveliness with all the horns of cars, busses and all kinds of 2-wheeler pressing into every gap that should open up.

After a rest in our room we chose to have dinner at Bademiya, a Kebab restaurant. This was also amongst the many many recommendations we received from Kedar. While the waiter spoke good English we still had some cultural differences in the beginning regarding the food order. Each of us had chosen a dish for her-/himself, yet we were told that the items are rather for the four of us as a starter. We couldn’t figure out in the end what was a starter and what not but we ended up with three rounds of different food, each for all of us. It was delicious and sometimes this is what matters most.

So the four of us set out, my wife Andrea, my son Levin (15), Andreas godchild Fiona (twentysomething) and me.

At the airport in Germany all went well except an broken connection to a Spotify account. All playlists and favourites seemed gone. The relief on Fionas face after she managed to get hold on her digital assets again was second to none. It nearly seemed, the biggest challenge of the trip has been managed and nothing can harm us any more 😉 All while we’re still not more than 20 km from our hometown.

The flight went well, Lufthansa introduced us to Indian veg food with a delishious Paneer dish, slightly hot. Please note the colors of the indian flag:

From the board entertainment, I sneaked into an audiobook 30 “Minutes of Reslilence” lasting for 62 minutes 🤔 I fell asleep before even 30 minutes were over. If sleeping over things instead of worrying is also a means of being resilient, you can say the audiobook worked.

Shifting the clock 3 1/2 hours forward the around 8 hours from Frankfurt to Mumbai went faster rhan I expected. Maybe because it was not really an overnight flight. We landed at 1:30 a.m. on the Mumbai runway. With some time for immigration procedures and finding an ATM to get some cash, and a quick 40 minutes pickup to the hotel (both booked in advance), we arrived the at 3:30 in the morning. 

As we had the rooms booked on from the next night on, we had some time to spend. While we knew that in advance, it still didn’t feel too comfortable the, as the Mumbai we saw on the night ride from the airport was not the most comfortable one. Nevertheless, as we could have a room from around seven o’clock without extra charge, I was to “Swabian” to pay another complete night for only four hours. 

So we set off into the moist night, looking for the way to the Marina Drive where we expected a bit of ocean breeze and a place to sit down. Around 15 to 20 minutes walk according to the receptionist. And it was, just did these minutes somehow make us very clear, that Mumbai has also its ugly side. Walking in the middle of ways was advised, in order not to overlook either a dog or cat, nor a rat, nor people sleeping on the street. And I cannot tell of which kind there were more. Rats usually flew early enough, dogs and cats mostly didon’ care but the homeless Mumbai people where in do many corners, I literally nearly stumbled across one. Taxi drivers often used the back seat of their taxis as bed, doors wide open to strech the legs out and in comparison already had a luxury residence compared to those sleeping on the pavement.

We found the Marina Drive, walked around for some time as from the only place to sit we were chased away by the police. Finaly we found some rest and enjoyed (no irony here) looking at the folks around us. Many young men and also women spend their time at the ocean front. Some joggers, some chai-vebdors on bicycles, and overall the youth of Mumbai spent theit time. Why at 4 to 6 o’clock in the morning, we couldn’t find out. That it was a public holiday (independence day) probaby was one of the reasons.

At 6 we had experienced Mumbai enough for the moment, went back to the hotel, where we waited another hour for a room to be prepared. We were really running on empty already and could fall asleep instantly. Receiving the room key for the first room was a real relief. Day one done.

Holidays don’t usually start with the arrival to the destination. Getting there on one hand and making the preparations for that are essential parts of traveling. Not to forget the anticipation of the beautiful things to come.

My Indian collagues made the preparation a real excitement already. So many hints, recommendations and offers. It took several “short syncs” to transfer al the info to me and my fellow travellers. Thanks to them we made some train bookings (getting the indian train booking app as a foreigner without a +91 mobile number could fill a separate post), we set off with a lot of interesting things to see, recommended first hand, but most of all we travelled knowing we always can contact a trusted person in the country, in case something would go very wrong. Thanks Kedar and Prashant.

Due to these tips there were already some milestones set, but there should be enough room in-between to explore on our own.

Below a screenshot from the IRCTC app finding a train connection (equivalent to DB app in Germany).