India Travel Guide

Mumbai (Bombay) Travel Guide

Mumbai (Marathi: मुंबई) [1], earlier known as Bombay, is the largest city in India and the capital of Maharashtra state. Mumbai was originally a conglomeration of seven islands on the Konkan coastline which over time were joined to form the island city of Bombay. The island was in turn joined with the neighbouring island of Salsette to form Greater Bombay. The city has an estimated metropolitan population of 17 million (2005), making it one of the largest cities in the world. It is also home to India's largest slum population. Mumbai looms large as the commercial capital of as it is one of the India's predominant port cities. Mumbai's nature as the most eclectic and cosmopolitan Indian city is symbolized in the presence of Bollywood within the city, the centre of the globally-influential Hindi film and TV industries.

Mumbai is different from the rest of India in pretty much the same way that New York is different from the United States. The pace of life is more hurried. Time is money. The idea that one can always make a living one way or another is pervasive in this city.

The official name of the city Mumbai is an eponym derived from Mumba, the name of the local Hindu goddess Mumbadevi, and Aai, meaning "mother" in Marathi. Portuguese explorers named the area "Bom Bahia" in the 16th century, which translates to "Good Bay" (referring to the deep water harbour). This designation was gradually corrupted to "Bomaim" and, after the British gained possession, the name was anglicized to Bombay. The name was officially changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995, but the former name is still popularly used in the West to refer to the city and is still used as an alternative by many of the city's inhabitants and famous institutions.

Culture and attitudes
Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city in India. Compared to the rest of the country, attitudes are quite liberal, though that is not saying much. Because almost everyone is an immigrant, the citizens have learned to tolerate and even like one another. But this tolerance has sometimes broken down. Between the 60s and 80s, there was resentment about the non-Marathi speakers taking away jobs. There were riots in 1991 and 1993 between Hindus and Muslims, but the city managed to recover from these.

Climate
Mumbai has three main seasons — Summer, Monsoon, and Winter (milder summer). The best time to visit is during the winter between November and February. Summer is from March to May with highs in the low to mid 30s. It is hot and humid during this time. June to September is the monsoon season when the city is lashed by heavy rain. The city gets flooded two or three times and normal life gets disrupted during this season. Climate is humid pretty much throughout the year, because it is on the coast.

Districts
Western and Central, East and West

Mumbai is a city built in successive waves of migrations. The neighborhoods acquired their character from the communities that settled there first. These neighborhoods are too numerous to list and there is no commonly accepted way to group these neighborhoods into larger districts. But roughly, from the south to the north, this is how the city developed.

South Mumbai — Fort, Colaba, Malabar Hill, Nariman Point, Marine Lines, and Tardeo.
The oldest areas of Mumbai. Contains Mumbai's downtown area and is considered the commercial capital of India. The richest neighborhoods in the country are located here, which command among the highest rates in the world. Most of the real estate in South Mumbai is more expensive than Manhattan. This is the primary tourist area of Mumbai and home to most of Mumbai's museums, art galleries, bars, upscale restaurants, and the Gateway of India.
South Central Mumbai — Byculla, Parel, Worli, Prabhadevi, and Dadar.
Used to be Mumbai's industrial heartland, but went into decline when the industries did. Now this area has been revamped into a white-collar office location. Home to Mumbai's only zoo, the Worli sea face, and the temple to what people consider the city's guardian deity. As you move north, it morphs into a nice middle-class locality.
North Central Mumbai — Dharavi, Matunga, Vadala, Sion, and Mahim.
Primarily an upper middle-class area, except for Dharavi, which contains Asia's largest slum. This area developed immediately after India's independence, because of a wave of immigration. Part of the migrants were refugees from the partition.
Western Suburbs — Bandra [2], Khar, Santa cruz, Juhu, Vile Parle, and Andheri.
Contains Mumbai's other downtown and is home to those rich who want to have a more peaceful surrounding. It has some beaches. Home to a large Christian community and the city's most famous church. Also this is where the city's two airports are.
Central Suburbs — Kurla, Vidyavihar, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Kanjur Marg, Bhandup, Mulund and Powai.
This is a solidly middle class bastion. Mulund and Ghatkopar are home to predominantly middle and upper middle class populace, many from the entrepreneurial Gujarati community.
Harbour Suburbs — Chembur, Mankhurd, Govandi, and Trombay.
Before the development of Navi Mumbai as a satellite town of Bombay, this area used to be known only for the existence of an atomic research centre. Now this is known for being on the way to Navi Mumbai.
Northwest Mumbai — Manori, Jogeshwari
This is where you go to find beaches that are not dirty. Other than this, it is just another victim of Bombay's vast urban sprawl. Contains the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Mumbai's oldest heritage sites: the Kanheri, Mahakali, Jogeshwari, and Mandapeshwar rock-cut temples dating from the 1st century B.C to the 5th century A.D.

