Mumbai – Monday 2nd April

It was hot – 37 C!

Gateway to India

Mumbai (Bombay) is huge with a population of 12 million (or 20 million if you believe our tour guide – probably includes the shanty towns such as Dharavi where 300,000 people live in less than 500 acres ).  It was originally seven swampy islands, and was called Mumba Ai or Mother Mumba after the patron goddess.  It was the Portuguese who named it Bom Bahia (Good Bay), however they were not keen on the malaria swamps so gave it to Charles II as part of the dowry of the Infanta Catherine when she married Charles in 1661.  Charles in turn gave it to the East India company for 10 pounds per year and it became the centre of all the west-coast trade in India.  By the middle of the 19^th Century the railway was built along with textile mills and lots of impressive Victorian buildings and the islands were joined together in a series of reclamation projects.

Taj Mahal Hotel

Although the city is huge, the city centre is conveniently placed on a peninsula and the harbour is right on top of it on the east side, next to the Bombay Fort district where a lot of the old buildings are. On the other side is Chowpatty Beach and lots of modern hotel developments – it all looks nice but apparently the water is very polluted and when you get up close you can see piles of unsavoury rubbish at the high water mark.

Part of the Victoria Terminus

We weren’t sure how easy it would be to get about on our own so booked a coach tour, which was probably a mistake as we didn’t get enough time at the places we wanted to see, but we got a brief overview of some of the city!  It is interesting that nearly all of the places of interest pointed out by our guide were either built by the British or Portuguese, and a shame that many of them are in serious need of repair.  Some of the accommodation we saw was very run down but we didn’t venture out into the suburbs where the real poverty is visible (though our guide seemed to think that poverty wasn’t a problem because all these people had free education and could be employed in sorting rubbish for recycling)

We started with a visit to the Gateway of India which was erected in 1911 for the visit of the King and Queen and through which visiting dignitaries have since been met.  Behind this is the magnificent Taj Mahal hotel which has been beautifully repaired since it was bombed by terrorists. There are lots of impressive Victorian buildings in this area – the best perhaps is the Victoria Terminus (now Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaja Terminus) which is the main station in Mumbai and absolutely huge. 

Gandhi's bedroom with spinning wheels

We then drove round Marine Drive along Chowpatty Beach, past some impressive houses on Malabar Hill to Mani Bhavan, the house where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his visits to Mumbai. This house is now a museum documenting Gandhi’s life – it has some of his correspondence including letters to Hitler (asking him not to go to war)  and Tolstoy (discussing the benefits of passive resistance to gain independence).  I thought I knew a bit about his story but would have liked a lot more time to look round – will have to buy a book.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Our next stop was at the Victoria and Albert Museum  (now also renamed but I can’t remember its Indian name).  This has been magnificently restored in the last few years and is really beautiful inside – though the exhibits depicting the history of Mumbai are not outstanding.  We continued back to the Colaba Causeway, near to the Gateway of India, where w