Tradition and trendiness meet in this bustling Indian city.
Mumbai contains both the world's first billion-dollar home (located in the tony neighborhood of Malabar Hill) and one of Asia's largest slums. And this paradoxical city by the sea, already 18 million strong, keeps growing: A major airport restoration is in progress; the Bandra-Worli sea-link bridge is set to open in early 2009 to relieve the city's tremendous traffic problems. "The best reason to visit Mumbai," says Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, "is to see how a city can survive, and thrive, against every rational expectation."
48 Hours in Mumbai
Text By Monica Bhide
Six ways to get to the heart of the city formerly known as Bombay.
1. Take a Harbor Cruise For an alternative perspective of the iconic Gateway of India and peninsular Mumbai, board a tour boat to whisk you around the Arabian Sea. The imposing stone archway was built in 1924 to commemorate the 1911 visit of King George V and Queen Mary (the only visit to the Raj by a reigning monarch).
2. Delve into History The city's largest museum—officially the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, but still widely known as the Prince of Wales Museum—displays over 30,000 artifacts, including seventh-century-B.C. coins, portraits of Mughal emperors, and illustrations from the Panchantantra (similar to Aesop's Fables). The building's Mughal-Gothic architecture attests to the city's myriad influences. Mumbai's oldest museum, the recently restored Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (formerly the Victoria & Albert), chronicles Mumbai history with souvenirs from the British Raj like a statue of Prince Albert and 19th-century maps showing locations of Mumbai's old cotton mills.
3. Visit a Sacred Place "Mumbai is the one place in India where you can experience a wide range of Indian cultures in a fairly concentrated form," says Vikram Doctor, an editor at the Economic Times. Mumbaikars are most known for their devotion to Lord Ganesh (the Elephant God). Special prayers are offered at the 207-year-old Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple, dedicated to Ganesh. Whisper your dreams into the ear of the silver mouse, Ganesh's wish-carrier. Yet Mumbaikars are a people of many diverse religions: Islamic, Catholic, Jewish, Zoroastrian. Muslims worship at the venerated mosque and tomb, the white-domed Haji-Ali Dargah. Built on a rock off the mainland, it is accessible only during low tide. Next to the mosque is the local favorite Haji Ali Juice Center, for watermelon and mango juices.
4. Shop for Treasures "Mumbai is the Manhattan of Indian art, with Kala Ghoda being Chelsea, the epicenter of the con- temporary art scene," says Fiona Caulfield, author of the useful travel guide Love Mumbai. Tallis & Co. offers expert-led gallery tours and private sessions with selected artists for serious collectors. Head to Chor Bazaar for everything from chandeliers to vintage phones. Bargain hard and know your artworks: They sell a lot of fakes. At Fab India, local trendsetters browse through a rainbow of Indian handwoven textiles in raw silks and printed cottons. Indian designer labels by the likes of Manish Arora and Gaurav Gupta entice at SoHo-esque boutiques Mélange and Bombay Electric, and the collection of shops at the Courtyard (41/44 Minoo Desai Rd.).
5. Tuck into Seafood Be at the fish market at Sassoon Dock in South Colaba by dawn to witness Mumbai at its most chaotically exotic. "It's a true mecca for fish lovers," says chef Sanjeev Kapoor, whose cooking show is the longest running on Indian television. "Dressed in bright saris and bedecked with gold, Koli fisherwomen sell shrimp, lobster, mackerel, and fleshy pomfret." Later, enjoy the day's catch at Trishna (Birla Mansion, Sai Baba Marg), famous for rich butter pepper garlic crab, or at Mahesh Lunch Home (8B Cowasji Patel St.), known for coconut-laden prawn gassi (a Mangalorean style of curry).
6. Spot a Bollywood Star Mumbai produces well over 900 movies a year. Full of color and drama, most are two-hour musicals. "Bollywood films are like MTV for the stoned," says Suketu Mehta. Catch a glimpse of the glitterati at night at Mediterranean-influenced Olive Bar and Kitchen or the Enigma bar at the J.W. Marriott. Or head to Metro Adlabs to take in a Bollywood film.
Published in the October 2008 issue of National Geographic Traveler.
Text by Katie Knorovsky
Before you go, prime yourself on all things Mumbai with Traveler's picks for the best blogs, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, maps, and more essential resources.
Blogs
Get briefed by a team of Mumbaikar bloggers on local topics ranging from a nostalgic look back at life in 1960s Bombay to tactics for surviving—and enjoying—monsoon season.
Cull cultural tips and highlights from this family's three-generational approach to Mumbai. The insightful photography and anecdotal writings stem from the three women's local expertise.
A local chronicles his "experiences chasing gastronomic bliss, in Bombay and elsewhere." Plot your foodie tour based on his illustrated and detailed picks (and misses).
Tap into Mumbai's dining scene with this searchable index of candid reviews, based on a five-star system, as well as a calendar and section featuring the city's most talked-about restaurant, bar, and café openings.
Dedicated to Mumbai as "India's crowning citadel," this occasionally updated, introspective blog aims to "capture the city in the margins, the city in its many myriads."
Not so much a blog but a clearinghouse of Mumbai information. Browse detailed listings of attractions, hotels, recreational activities, weather, sports, and city maps.
Connect with all things Bollywood: gossip, film and music reviews, news, sneak previews, and more.
Experience culture-revealing details of Mumbai through daily uploaded photos, courtesy of one photographer's viewfinder.
Full-time working mom Lulu loves Mumbai, and she loves food. Her two passions meet full-force in the blogosphere as she shares recipes and restaurant recommendations.