Get In
 

By plane
Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (IATA: BOM) [9] is India's busiest airport and one of the main international gateways to the country.

The airport consists of two terminals : International Terminal (Terminal 2, Sahar) and a Domestic Terminal (Terminal 1, Santacruz). Both terminals use the same airspace but are four km apart. There is a free shuttle bus connecting them.

The Domestic Terminal is further divided into Terminals 1A and 1B. Terminal 1A serves Air India and Kingfisher Airlines. Terminal 1B serves the various private airlines, such as Jet Airways, Simplify Deccan, SpiceJet, etc.

The International Terminal is divided into Terminal 2C (Air India and its partner airlines) and Terminal 2A (which serves most of the other international airlines). Terminal 2B is nonoperational at present. Terminal 2C is considerably better than the others. The domestic terminals are undergoing a long overdue upgrade. Terminal 1B now meets international standards and work is going on at Terminal 1A.

Overall, the airport is a bit of a fleapit and immigration is quite slow, although it is improving. You will be accosted by low level airport employee offering to ease your way through immigration in return for a bribe. Do not take up the offer — these days immigration is not that much of a hassle and it is not a good idea to encourage corruption.

A common scam locals play on tourists is when your taxi cab pulls up to the airport, a man will get your luggage out of the trunk, put it in a cart, push it for you towards the terminal and along the way will ask you for a Rs. 500 baggage fee. This is a lie, there is no baggage fee, and you should tell them no thank you and you kindly take the cart and push it yourself.

Paid parking is available at the airport. The charges are Rs. 60 per four hour block for cars. Longer term parking is available in a "premium" area, but it is hideously expensive, amounting to Rs. 600 per day.

The domestic terminal 1A of Chattrapati Shivaji International AirportNote that there are no ATM terminals in the international arrival area. In order to take a taxi from the airport to your hotel, you will need to bring cash and exchange it for rupees at one of the many moneychangers near the exit. There are prepaid taxi dispatch desks nearby, but they accept only cash, and only rupees.

The airport is 28 km from downtown. Take a prepaid coupon taxi to minimize hassle. Never pay more than Rs. 350 for a prepaid taxi. Rs. 350 will get you all the way to the southernmost point of Colaba, the main tourist district.

There are many prepaid taxi offices all in a row as you are exiting the airport, if one offers a very high rate, just walk to the next window and so forth until you find one with a good rate. Go to the taxi office and purchase a coupon to take to the driver. The coupon will have the taxi registration number written on it. Make sure that you get into that very taxi. Do not accept a lift from someone claiming to be a taxi driver as they may charge much higher prices designed to target tourists. The charges will depend on the general area you need to get to and will include all tolls to be paid. Most premium hotels will organize their own cars which is a much better alternative.

You can also take a bus/taxi to Vile Parle Station and take a local train from there. Travel 1st class to avoid hassle. Do not try this during the morning rush. It's a good option in the evening, since it's off-peak direction then.

If you are flying from Europe it is gernally alot cheaper to fly from London and there are loads of flights daily.

By boat
Numerous travel organizations now offer cruises to Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, etc. Though the cruise industry is still developing, Mumbai can be reached by such cruises.

