Mumbai – Millionaire City 20-21 Mar

Yo, would like to know identity of some n calling for confirmation! is soccer khaki from farrer area? is BOB Bob from LSP or 'best of buddies'? :)

It was time to move on to Mumbai and we were very sad to leave the beaches, the idyllic life.  However, we were also looking forward to meeting someone familiar after 2 weeks in India! Robyn, a friend who is studying in Mumbai, offered to host us at her apartment that she is sharing with 2 other school mates. We took up the offer as it means free lodging in a really expensive city!
 

When we arrived at the Mumbai suburb terminal, we were finally introduced to the persistent touts that we heard from our friends. The touts kept following us incessantly even though we ignored them and continued walking. One after another they alternated to follow us and tried to bring us to somewhere else. As we have been warned by some of you, we ignored them and found out the directions from the station officials to get to a local train and transfer to Robyn’s place.

So finally, we arrived at Govandi station and Robyn came to fetch us. We were thrilled to see her!

After settling down and taking a shower, we were supposed to join a slum tour in town. However, we ended up shopping after Robyn recommended a retail chain ‘FabIndia’ that we die die have to go. We went and totally agreed!  PY felt she didn’t buy enough and wanted to look for other branches in town!
Oh and along the way, we became more adventurous and tried some street food..delicious!

If you have not been to India, Mumbai would not have been a good introduction to the beauty of India. We have finally experienced what it feels like to be in the second most populous country in the world! Mumbai is one of those developing urban city with chaotic traffic, fast paced life and colonial influenced buildings. The slums that we have seen in Slumdog millionaire seem to be a characteristic of Mumbai as we have not seen it in other cities that we have been so far.

Robyn, thank you so much for taking us in amidst your exams period. We were also appreciative that you took time out from your busy schedule to have dinner and ice-cream with us with a side trip to the local night market. We had a great time catching up and felt so at home eating instant noodles and scrambled eggs. hehe.  

When it was time for us to leave the next day (decided to only stay 1 night in big urban cities), we felt really sad, it was like leaving home. We had wanted to hug and kiss Robyn but she is rather shy. heehee

Here’s some pics of our short Mumbai stay and we are continuing to week 3 of our trip to Rajasthan!

Train pulling into slumdog millionaire city..

 

The famous Mumbai CST railway station that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Streets of Mumbai. Heavy & chaotic traffic! Pedestrians crossed the streets regardless of red/green light. 

Finally tried the roadside snack (bhel puri) that we saw numerous times on the streets. We had it in a small restaurant though. Hehe.

Heaps of books for sale at a traffic junction (cheap books!)

More roadside snacks that we tried.  Try spotting me eating among the crowd! Delicious fried potato. 

Gateway of India – India’s own Arch of Triumph build by the British. 

Infamous Taj Mahal Palace that was struck by Terrorist previously. Rebuilding works almost done and very tight security to get into the hotel. 

Plenty of sugar cane stalls all round India. Not sure if ours came from them.. The locals love fruit juices too! There are juice stalls everywhere we went. Healthy!

Taste of India local sardine packed train. A local was very concern that we couldn’t get off and told us to wriggle our way through one stop earlier to the door. It’s quite an interesting sight as locals would start jumping off the train even before it comes to a complete stop. Those who want to board the train would push those getting off back onto the train. Luckily we managed to push our way out. It’s good that Jeff put on weight and beat those slim locals. Haha..

Delicious dinner with Robyn at a posh Indian Restaurant.

Jeff felt underdressed as he was in singlet while those staffs were in suits and bow tie! haha 

Excited about ice-cream? Nah..we have set timer for this shot & someone was about to walk past the camera when the shot was about to be taken. That explains our stretch smiles..

Local night market – Robyn shopping at her so call Xiao Ti Fang (small place)

Busy night market as locals only have time to shop after work!

The local style of flower bouquets. According to Robyn it’s old school. Haha..Joyce, ur hubby wanna consider this style for a change? definitely no bear bear!

Our stay at Robyn’s living room. Even bigger than her room and of all our accommodation so far..feels like home staying with someone we know. =) Thanks gal, Victoria and Ranjana for putting us up!

Our very first home cooked breakfast! Scrambled eggs with toast!