Travels in India, 2020 - The Grand Finale - Mad about Mumbai Part 2

Although we were only in Mumbai for three days, I thought I'd divide our trip over two blog posts. Anything to escape the weird reality we'd currently living in.

This is the Gateway to India, built in the Indo-Saracenic style in 1911 to welcome the arrival of King-Emperor George V and his wife, the Queen-Empress Mary, the first British monarch to visit India. It was also the monument from which the British troops left India in 1948 following independence.

We've been to some amazing places in India but Mumbai remains our favourite. It's an incredible place, the energy crackles in the air like electricity, it's vibrant, it's exciting and seething with contradictions. A city with more billionaires per square foot than anywhere else in India, some the costliest real estate in the world but is home to Asia's largest slum. The grand colonial architecture is straight of Victorian London only with palm trees & parrots and a winter day time temperature of 36°C

With a population of over 18.4 million, around 909 people move to Mumbai every day - that's thirty-eight per hour. As you can imagine, it takes an absolute age to get anywhere either on foot or by taxi but the city is dotted with wonderfully tranquil parks where it's easy to escape the madness, if only for a while.

One of our favourite things is just wandering the streets of Mumbai admiring the wonderful old buildings, which I've probably shared on my blog over the years. When we meet travellers visiting Mumbai for the first time they're always amazed at how beautiful and sparkling clean it is, not to mention the friendliness of its citizens. People have such cliched ideas of what India is like, Mumbai gives most British cities a run for their money.

Indias love self-help books, there are stalls like this on every street corner and at 100 rupees (around £1) and affordable for most Mumbaikers.

 This gorgeous old girl isn't looking too bad considering she's been driven around most of India!

There are street cats everywhere in Mumbai, cared for and fed by many of the citizens. There are collection points for fellow cat lovers to leave food and donations (which of course, we did). I even recognised a few moggies from our last visit.

The hip and happening area of Kala Ghoda (meaning black horse in Marathi) is the epicentre of the uber-cool Mumbai art scene, with a plethora of galleries and street artists, who hang their art from the bus shelters and railings. DAG is currently hosting The Sixties Show, a wonderful exhibition of Mid-Century Indian artists.

The Kala Ghoda statue marks the centre of the arts district.

An area of 22 hectares, Mumbai's Oval Maidan is where the city's youth gather to play cricket although it's a puzzle to understand how the players know which ball belongs to who, there's usually at least 30 games going on at the same time.

Try as we might, we found it impossible to take a photo of me outside the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel alone!

As usual, we stayed at Moti International, a crumbling Victorian mansion a stone's throw from the Taj Mahal Palace. The ground and first floor are rented out to guests whilst the upper three floors are hotel manager, Raj's, family home. Real estate in Mumbai is some of the most expensive in the world so Moti must be worth a fortune. 

  The Lonely Planet described the rooms as being just about clean enough and it's definitely not the place to stay if you're a cleanliness freak but, for us, it's perfect. Raj is the kindest, most affable host and there's always a cold beer available in the communal fridge (at half the price of anywhere else in Mumbai.)

Check out our private verandah! Definitely shabby chic. There's an exquisite mosaic floor under the dust - honest!

Mumbai is full of cool bars and restaurants. We discovered Bombay Vintage a couple of years ago and love the retro soundtrack & the vintage travel posters. There's a daily Happy Hour with two drinks for the price of one before 8pm and the food's not half bad either!

How about this for a fancy serving dish? Jon ordered Misal Pav, a popular Maharashtrian dish. The tiffin contained a spicy curry made with moth beans into which the waiter stirred in diced raw onion, chopped coriander and lemon and sev (the biscuity bits in Bombay Mix that resemble sticks). It was served with fresh bread rolls.

That was India, 2020 - a trip that took us to the Blue City of Jodhpur, the Golden City of Jaisalmer, a twenty-four-hour camel trek into the Thar Desert, the white sand beaches of South Goa, Panjim's atmospheric Latin quarter and the sophisticated city life of magical Mumbai. 

Tribal jewellery galore!

And here's just a few of things that I brought back with me ....oops!

Block printed madness: Cottage Cottage cami; Anokhi maxi dress; Tuk Tuk kaftan; Cotton Cottage sun dress; Anokhi midi dress plus an off-the-shoulder top and wrap top (both handmade from recycled sari silk)

Jon didn't do badly either! You've already seen the emergency wool muffler he bought from FabIndia in Jodhpur and the Cotton Cottage orange organic cotton shirt he was wearing in Mumbai. Here's a cotton cambric shirt he spotted in FabIndia in Goa. He also bought a pair of royal blue linen skinnies from FabIndia in Panjim (the cheeky purchase I spoke of) which are packed away and waiting for our trip to Greece in the Autumn - that's if life has returned to normal by then!

As the world continues to get stranger and normal daily life becomes more limited I'll continue to post regularly, not only sharing my outfits but with how I've filled my days as the festivals and fairs we'd booked to trade with cancel on an almost daily basis. There'll be no doom, gloom & scaremongering on this blog, I promise you that.

Stay sane & see you soon!