Mumbai has one of the best natural harbours in the world, handling 50% of the country's passenger traffic and much of India's cargo. It is also an important base for the Indian Navy. Ferries from Ferry Wharf allow cheap access to islands and beaches in the area.

By train
Railways in India

The first commercial railway service began on 16th April 1853 at 3:35PM on its first run between VT (now the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus) and Thane.
 
Trains arrive in Mumbai from all over India. The two major lines and one minor line serve different parts of the country. The Central line serves Southern India, Eastern India, and parts of North India. The key stations are Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus, known just as VT), Dadar Terminus, and Kurla Terminus. The Western line connects to the Western states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and some parts of North India. The main termini are Mumbai Central and Bandra. The Konkan Railway [10](which is a separately administered and newly built line) travels through the picturesque Konkan coast of Maharastra and is a good way to travel to Goa and coastal Karnataka. The main reservation offices are at Churchgate, Mumbai Central, and Bandra on the Western line and CST and Dadar on Central line. There are special ticket windows and quotas for foreign tourists. For bookings and tariffs on train tickets to anywhere in India from Mumbai, you can visit the Indian railways website.

Mumbai CST (Local Stn. CST).
Mumbai Central (Local Stn. Mumbai Central).
Dadar Terminus (Local Stn. Dadar).
Bandra Terminus (Local Stn. Bandra).
Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Local Stn. Kurla).

By car
National highway numbers 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 17, and the Mumbai-Pune expressway radiate from the city providing links to all parts of the country. The road conditions are generally better than in the rest of India.
By bus
Mumbai is well served by buses from destinations inside India.

The MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation), (Mumbai Central: +91 22 2307 4272/+91 22 2307 6622, Parel:+91 22 2422 9905 Dadar: +91 22 2413 6835) commonly known as ST, operates services to Mumbai from various cities in Maharashtra. Mumbai Central is the most important Terminus in the city. All major cities in Maharashtra and nearby states are connected through Mumbai Central Terminus. The other important ST depots are at Parel, Nehru Nagar-Kurla, and Borivali. You can get buses for all over Maharashtra from these depots. But from Mumbai Central you would get buses any time as well as other State Transport buses.
There also exist numerous private bus operators who operate a large number of services from/to Mumbai from most major cities like Udaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Indore, Nashik, Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Belgaum, Hubli, Bangalore, Mangalore, Trichur and Goa. For Pune, buses depart every 10 minutes. Crawford Market, Dadar T.T, Sion, Chembur and Borivili are the main starting points. Some of the reliable private operators are - National, Sharma, VRL, Konduskar, Dolphin, Paulo and Southern Travels.

Get around
Most of Mumbai's inhabitants rely on public transport to and from their workplace due to the lack of parking spaces, traffic bottlenecks, and generally poor road conditions, especially in the monsoon.

By taxi
Taxis are cheap and plentiful ($50 would be worth a lot of taxi rides). Most taxis in Mumbai are small-medium sized cars, painted black-and-yellow (black on lower body and yellow on roof). You can hail a cab off the streets. However, many are quite rickety and carry mechanical fare meters that are often tampered and where payment is through a complicated system of calculating meter charge by a certain figure (all taxis are supposed to carry a tariff card that simplifies matters). Also, according to law, a black-and-yellow taxi driver cannot refuse a fare. If a driver does refuse, normally a threat to complain to the nearest cop usually does the trick. Taxi tariffs and information to lodge complaints are available at http://www.trafficpolicemumbai.org/

However, if you want a comfortable, air-conditioned ride at a small surcharge of 25 percent over normal taxis it's best to travel by branded cab services that operate at government-approved tariffs. These services operate modern fleets with well trained drivers. You can get them at 30-60 minutes notice, they are clean, air-conditioned, equipped with digital, tamper-proof meters, punctual, honest, and GPS-equipped-monitored, which makes them far secure at any time. If you're using a mobile phone, you receive an SMS with the driver's name, mobile number and car number 30 minutes before scheduled departure. Charges are Rs 15 for the first km and Rs 13 for subsequent kms, with a 25 percent night surcharge (midnight to 5 am). Some can even be booked online.

