Mumbai
Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city in India, and you can definitely feel it. The juxtaposition of extreme wealth and extreme poverty was the most notable in Mumbai, with luxury condos sometimes situated right across the street from slums.
By the time we arrived in Mumbai, we were pretty exhausted. Between the wedding and having to travel from city to city, we were ready to wind down and spend a little more time enjoying the hotel.
While I had had a pretty extensive itinerary planned, we ultimately decided to narrow it down to the two highest priority items, and completely skipped sightseeing on the first day. Given Mumbai has less sightseeing opportunities than Delhi, I wasn’t too disappointed. I had half a day in Mumbai scheduled to visit several markets, but our Mumbai tour guide advised that they would be very similar to Chadni Chowk, so it didn’t feel like a huge loss.
Table of contents
Food
Shamiana at the Taj Mahal
We ate at Shamiana for breakfast – like all the other hotels we had stayed at, they featured a buffet. The options were very similar to the previous hotels we stayed at and the food was good, though not as good as the Fairmont. I think by this point I had had enough Indian-style breakfast buffets and mostly stuck to eggs, a few breads, and tea for breakfast. Definitely solid and a pleasant ambiance to have breakfast in before you start your day.
Souk at the Taj Mahal
Souk sits at the top of the Taj Mahal Tower. In the mornings, it serves the same breakfast buffet as Shamiana, but with city views. Afterwards, it turns into a Mediterranean restaurant serving mezze, grilled meats, and other Mediterranean favorites.
While it’s an elegant restaurant, when we went for dinner one night it was virtually empty, which left it feeling a bit dry. The food was decent. It wasn’t the best Mediterranean food I’ve had, but it was solid.
Would I eat here again? Eh…probably not. The food was ok, but not particularly interesting. I would try one of the different restaurants on site.
The Table
The Table appeared on several lists of the best restaurants in Mumbai. It is very popular, especially with Western tourists, and was also recommended to us by our local tour guide. The menu was Italian/modern american. When you walk in on the first floor, there is a long bar where you can have drinks or a full dinner while watching the bartenders prepare cocktails. It was lively! Groups of friends and couples were having a good time after a long day out and about. Upstairs is the seated dining room, which is full, but much quieter. We started with drinks in the bar, then moved upstairs, but if I ate here again, I would stay at the bar the entire time.
Would I eat here again? Maybe. While it wasn’t the best meal I had on the trip, it was overall a fun vibe and decent food. If I was craving Italian/American, I would stop by here again.
Wish I tried
There were a few restaurants I had on my list, but wasn’t able to squeeze in.
Bombay Canteen
Featuring elaborate cocktails and Indian snacks, I was hoping to stop by for a quick bite on our way to the airport for our red eye to Singapore, but was a bit overly ambitious. Instead, we opted to eat at Souk and rest at the hotel.
Leopold Cafe
Featured in the book Shantaram, and its TV and movie adaptations, the Irani café is a popular destination for tourists. A cool, old-school vibe, it seemed like a fun place to grab a casual meal or coffee.
Sea Lounge at the Taj Mahal Palace
The Sea Lounge is known for its decadent afternoon tea service, which includes table tea service and a dessert buffet. Both English and Indian delicacies are served. The restaurant overlooks the Gateway of India and the Arabian Sea and its decor is old colonial and art deco. I walked through to check out the space, and it was definitely one of the prettiest restaurants on the property. I had secured a reservation prior to the trip, but ultimately decided to skip tea when I decided to limit our itinerary.
Culture
Must do
Elephanta Island
Leading up to our arrival in Mumbai, I was on the fence about visiting Elephanta Island because of the one hour trek required to get there, but it was one of the most remarkable things I saw while we were in India.
Getting there requires a one hour ferry ride, which you catch at the Gateway of India. The timing of the ferry is unpredictable because it generally just leaves when it is full. You buy tickets at the dock in cash. The ferry isn’t a glamorous experience, but it’s comfortable enough and the ride goes by fairly quickly. After disembarking on the island, you can take a small train or walk 20 minutes to reach the stairs leading to the entrance of the temple.
