WeekendinMumbai!!

Well Well Well,. Finally I’m up with my blog 

Though i visited so many places through out India from the past 3 years like Pune , Bangalore, Jaipur, Chennai, Pondicherry, Delhi, Goa, Mysore, Mangalore etc.. But Mumbai is the place where i start my journey in writing down the blogs from now on..

The kind of geographical knowledge  which i have on the world is driving me crazy to visit each and every place round the world.

So, I made up my mind to travel the entire world (which quite may not be possible but to cover the maximum places through out my life).

I have been theoretically studying about the places and people’s  living life style, cuisines, the geographical locations till now but practically visiting those places is like  something which i can never express in words , its completely phenomenal.

Its just something which you feel by visiting those places…

So here I go..

Mumbai.. The City of Dreams!!!!

Though many people have awkward experiences with this city, they say Mumbai is a very shitty place to visit and the life is like the hell down under.

I admit to this fact that Mumbai is a very crowded place, But you need to have your own networks and some money to cope up with some good flat over there to enjoy in this city.

There are only two options left with you when you stay in this city. Either you end up on the winning note or you curse it to the extent that you can’t even feel like staying over there for even a minute.. heheheh!!!

So for me , it was on a winning note ( Don’t get surprised). I always had a feeling to visit this place from quite a long time.

So i would reckon it as the dream city for me in India!!

Even i couldn’t make to visit this place when i was working in Pune ( As Mumbai is just 150 Odd Km from there )

I was given an opportunity to work in Mumbai  during the beginning days of my career,but some how i refused it as for the package reasons. But yeah!!! Definitely Mumbai is one of the places, where i would like to work If i get a chance.

So I packed my bags on Jan 11 2015 to visit this place with one of my best friend (Kiran Das)!!!

Even he had that extravagant feeling to visit this place, so the moment i said this to him he was IN!!!!

So We took a train to Mumbai and finally reached the destination in the early hours of the morning (some where around 4.30 AM) in CST (Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus).

Mumbai is the city famously known for sky scrappers in India and also for the worst slum areas beside every skyscrapper 

There are around 60 sky scrappers through out the main island  and suburbs of mumbai( including Navi Mumbai) which are more than 100 meters in height and there are 50 yet to come which are in super fast construction.

I would definitely say that this place is 10 years ahead of most of the cities in our country ( Except NCR )

Infact, the tallest residential building  in the world is under construction in Mumbai in the Upper Worli area with around 116 floors (400m), Yes.. You read it correctly, The tallest in the world in residential buildings with name “WORLD ONE”!!!

Its a place where you can see every breed of human ,  though most of the people speak “marathi” an official local language in Maharashtra, Still its a mix of cross culture.

People here are very diplomatic , very professional and most importantly they value “TIME”.

So there is a lot to learn in this place ,the moment a person starts living here his life style changes, the way of thinking gets changed..

 People here follow the rules and regulations without violating it, I have seen many people on the roads stopping their vehicles even in the mid afternoon where there were no one to cross the road. So this proves that its a city with most of the people who respect the citizenship standards and the social abiding laws.

So the moment we entered Mumbai , we took a stay near to CST, our plan was to cover most of the places within two days,As there are not so many places in Mumbai in site seeing..

Places to Visit:

Gateway of India , TAJ Hotel , Marine Drive , CST , Bandra-Worli Sea link,Rajabhai Clock Tower, HajiAli Dargah, Siddhivinayak Temple, Elephanta caves, Kanheri Caves,Juhu Beach

Transportation:

Mumbai Locals, Private taxis, Metro Rail ( only in suburbs covering Andheri),  BEST bus services (  though its not the Best technically, but the name suggests Bombay Electric and Supply Transportation ), Meter Autos ( Only in Suburban).

One good thing in Mumbai is Meter autos are not licensed to ply in Mumbai Main island ( which is the actual sea coast line and major business frontier) .They ply in city suburbs.

Not many people are aware of the fact that Mumbai Even has a metro rail  project under construction and already with one of the line of phase 1 being opened recently.

So we headed first to See Gate Way of India in Colaba which was some 2-3 miles away from CST by refreshing ourselves after taking a power nap in the room, so we reached at around 10 AM.

The roads were very narrow and the buildings were much more older than than they looked as the city was built by the portuguese and british colonies, The sculptures of the building made me to realize that they were built by the british empire.

My friend kept on saying that this city streets looks like “Reading” and “London” where the building monuments are constructed in similar fashion without well maintained!!!

It was very sultry over there and as usual very much crowded the moment we reached. I was always thinking that Gateway of India is to the west coast, but the moment I reached there I was astonished to see the sun just above the sea level in the morning and then i realized that a little amount of Arabian sea extends to India from Gateway towards east.

Opposite to it is the very well known TAJ Hotel ( Both Old and new).

So after few snaps in that place we decided to head towards Marine drive and even I thought that marine drive was on the Gate way of India line.. so after walking for 2  miles stretch in the line of Colaba, we realized that this is the not the intended place  where we are heading to , then I asked the local guy , he guided us in a perfect proper way to reach the place.

