Mumbai

Mumbai is a nice town of about 18 million. It has some great Victorian architecture.

From Bin

The first thing you see when you fly into the airport is the biggest slum in the world.



It's big. Apparently about 1/2 of the city's population lives in slums.

We stayed in an area in the north called Vile Parle East. It's that yellow house on the map:


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From the airport we went to Shachi's aunt's house. She had prepared all kinds of delicious food that you can't get where we are in the south. It was all really good!



*(I can't claim full responsibility for all of these pictures)

Afterward we checked into the place we were staying and then went over to Juhu beach, which is a nice place to walk as long as you're wearing shoes. The first night we walked along the beach and ended up at the Marriot Hotel, which is right on the water and is super fancy, with lots of little book stores and coffee shops and stuff, and a guy who just sits there and plays the flute all day. There's a big restaurant and bar area with huge windows that overlook the ocean so you can sit in the AC and watch the sun set.



This picture gives an idea, even though there's a big pillar right in the middle.

We left the hotel after awhile and headed down to Colaba, at the southern tip of the city, to eat at this Japanese place:


Afterwords we spent some time in Colaba, then went back to the Temple/Hostel place we were staying at in Vile Parle.

The next day we took the train to Victoria Terminus. Those kinds of slums also line the railroad which goes into the downtown area in the south.



Victoria Terminus is actually called छत्रपती शिवाजी टरमीनस (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) now. It's the very first picture at the top. We walked around a lot, and took a bunch of pictures. It was a good day. Here are some more pictures we took:

From Bin

That last one is the Gateway to India, which is right on the water, and was the first thing people would see when they arrived in Mumbai by ship. Right next to it is the Taj Hotel, where you can get a cup of coffee for 10 dollars:

From Bin

The next day we stayed in the northern part, and spent some time in a market area before catching our flight back to Cochin.




...and that's Mumbai in 2 days!