Contiki Eternal India: Mumbai

We flew from Udaipur and arrived in Mumbai just before lunchtime. We had a very brief bus tour of Mumbai. Our first stop was Dhobi Ghat, the world's largest open air laundromat where over 100,000 pieces of clothes are manually washed every day.

We then hopped back on the bus where we learned a few interesting stories, not necessarily related to what we were seeing. The first topic was how India handled the COVID pandemic, especially the large and densely populated cities like Mumbai. An interesting point that our local guide made was that Mumbai is a city of transplants in that a lot of people move there from smaller villages looking for a better life. During COVID, everything shut down and there wasn't a reason for those people to stay in a city that was dead, so the government of India figured out a safe way to arrange for people to go back to their families. Combined with COVID tests, the government arranged for direct trains to go from Mumbai to a specific city. The train would not stop anywhere else, but go from Mumbai right to the destination. This minimized the risk of contagions with people getting on and off at different stops and enabled people to get home to see their families.

The second story was about dabbawala, a way for workers in the city to get warm lunches in tiffin boxes from their homes without bringing them on the train with them in the morning. There was a complex system which operated daily where people's wives would drop lunchboxes off at a local collection point and, using a color coding system, the lunchbox would travel from that town to a centralized depot to be unloaded and sorted and distributed to the worker's place of employment. It is amazing that they were able to execute something that complex in the late 1800's without any technology!

While we were hearing those stories, we were driving to our next stop, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (also known as Victoria Train Station). We didn't go inside, but admired the facade. It is where the train scenes from Slumdog Millionaire were filmed - they were filmed during the three hours the station was closed every night.

After the train station, we went to the India Gate which is the second most photographed building in all of India, second to the Taj Mahal. The arch honors the Indian soldiers that died in WWI.

From the India Gate, we walked to our hotel to check in. It was in a perfect location! We quickly dropped our bags off in the room before meeting back in the lobby to head to lunch at McDonald's. I am always intrigued by the McDonald's menus abroad as they offer insight into what each country's citizens think American food is. This McDonald's was a bit different in that it had no hamburgers, but chicken burgers. I wound up getting a chicken sandwich, fries & a milkshake, but a few people had tikka masala burgers or the Maharaja Mac. I can't say it was the best meal I had in India, I would rank it towards the bottom of my Indian culinary experience so far.

After McDonald's, I ran back to the hotel to put my dirty clothes in a bag to drop off at reception for someone from the dhobi ghat to pick up and do my laundry overnight. I found them online and it was about $2.50 per kilogram of laundry to be done overnight, including pick up and drop off. You can't beat that!

I then decided to find a tailor to have a few suits and shirts made. There was a highly rated place near the hotel, Planet G, and I only had about an hour so I ran there and picked out material for one two piece suit, one three piece suit & five shirts. After a bit of negotiating, I got all of it for ~$700 including shipping.

It was then time to meet the rest of the group in the hotel lobby for our street food tour, our opportunity to try the Mumbai local delicacies in a controlled environment where a tour company made sure certain sanitary standards were met. Our guides were amazing and, as they took us to our first stop, explained that Mumbai is a city of people that are always on the go. Given this, street food is a part of the cultural backbone of the city where most things are intended to be quick, to-go & bite sized.

Our first stop was an Iranian Cafe, Kyani & Co., which was interesting timing given that the US had just started a war with Iran just a week prior. We actually sat down in this cafe, so we waited for a table and the tour guide ordered a spread of food and drinks for us to try. Pictures weren't allowed, but we had Iranian chai, maska bun (a soft sweet bun with butter that was great when you dipped it in the chai), and a few other items I can't remember. We also tried raspberry soda, an Iranian favorite, but it tasted too much like cough syrup for our group.

We then walked to our next stop for the highlight of the day, the Bombay Sandwich. It is white bread with a lot of butter, green chutney, potato's, beetroot, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes & chaat masala. It was perfect and we went back for seconds and thirds. Pictures definitely don't do it justice, especially the below one.

We then headed to a bakery where we had another favorite of mine, panipuri, a "make your own" plate where you have an open shell that you put potatoes, chickpeas, and chutney in. We also had my favorite dessert in all of India, Kaju Katli. It tastes like marzipan, but is actually made of cashews.

Our next stop was another food stall for pav bhaji, spiced vegitable curry with a soft bread. It was delicious and not too spicy,

By this point we were starting to get full, but it was time for dessert (and those of you that know me know that I will always make room for dessert). We walked to a storefront that had kaju anjeer, a frozen treat like ice cream that is served in tubes and you slice. It is mainly made of cashews and figs, but has a variety of different flavors. It was a very unique taste and was very similar to ice cream.

We hopped on our bus to another stop where we had dosa, one of my favorite Indian breads. We were so full that we had a bite each and hopped back on the bus where we were about to get off at our final stop, across from the train station we stopped at earlier in the day. Our last restaurant was Aram Vada Pav where we had vada pav, a deep friend potato inside a bun with chutneys. I had a bite, some people were so full they couldn't even take a small bite. We were all exhausted from a long day that started at 6:00 AM in Udaipur, so we collectively hit the sack as soon as we got back to the hotel.