The Gateway of India !!!

The TAJ Opposite to Gateway (Old One)

The New TAJ!!!

As Marine drive was just 4-5 kms away from Colaba , we decided to walk by the roads just to see the kind of atmosphere people carry in Mumbai.

So after reaching Marine drive, My eyes couldn’t refrain myself in watching the skyline. I was totally overwhelmed to see such a place , For few minutes i felt like , I came to an entirely another world then i realized that Ohh … I’m in Mumbai now…

All the business frontiers and major hotels are located on this road starting from Air India Office and Trident to Wankhede!!!

I decided to sit on the coastal line and enjoy the nature beauty by forgetting all the things,

Believe me , it has some magical effect…  spending some time at this place can make you feel soothing and it refreshing your mind.  It will make you forget every damn thing that haunts you in your life..

The calmness of the ocean with the skyscrappers on the line will make you feel tantalizing.

The Marine drive Skyline and the dock yards

Looks like some body gonna have a tough call to take this pic lolz :P!!!

The Marine Drive Skyline

The  Skyline was much more terrific in the later part of the day during nights giving you the feel of the NYC or San francisco!!!

The Drive stretch is some 5-6 kms long and we decided to walk through across the marine drive .

We decided to have some cola for burning out the heat in the hot climate and soon after we followed it up with the lunch!!

Though, being a huge fan of  Tendulkar, i always wanted to dine in his restaurant some day, After inquiring from the locals i was quite disappointed that “Tendulkar’s” restaurant had been closed due to poor response.

So managed to eat something at a place near by as we were out of our energy and feeling damn hungry. Most of the people live here on eating Vada pav’s as their morning breakfast and some even continue it in the evening snacks as well.

” Mumbai Mein rehne ka toh Ek ichh Basha bolne ka…  Aaa VadaPav Bhajia nahi toh Ganpathi Bappa Moria!!!! “

This city has some thing left for everyone who believes in them and it never disappoints a person, you will find any alternative way to live over here. This is a city which never sleeps!!

You get the same food for 10  bucks and also for 10000 bucks as well and that’s the beauty of Mumbai.

    Panoramic View of Skyline

     Sunset in Arabian Sea

The below pic is taken from the wiki search but believe me the skyline looks like this during nights!!!

  Those two twin towers are the Imperial Towers in Tardeo knowing to be the current tallest towers in        Mumbai in residential area!!

“Shola hai ya hai bijuria… dil ki bajaria…. Bombai Nagaria!!!!!”

After that we decided to have dinner at local restaurant and headed to Gate of way India again for night view, we had some snaps overs there and suddenly my friend comes up with an idea to visit the Worli sea link during night ( though that was a part of the plan for next day)

Gateway At Night showing its charm in the city

So we hired a cab and then took a ride to Sea link from colaba.

The Worli sea link is a million dollar watch!! Just Amazing…  at one end of the link is the calm Arabian sea which keeps on it waves silent and steady and the other end is the view of the worli skyline from the sea link.I do have video’s which i had taken on the link , but due to space constraint i cannot put that in this blog…

On the sea Link!!

So just for the reference the image looks like this:

Worli Skyline!!!!

P.S. The above image is taken from the wiki search

So the next day we checked out early and went to CST to roam in Mumbai locals , These locals are not only used by the middle class people but also used by some of the highly sophisticated people just in case to make out the things on time.. As we all know traffic is very hectic in Mumbai. So that is the reason even there are first class tickets available for locals and a separate coaches for them.

The One disappointment we had was the Malls were extremely empty during weekdays  till afternoon!!

we sat on Worli sea link to view the nature beauty as we realized that we didn’t had enough time to cover elephanta caves and kanheri caves, so we decided to drop those places and enjoy the morning view on the sea face.

We saw few places like Haji Ali Dargah from the outside, chowpatty beach and the race course..we were roaming in cabs and locals in the suburbs of the city to bandra, andheri, vadala and few places!!!!

When you are in locals you don’t have to walk , you are pushed by the crowd so that you automatically move forward 

There is one famous place called “Lal baugh” where a Ganesh pandal is celebrated with huge devotion.

The Ganesh idol set up is called as the “Lal baugh ka Raja” which is as famous as Khairatabad Ganesh in Hyderabad!!

The Idol will be some where around 30ft tall.

So, Finally we reached Chembur from where we had to board a bus to Hyderabad, still there was 2 hours of  time to start , thinking of what to do we decided to watch a movie near to the place…< “Taken 3″>

So After that we boarded the bus and zoomed across the Mumbai-Pune Express way and reached Pune at 10 PM where we were halted to have some dinner at some place and the next morning we were in Hyderabad.

So my next blog is on the Southern trip across Indian Peninsula from Madurai to Allepey!!! As this is the trip which i would cherish for the rest of my life!!

Please keep reading this blog and wait for the updates!!!!