Tag: Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

We are sitting at The Mark Cafe, a 2 minute walk from the River Ganges, and it’s Valentine’s day.  Dave and I have a habit of spending the most romantic day of the year in foreign countries, and although this Valentines day has probably been the furthest thing from Romance that we’ve seen, it’s been interesting in its own right.  I’ll be writing about Varanasi, or Banares, next time though.  For now, I’ll be writing about the mayhem that is Mumbai.

Mumbai, formerly called Bombay (during the Brittish rule of India), is a port city on India’s west coast.  It’s the home of Bollywood, the world’s largest open-air street food market and is also India’s most populous city.  There isn’t a whole lot to do in Mumbai, so we didn’t stay very long, but a day and a half was ample time to see the sights that deserve to be seen.

Like this really cool McDonalds!

Their Big Macs here don’t have beef in them (because…well…India), so instead they have jalepeno peppers and chicken

What makes Mumbai so remarkable, as far as I’m concerned anyway, is its architecture.  Because the city has been under both Portuguese and British rule in addition to its Hindu and Muslim history, there are so many interesting buildings to see!

This old Colonial-era building has been turned into a train station

There isn’t a lot to see inside…

but the constant flow of people coming in and out of the station is really something to see! Mumbai is one of the most densly populated cities in the world…and at this station, that is not surprising…

One of the difficulties of being in Bombay though, is the security…

There’s some ugly history here.  Some fundamentalist Hindu groups have caused problems for the Muslim population (killing over 1000 Muslims in 1992 and 1993 during riots) and in return, Muslim fundamentalist groups have bombed popular tourist sights and other places of interest in Mumbai.  There has been peace in the city now since 2011, but as precaution, there are metal detectors going into every shopping mall and every tourist sight.  Even going to Starbucks, means having your bag searched, being patted down and walking through a metal detector.  Scary stuff…

This is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. It was one of the places that was bombed during one of the bigger attacks in Mumbai

Security going into Starbucks…

But not all of Mumbai was scary…like every city in India, they have an abundance of farm animals running through the streets….Also, the taxis here all have funny designs on their ceilings.  They’re quite nice actually, as far as taxis go.  And everyone uses their meters so HAZZAA!!!  No arguing required!!

Funky ceilings

A crow sitting on a cow. He was originally sitting on the cow’s head, but he flew away before I could get a good shot…

A cow in the middle of a sidewalk in Mumbai…

My next post will be about the most insane city I have ever visited…stay tuned for my post on Varanasi – Home of the River Ganges.