Hi guys,
We are backpacking around India at the moment, which is an overwhelming, breathtaking, amazing and exhausting experience at the same time. We heard many good and not so good stories about India beforehand. And I guess there is a bit of truth to all of them. I think it's a very personal and individual thing with India, either you love it or you hate it. I love it! The food is amazing... But I won't start with this now, there will be some other day for an Indian food love story :-)
We're in Mumbai at the moment. Which is India's biggest city with something around 13 million people (the metropolitan region around 22 million). Mumbai is also called the entertainment and art capital of India. Which is interesting to explore in the artsy suburb, Kala Ghoda in the south of the city.
There is so much to see in Mumbai that you could stay for months in the city and still feel like you haven't seen anything yet.
This time for our first stay in Mumbai we just concentrated on the far south part of the city, which is the Fort area with all the old English colonial buildings.
We really enjoyed just walking around the busy streets with its markets and street food stands, every corner offers something new to discover. In addition to the busy life on the streets, you stumble upon these amazing colonial buildings on many corners around the southern part of Mumbai.
Here are some of the most famous ones:
Years ago on one of my first bigger backpacking trips through South America, I read a book called Shantaram which is mainly set in Mumbai. You may heard about ( well known among backpackers :-) and I really recommend reading it). Many places like the bar "Leopold's" or the "Colaba Police Station", which are mentioned in the book, are located in the fort area of Mumbai. So if you are on your way down south towards the Gateway of India, I would recommend you walk along the Causeway and make a stop at Leopold's for a cold drink before you continue your way south.
One day we made a day trip a little bit further north along the coast to Bandra. This was an interesting experience because here you can see lower classes living circumstances (tiny buildings with narrow busy streets) very close to the big rich apartment blocks with wide streets, expensive cars and fancy boutique cafes. The large economic divide in the Indian population is clearly visible in Bandra.
In the afternoon we made our way down to the famous Chowpatty Beach for sunset. It's a great place for people watching. You can sit all along the sea wall next to the Marine Drive where you have a perfect view at the sunset with the beach right in front of you.
Day after day I'm amazed how all this craziness in this gigantic country works very well together! It is difficult to explain it in words, I guess you have to come an have a look yourself.
Thanks for reading!
Max
