Mumbai - Day 5

Another long day.

Today we took another trip to South Mumbai. It only took 2 hours of dodgem-cars. See the video I uploaded to YouTube to see what it is like - note that the concept of "footpath" is foreign to these residents of Mumbai.

Although the thought of a two-hour trip just to get to the centre of the city seems bad, there is something to see everywhere. Wherever you look there is something interesting, strange, or colorful to see. I've included a photo of a motorcyclist attacking a taxi driver with his fist.

One thing I noticed while driving was the electrical wiring for some of the houses - there are power lines hanging everywhere (see picture). Its no surprise why there are power failures when it rains.

One nifty innovation are traffic lights with countdown timers (see photo below). When the lights go red the counter starts counting down so that you know when they will go green. When they go green, the counter starts again so you know when they are going red. It should work well, but if the road is clear, then cars start driving off when the counter has got down to 10 or so. If they don't, the 100 or so cars behind them start honking their horns.


Going into southern Mumbai, the older and more established part of the city we traveled on long flyover that crosses over a vast number of buildings and accommodation. Looking off to the side (see photo) you can see hundreds of side streets below, packed with people and vehicles, that seem to just go on an on into the distance. You get the sense that this city is packed with people for tens of miles in all directions.

When we got to the heart of the city we went to the museum once called the Prince of Wales Museum but now called: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya. I think that this is so westerners can't find it any more.
You pay to go in, and then you have to pay if you want to take pictures. I thought this was OK, and paid up. When we went to go in they searched our bag and found my bottle of water. "No water inside," they said. Apparently they wanted to confiscate it. It was strange to stand there in the swelting heat to be told that you can't carry any water with you - and we were still 100m from the entrance. Instead we drank it and left the empty bottle - think that they must be applying the same rule as the airports in not allowing you to carry more than 100ml bottles - who knows? I thought to myself, "well it's only a short walk to the museum building, and it'll be better inside"

Once inside, I realised that there was no airconditioning - it was just as hot inside as it was outside. So much for not needing water.

I took a photo, and immediately a guard rushed up to me and said that I can't use a flash. I then realised that although I'd paid to be able to take pictures, I couldn't actually take any pictures because it was too dark inside.

How a camera flash will damage a 2,000 year old statue carved from granite, I don't know. But, here is a picture of a 2,000 year old Persian carving that I decided to damage with my flash without anyone noticing.

The museum was quite run down, a common scenario with historic buildings I was later to realise. The building was filled with schoolkids running around, pointing out the naughty bits on figurines to one another. It reminded me of when I was younger.

There were some very old paintings on one of the floors, but they were so darkened with grime that they were difficult to see properly. Also many of the antique gilt frames were damaged or covered with mould. When you think about it, a non-airconditioned museum with 35+ degree heat and 80% humidity isn't exactly the best place to store classical paintings. It was also difficult for me to appreciate history when all I could think about were swimming pools and icy-cold gin and tonics.

Exhausted from the unrelenting heat, the intrepid explorers headed off to the Taj Mahal Hotel for some tiffin. Surrounded by the luxury that we deserved, we downed iced coffee until we felt better. It is a great pity that several weeks later some Pakistani terrorists decided to remodel the hotel using handgrenades and machine guns.

Did you know that upmarket hotels have staff in the toilets to escort you to your allocated urinal? Unsettling, if nothing else. They then turn on the taps for you to wash your hands, then hand you a freshly-laundered handtowel, and then turn the taps off for you and open the door for you to leave. I don't know if the women have it so good.


The hotel is just opposite the Gateway to India, the most famous landmark in Mumbai that was constructed for the monarchy to enter and leave from. Like everything else here is is being repaired. But very, very, slowly. I think that erosion is going faster than the repairs.

We eventually toddled back home to Powai (pictured), another 2 hour drive, and you can see the difference. There are footpaths! It seems silly to miss seeing them. I heard later that some Indians don't like Powai because the architecture and layout of the suburb doesn't look Indian enough. Maybe they'd feel better if people stole the paving and dumped rubbish around the place.

Anyway, that's enough for today. We are having a rest day tomorrow, so I'll have to sit around and watch the maid do the housework and dream of a better life back home.