This is the first posting from the other side. We have had a pretty good trip so far while in Mumbai.
04/01: We arrived in Mumbai at around lunch time with BA. When we arrived in Dublin airport 3 hours early we had our flights moved forward with Aer Lingus by nearly 2 hours due to delay concerns over heavy winds in both Ireland and the UK. We therefore had time to spend in Heathrow before the second leg and therefore had a chance to have a nice dinner in Wagamama and go shopping for books and magazines etc.
Flight was on time and reasonably uneventful other than a rather bumpy ride over the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
We arrived in Mumbai at lunch time and took a pre-paid cab to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Claire was tired and took a sleep while I decided to go sort out stuff such as a SIM card (with 3G!) from Vodafone in the hotel's business centre and a few other things.
We then dipped out into the Mumbai madness for about 30 minutes, walking the streets surrounding the Taj hotel, which were full of shops and street sellers, beeping cars and lots of people. Having had enough Mumbai culture for a day we retreated to the hotel, ate in and went to bed early.
05/01: We were both tired from lack of sleep on the plane and actually managed to sleep well past our inclusive breakfast - we didn't get up until after 12:00 in the afternoon.
So we decided instead to go down and get a brunch in a nearby Belgian themed Cafe, which turned out to be so good (and reasonably priced) that we decided to return for dinner in the evening!
We then did the tourist walk and saw the High Court, University, Mumbai train station (CST - UNESCO heritage site) and the Oval park, which is used for cricket. We certainly got much more comfortable with the pace of life on the roads and the streets and learned how to deal with touts etc.
After having had dinner in the Belgian Cafe we returned to the hotel and ended up spending a couple of hours trying to find some kind of transport to Matheran (retreat mostly for Indians from the Mumbai madness about 100km east of Mumbai), which we had decided to go and see. This turned out to be tricky as trains are booked well in advance and we didn't find any relevant tour busses - instead I had the idea of booking a cab for it and after multiple fruitless attempts in trying to call cab companies and get quotes I finally found the online booking site GetMeCab.com, which was very straightforward at 23:00 in the evening for a morning-after 8:00 booking - they just required a 10% deposit via credit card online or by call-back.
06/01: I hardly slept at all last night as I was still jetlagged whereas Claire generally has absolutely no issues in that department and we had to get up at 6:30 to shower and have breakfast, which opened at 7:00.
After a bit of texting/calling back and forth with our Indian driver around 8:00 who didn't speak much English (but very nice!) we finally realised that he was parked outside the hotel as we wasn't allowed in ;-) So we walked over and were on our way shortly after. It turned out to be a 2.5 hour journey and not too much traffic - Mumbai is indeed a late riser!
On arrival we managed to get 2 horses at half price by haggling. Claire, being the avid horse rider, was allowed to take off while I was guided along. It was an interesting journey and I got a few good pictures of the area and scenery - but overall we both felt that Matheran probably wasn't worth the amount of time and money that it cost us to get there. Had we managed instead to book trains from Mumbai and get the toy train up (21km journey, as recommeded by guide books) the results would undoubtedly have been different. But Claire at least got some riding time in and we did enjoy it and relax.
We got back at around 16:30 and went for showers (the dust was everywhere!) and then walked around town a bit. After much discussion (risk/cost/benefit calculations for spending 2 final nights in the Taj with Delhi-belly ;-) we finally settled for trying out a true Indian food stall called Bademiay on Tullock Road where we had some gorgeous Chicken Tikka rolls (!!!) as recommended by Lonely Planet - note: our thanks go to the Oz couple that highly recommended the place and that we stay away from "fresh" onions and Chutney due to concerns over handling the food. At the time of writing about 12 hours later none of us exhibit any symptoms, fingers crossed! ;-)
We then returned to the hotel and watched telly before going to sleep.
Thoughts/Points:
- It turned out to be a very good idea to book a good hotel in Mumbai/India with its own leisure facilities for the first few days, which enables you to dip in/out of the Mumbai madness and thereby acclimatise yourself at your own pace & schedule. Mumbai can be somewhat overwhelming to arrive in when you come from a country with a much smaller population density.