The following morning, we had a 5:00 AM start for our "Mumbai by Dawn" tour where we saw all the things that happen before most people even wake up for the day to get where they need to go. The first stop was something I was dreading since learning about the tour, but wanted to give it a go anyway, the Sasson Dock also known as the home to one of the fish markets in Mumbai. We were warned that it would reek and I have a very sensitive smell when it comes to seafood in general. They warned us though, saying not to wear anything nice as it would reek for the rest of the trip, they also handed out masks and booties for your shoes to keep you as clean as possible. I put peppermint oil below my nose and in my mask and got off the bus and immediately was hit with the stench of fish. I tried to walk, but made it just past the entrance before I started to get sick and had to turn around. I am happy I tried, but that was the worst smell I have ever smelled. I met back up with the group after their walkthrough and could tell that some people had more fun than others, someone got hit by a rolling cart of fish stuff. As they walked back on the bus, the smell of fish was on them, but it wasn't overpowering.

The next stop was back in front of the main train station where we saw various newspaper vendors and delivery people across the sidewalk. There were dozens of people sorting and bundling various newspapers for their routes, all from memory. It was wild to see how quickly they were moving and beyond impressive that they were doing it all without referencing any kind of address or order list. For one of the guys, this was one of four jobs he has and he sleeps an average of two hours a night. They talk about "rise and grind" in the US, but I think that person lives it.

We then piled back onto the bus and went to the next produce market where we did a quick spin through it - it was massive and packed! The final stop was the flower market, which was a similar experience in terms the energy and size.

We arrived back at the hotel at around 8:00 AM, just in time for breakfast. I was starving and ate a delicious omelette, among other things. After breakfast, I met up with two people traveling with me to visit the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum, which is something that we thought was an Indian History museum, but was actually more of a general museum about the region. It had an overview of much older things (the silk road, etc.) and how India was a part of it as well as some artwork and artifacts, but we were looking for something more current that focused on India under British rule and its recent independence.

We left the museum after an hour or so and decided to satisfy our respective "sweet teeth". I found a highly rated cafe, Harley's, which served amazing desserts and coffee drinks. It was like it was straight out of England, definitely a lasting imprint of the British culture on India.

After our dessert, we headed back to the area of the hotel. Unfortunately, I got an update from the laundry service that my clothes wouldn't be back until later in the evening and needed a clean pair of pants for the second part of the day, so I tried to buy pants at a local store. Unsuccessful and running out of time before our next formal event, I decided to put my kurta on and head to the famous Taj Hotel for High Tea with my group. We all were dressed somewhat nicely, so I didn't look completely out of place. Someone else even had a custom suit jacket that he had made with similar prints to what was on my kurta.

The Taj Hotel was very immense, expansive and grand. After a few minutes, we found out that the restaurant didn't have our reservation and were escorted up to the top floor for a buffet with champagne, at a heavily discounted price. It wasn't the experience we had hoped for, but the views were still pretty impressive.

With all the movement to the top floor of the Taj, our time was cut short as we all had to run back to change into comfortable clothes for our Bollywood dance class. Our instructor had choreographed our Indian Contiki day song, Panwadi, into a Bollywood dance for us to learn and also spent a few minutes teaching us how to dance to another song. I was far from great, but it was fun to just enjoy something different!

After our dance class ended, we went back to the hotel and I beelined straight to the tailor to try on a test suit and shirt to see if any adjustments need to be made. I was there for about a half hour and a bunch of changes wound up needing to be made, so I was happy I allowed the time to do the fitting.

After the fitting, it was time to grab dinner with my group and, more importantly, it was time for the Cricket World Cup Finals where India was playing New Zealand. I had never watched more than 5 minutes of cricket, so I didn't really understand the rules but was looking forward to learning.

As I walked from the tailor to dinner, you could tell how much the match mattered to the people. It was how I imagine people listened to the Yankees games back on transistor radios in the Bronx. I passed people, young and old, in the street huddled around someone's cell phone watching the match. You could hear a pin drop all along the sidewalks - everyone was focused on the world cup.

I eventually made it to the bar with the game on TV and our group had a table. The rules were very easy to pick up and, within 5 minutes, I knew when to cheer and that India was doing really, really well. After about 30 minutes, it became evident that India had built an insurmountable lead and the inevitable was coming, that India would be crowned World Champions of Cricket! The bar was waiting to erupt and, once India clinched the final out, the crowd went wild. We were celebrating alongside newly made Indian friends for hours.

Holi was a great experience, but so was this. Watching a country win a world championship in a sport that means so much to its citizens is something we never could have planned. It made the trip all the more special.

As the crowd started to empty out of the bar, that was our cue to go back to the hotel as we had a flight the following morning to the final stop of our group's itinerary, Goa.