Zoos, parks and gardens
Mumbai has a justified reputation as a concrete jungle, but there are some nice pockets of greenery within the city. It is also one of the rare metropolises to have an entire national park within its borders. (Borivali national park[15]). You will not visit Mumbai for them, but if you are already here, they make a nice escape from the din and bustle.

The city zoo (Veermata Jijabai Udyan) is located in Byculla and is a colonial relic which is surprisingly well-preserved. The animals may look rather emaciated, but the sheer diversity of trees on this lush zoo is worth a trip.

Some city parks are very well-maintained and combine history as well. The "Hanging Gardens" on Malabar Hill offers stunning vistas of the Marine Drive.

Further in South Mumbai, the Mumbai Port Trust Garden, is another hidden gem. This is set off a small side street off the Colaba Causeway 2-3 kms south of the main section. Once again, lovely views of the port, the naval yards, and sunset.

In central Mumbai, there are the Five Gardens. Mainly used by walkers in the morning, it is a mess in the evenings. But the gardens encircle some historic, art deco residences

Modern buildings and malls
Once the British left, the zeal to wipe away the traces of colonial rule was, unfortunately, not matched by the enthusiasm to build a new city that matched the grandeur of the British-era buildings. Now, while the shabbiness of the socialist era is thankfully being replaced by architecture with an eye on aesthetics, the new malls, multiplexes, and office buildings that are coming up are indistinguishable from those anywhere else in the world. Still, they are worth a look, especially if you want to have a look at India's success story. Inorbit Mall, the best mall in India, is located in Malad.

Religious places
Mumbai has temples, mosques, churches, Parsi Agiaries, and even a few synagogues reflecting the diversity of its citizens. While these are naturally of interest if you are a believer, some, like the Portuguese church at Dadar are worth visiting just for their unique architecture.

Festivals
While many religious festivals are celebrated by people in Mumbai, a few of these are essentially public and social occasions, where the traveller can participate.

Mumbai Festival,held in Jan every year. Sample the vibrant culture of the city. The festival covers theater, sports, fashion, food, and shopping.
Banganga Festival — The musical festival is organized by Maharashtra Tourism (MTDC) [20]annually at Banganga Tank on Malabar Hill in Jan.
Elephanta Festival, Elephanta Island, Mumbai ( MTDC Reservation Division: +91 22 2202 6713, +91 22 2202 7762; Dadar, Near. Pritam Hotel: +91 22 2414 3200; Gateway of India: +91 22 2284 1877; Churchgate: +91 22 2209 3229; Rhythm House +91 222284 2835; Archies Gallery, Churchgate +91 22 2202 7511 Extn. 113, +9193246 35505) [21]. Festival of music and dance takes place around Feb every year. The festival saw performances by renowned artists like Alarmel Valli, Sanjeev Abhyankar, and Ananda Shankar. There will be traditional Koli dances and traditional food. 7PM-10PM (Ferries start at 4PM), Rs. 300 (per day, includes to and from journey by ferry from Gateway of India to Elephanta Island)
Janmashtami, Jul/Aug. Birth Anniversary of Lord Krishna. Earthen pots full of curd are strung high up across the streets. Young men stand on top of one another to form a human pyramid and attempt to break the pots.
Ramadan-Id — Muslim festival marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Marked by feasting at many places. Non-Muslims can also join in.
Ganesh Chaturthi, Aug/Sep. It is Mumbai's most important and colorful festivals. During the 10 day celebration, Lord Ganesh is worshiped in millions of homes. See the colourful processions and participate in them.
Mt. Mary's Feast, Sep. The feast in honor of Our Lady of the Mount is celebrated with great solemnity at St. Mary's Church, Bandra. A week long Bandra fair is held during this time attracting huge crowds.
Navratri, Sep/Oct. This is a 10 day festival, where nine of the nights are spent in worship and entire Mumbai swings to the rhythm of Garba and Raas dances of Gujarati community.
Diwali, Oct/Nov. Festival of Lights. Start of New Year and opening of new accounts. Worshiping of Goddess Laxmi. Participate in the fireworks and view the bright lights.