- To get a SIM card for your phone you need formal identification in the form of passport and a passport photo. We had the option of getting a SIM card from the Taj hotel's business centre - we just had to hand in passport and photo and then they sorted out all the forms and formalities. We paid R. 305 for the SIM and R.60 for 8 passport photos from a Kodak photo shop just behind the hotel - we were left with R. 187,- in credits after this. We also paid R.375 for 1GB of 3G Internet data - for people with smartphones and/or a laptop and the ability for tethering from the mobile (which is both allowed and possible here) it comes well recommended - performance (latency + speed) is equivalent to what you expect in Ireland and was verified using speedtest.net.
- Make sure you book a pre-paid cab in the airport for the hotel before you leave it - don't be scammed by touts and rigged meters! An A/C cab to the hotel took just over an hour and cost us just R.560.
- Many cash dispensers will allow you to take out only R.10.000 from (pre-paid) credit cards such as Moneybookers (they come very highly recommended btw). However I was able to take our R15.000 at a time in Citi Bank.
- Just like there is a train platform 9 3/4 in Harry Potter the Indians have similar lane divisions on their roads, which coupled with beeping, constant weaving and unsafe speeds makes for a fun and action-packed cab ride of a life time
- When haggling decide on a reasonable price in your mind beforehand and if it fails do not be afraid to walk away (down to the next stall) - you will find that often they will catch up with you and "cave in". For instance they kept insisting that they would charge us R.1.000 per horse/rider in Matheran for a two hour 5 highlights journey. We offered only R.1.000 for two horses/riders in total and when we started walking away and aimed for the next vendor they suddenly "caved in".
- When using cabs for visiting sites and on long journeys be aware that any road & bridge tolls and site taxes and parking have to be paid by you. So make sure you bring plenty of R.10/R.50 notes and some coins for the journey. Around Mumbai a typical toll is R.30,- and there were 3 of them each way (+ Matheran itself) to/from Matheran, as an example.
- A word of advice to white people: You are just as much of a tourist attraction to the Indians as they are to you. Do not be surprised when they ask for a photograph (or simply take one!) with you and their family. This has already happened to us a few times here in Mumbai. We have considered charging for this privilege - after all some Indians will expect payment if you photograph them, especially if you don't ask for their permission first ;-)
04/01: We arrived in Mumbai at around lunch time with BA. When we arrived in Dublin airport 3 hours early we had our flights moved forward with Aer Lingus by nearly 2 hours due to delay concerns over heavy winds in both Ireland and the UK. We therefore had time to spend in Heathrow before the second leg and therefore had a chance to have a nice dinner in Wagamama and go shopping for books and magazines etc.
Flight was on time and reasonably uneventful other than a rather bumpy ride over the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
We arrived in Mumbai at lunch time and took a pre-paid cab to the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Claire was tired and took a sleep while I decided to go sort out stuff such as a SIM card (with 3G!) from Vodafone in the hotel's business centre and a few other things.
We then dipped out into the Mumbai madness for about 30 minutes, walking the streets surrounding the Taj hotel, which were full of shops and street sellers, beeping cars and lots of people. Having had enough Mumbai culture for a day we retreated to the hotel, ate in and went to bed early.
05/01: We were both tired from lack of sleep on the plane and actually managed to sleep well past our inclusive breakfast - we didn't get up until after 12:00 in the afternoon.
So we decided instead to go down and get a brunch in a nearby Belgian themed Cafe, which turned out to be so good (and reasonably priced) that we decided to return for dinner in the evening!
We then did the tourist walk and saw the High Court, University, Mumbai train station (CST - UNESCO heritage site) and the Oval park, which is used for cricket. We certainly got much more comfortable with the pace of life on the roads and the streets and learned how to deal with touts etc.
After having had dinner in the Belgian Cafe we returned to the hotel and ended up spending a couple of hours trying to find some kind of transport to Matheran (retreat mostly for Indians from the Mumbai madness about 100km east of Mumbai), which we had decided to go and see. This turned out to be tricky as trains are booked well in advance and we didn't find any relevant tour busses - instead I had the idea of booking a cab for it and after multiple fruitless attempts in trying to call cab companies and get quotes I finally found the online booking site GetMeCab.com, which was very straightforward at 23:00 in the evening for a morning-after 8:00 booking - they just required a 10% deposit via credit card online or by call-back.