Sending dispatches from across Mumbai, Trendylicious's fashionista bloggers dish on the city's hottest and most stylish boutiques, products, happenings, and more. Sign up for their free, twice-weekly e-newsletter or scan the website for the most recent trend articles.
Food and travel writer Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal combines her fondness for food and Indian gastronomy with regular round-ups of "all things foodie" in Mumbai. Her posts can be wordy; skim through for informative bites and links.
Podcasts
Bombay To Mumbai: A Megacity In The Developing World: Part One, Part Two
Listen to author and native Mumbaikar Suketu Mehta read from his book, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. He offers an in-depth perspective of the evolution of Mumbai's modernity in a globalizing world, presented in a two-part series hosted on Planetizen.
Mapping Mumbai, by the Tate Modern
The Tate Modern offers this four-part series from a 2006 symposium that aimed to map Mumbai in an artistic context, "examining the role that the arts and culture have played in the regeneration of the city."
Biweekly, themed English-language episodes present translations and tips for navigating Hindu society in the No. 1 Indian podcast on iTunes. The tag line says it all: "Learn Hindu from Bollywood Movies." But don't expect rigorous language lessons from this entertaining and quirky podcast. Each English-language episode intermingles humorous musings with hindi vocabulary lessons and sound clips from Bollywood films.
Newspapers
This daily English-language newspaper features a Mumbai-specific section as well as major national and international news. Plus, full cricket coverage and travel wisdom with a local voice.
Founded in 1924, this leading centrist Indian newspaper includes a comprehensive Mumbai edition (you can register to access this "epaper" online) with news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, and business. Check out its sister publication, Mint, for Wall Street Journal business content.
Magazines
Under the broad umbrella of Time Out travel guides, this bi-monthly magazine is attuned to Mumbai's pulse, with a searchable index and feature articles of the city's best entertainment, including food, drink, music, dance, nightlife, film, art, theater, and more.
Launched in 1995, India's premier, modern women's glossy magazine champions the country's well-heeled movers and shakers in fashion, business, style, Bollywood, and travel.
Maps
Zoom in on each area of the city to see popular tourist attractions indicated.
Orient yourself with the official Mumbai city map, which includes major roads, railways, and the airport.
This detailed map is broken into North, Central and Navi Mumbai Maps (which includes the outlying areas), with short descriptions of each district.
Sacred Destinations: Mumbai Maps
Discover some of Mumbai's major religious sites, which you can zoom in on for more information in this interactive aerial map of the city.
Plot your itinerary with the local train map.
Books
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry (1995)
This Oprah Book Club pick is set in a nameless Indian city by the sea (read: Bombay) during the tumultuous mid-1970s, at a time when the Indian government had sharply curtailed civil liberties. The novel tells the poignant and dramatic story of four strangers who are thrown together by fate during an unusually precarious period.
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
One third of Gilbert's much-buzzed-about, yearlong journey to find herself—after an ugly divorce—is set in India (the "pray" section of the title).
Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found, by Suketu Mehta (2004)
This book takes the reader deep beneath the dizzying surface of India's fast-paced metropolis, Mumbai. It candidly shares the stories of a riveting jumble of Mumbai's inhabitants, from desperate slum-dwellers and gangsters to whimsical Bollywood stars and poets.
My Family and Other Saints, by Kirin Narayan (2007)
Narayan shares her unconventional adolescence in Mumbai as daughter of a hippie American mother and Indian father, and sister to, among other siblings, an enlightenment-craving brother.
Sacred Games, by Vikram Chandra (2007)
Set in modern-day Mumbai, this literary novel reads like a detective thriller, venturing into the city's deep, dark criminal underworld and beyond. Spies, police, high society figures, beggars, and terrorists all make an appearance in this well-crafted bestseller.
Season of the Monsoon, by Paul Mann (1993)
Bombay's urban landscape sets the scene for this chilling murder thriller. "Anything—absolutely anything—can happen in India,'" says the novel's hero-cop George Sansi, which just about says it all.
Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts (2003)
Based on the author's life, this gripping book is predominantly set in Mumbai, offering a particularly unique look at the city's complex underbelly. Roberts, a convicted bank robber, escaped from an Australian prison and fled to India where he lived for many years as a fugitive.
Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India, by Narendra Jadhav (2005)
Memoirist Jadhav, head of economic analysis and policy for the Reserve Bank of India, details his family's intense experiences defying Mumbai's caste system as a member of India's lowest caste, the 165-million-strong Dalits (known commonly as the Untouchables).
Movies
Boot Polish (1954)
This award-winning Hindi film portrays a young boy and girl as street beggars-turned-shoe shiners in a Mumbai squatter community.
Joggers' Park (2003)
Mumbai's leafy "Joggers' Park" is the backdrop for this offbeat and lighthearted love story between a retired (married) judge and young, single model.
Life in a…Metro (2007)
Modern Mumbai is center stage for this Hindi-language film that interweaves the stories of a diverse group of Mumbaikars and deals with infidelity and other issues of the heart.Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Filmed on the streets of Bombay with a cast of mostly street kids, director Mira Nair's Oscar-nominated drama has the feel of a documentary. The story follows bright but illiterate village-boy Krishna (who takes on the name Chaipau) who becomes one of Bombay's street urchins and learns that they make up a kind of community despite their harsh living conditions.
Traffic Signal (2007)
Inspired by the Mumbaikars who earn their bread from drivers paused at the city's traffic lights, this Bollywood movie provides a window into the daily life of Mumbai's marginalized population, from a girl selling ethnic clothes on the sidewalk to a prostitute and drug addict.