06/01: I hardly slept at all last night as I was still jetlagged whereas Claire generally has absolutely no issues in that department and we had to get up at 6:30 to shower and have breakfast, which opened at 7:00.
After a bit of texting/calling back and forth with our Indian driver around 8:00 who didn't speak much English (but very nice!) we finally realised that he was parked outside the hotel as we wasn't allowed in ;-) So we walked over and were on our way shortly after. It turned out to be a 2.5 hour journey and not too much traffic - Mumbai is indeed a late riser!
On arrival we managed to get 2 horses at half price by haggling. Claire, being the avid horse rider, was allowed to take off while I was guided along. It was an interesting journey and I got a few good pictures of the area and scenery - but overall we both felt that Matheran probably wasn't worth the amount of time and money that it cost us to get there. Had we managed instead to book trains from Mumbai and get the toy train up (21km journey, as recommeded by guide books) the results would undoubtedly have been different. But Claire at least got some riding time in and we did enjoy it and relax.
We got back at around 16:30 and went for showers (the dust was everywhere!) and then walked around town a bit. After much discussion (risk/cost/benefit calculations for spending 2 final nights in the Taj with Delhi-belly ;-) we finally settled for trying out a true Indian food stall called Bademiay on Tullock Road where we had some gorgeous Chicken Tikka rolls (!!!) as recommended by Lonely Planet - note: our thanks go to the Oz couple that highly recommended the place and that we stay away from "fresh" onions and Chutney due to concerns over handling the food. At the time of writing about 12 hours later none of us exhibit any symptoms, fingers crossed! ;-)
We then returned to the hotel and watched telly before going to sleep.
Thoughts/Points:
- It turned out to be a very good idea to book a good hotel in Mumbai/India with its own leisure facilities for the first few days, which enables you to dip in/out of the Mumbai madness and thereby acclimatise yourself at your own pace & schedule. Mumbai can be somewhat overwhelming to arrive in when you come from a country with a much smaller population density.
- To get a SIM card for your phone you need formal identification in the form of passport and a passport photo. We had the option of getting a SIM card from the Taj hotel's business centre - we just had to hand in passport and photo and then they sorted out all the forms and formalities. We paid R. 305 for the SIM and R.60 for 8 passport photos from a Kodak photo shop just behind the hotel - we were left with R. 187,- in credits after this. We also paid R.375 for 1GB of 3G Internet data - for people with smartphones and/or a laptop and the ability for tethering from the mobile (which is both allowed and possible here) it comes well recommended - performance (latency + speed) is equivalent to what you expect in Ireland and was verified using speedtest.net.
- Make sure you book a pre-paid cab in the airport for the hotel before you leave it - don't be scammed by touts and rigged meters! An A/C cab to the hotel took just over an hour and cost us just R.560.
- Many cash dispensers will allow you to take out only R.10.000 from (pre-paid) credit cards such as Moneybookers (they come very highly recommended btw). However I was able to take our R15.000 at a time in Citi Bank.
- Just like there is a train platform 9 3/4 in Harry Potter the Indians have similar lane divisions on their roads, which coupled with beeping, constant weaving and unsafe speeds makes for a fun and action-packed cab ride of a life time
- When haggling decide on a reasonable price in your mind beforehand and if it fails do not be afraid to walk away (down to the next stall) - you will find that often they will catch up with you and "cave in". For instance they kept insisting that they would charge us R.1.000 per horse/rider in Matheran for a two hour 5 highlights journey. We offered only R.1.000 for two horses/riders in total and when we started walking away and aimed for the next vendor they suddenly "caved in".
- When using cabs for visiting sites and on long journeys be aware that any road & bridge tolls and site taxes and parking have to be paid by you. So make sure you bring plenty of R.10/R.50 notes and some coins for the journey. Around Mumbai a typical toll is R.30,- and there were 3 of them each way (+ Matheran itself) to/from Matheran, as an example.
- A word of advice to white people: You are just as much of a tourist attraction to the Indians as they are to you. Do not be surprised when they ask for a photograph (or simply take one!) with you and their family. This has already happened to us a few times here in Mumbai. We have considered charging for this privilege - after all some Indians will expect payment if you photograph them, especially if you don't ask for their permission first ;-)
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| Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel where we stayed and the Gateway of India to its right |
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| Center of Mumbai |
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| Elephanta Caves - Three-Headed Shiva |
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