There were many, many monkeys roaming around the island. I saw a monkey chasing a woman because she was eating a banana and another monkey eating a full-on corn on the cob! While they’re so cute, it’s generally recommended that you avoid eye contact or engage with them because they can easily become violent when provoked.
We chose to walk instead of taking the train. Even though the walk was 20 minutes long, and not very shaded, it was completely flat. We reached a wide set of stone stairs with vendors selling souvenirs on each side. There are also a few small restaurants along the stairs, but they were pretty empty. After climbing the stairs for about 15 minutes, we reached the top, where the temple was!
Cool and shaded, the temple was incredibly impressive. The caves were carved out of solid stone walls in the 6th century. Only three known sites around the world have been carved the same way. It was hard to believe that the temple once started as a block of stone – the interior was so symmetrical and the statues of gods inside were so ornate. I can’t even imagine how a team would have embarked on creating something like this. After roaming around and taking pictures of each side, we took a brief walk deeper into the Island where we could see another smaller temple, then headed back down for the journey back.
We arrived at the ferry station right as the ferry was about to leave! It was legitimately already pulling away, but our tour guide insisted we jump on, and about five other people followed. We were so relieved we made it since the wait for the next ferry would have been an hour.
The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel
The Taj Mahal Palace is a 5-star luxury hotel with an extensive history. Built in 1903, it has hosted presidents, industry leaders and celebrities. While we stayed there, the hotel hosted an Indian dignitary. Originally, the hotel’s guests were mainly Europeans, Maharajas and social elites. When it opened, it was the first hotel in India to have electricity and also housed the city’s first licensed bar. The architecture of the original building is beautiful both inside and outside. Its location next to the Gateway of India makes for a particularly aesthetically pleasing location. I talk more about staying at the Taj in the next section.
Fun, but not essential
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (FKA Victoria Terminus Station)
A great example of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture in India, the train station was built in 1878. It’s a great way to see how two cultures met to create buildings that give Mumbai its unique appearance today.
There is a viewpoint that you can pull over at right across the street from the station, which allows you to take pictures of it and appreciate it from afar. It’s a fun stop if you’re nearby.
Dhobi Ghat
I read about the Dhobi Ghat while researching things to see in Mumbai and understood it to be an open air laundromat. We visited fairly late in the day, so most of the washing was already finished. We saw a few people ironing or folding, or using laundry machines (which had been installed in more recent years). Most of the washing is for hotels or hospitals nearby.
While it is described as a tourist attraction online, and was quite fascinating, I felt almost like I was intruding on a private neighborhood. Workers of the Dhobi Ghat often live there, and it is described as a laundry slum.
Through my research, I had been under the impression that there was only one Dhobi Ghat and that by letting my tour guide know I wanted to see it, I would be taken to that specific one, but I realized that there are several throughout the city and the one we visited wasn’t the main one. The largest one is called the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, and it is the largest unmechanized laundry facility in the world.
While it was definitely a very unique cultural aspect to see, I recommend doing a bit of reading on it before deciding whether it’s something you’d like to check out. If I did it again, I would probably try to go a lot earlier (I think it was 3 pm by the time I arrived), so I could see more laundry activity.
Accommodations
The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel
The Taj Mahal Palace is a 5-star luxury hotel with an extensive history. We stayed on the Tower side of the hotel for a more modern room. Both parts of the hotel share all their amenities, including the pool area and the spa.
Amenities
Walking into the pool area of the Taj Mahal Hotel felt like walking into an oasis. Providing shelter from the hustle and bustle outside, sitting at one of the poolside tables or under a poolside cabana brought me an immediate sense of peace. In the mild warmth of the Indian winter, I spent hours poolside, having drinks and snacks, and unwinding from what had been a very eventful trip. The pool and hot tub were fun to splash around in. In the evenings, live musicians perform and a chef sets up an outdoor grill to make fresh-to-order tikka (grilled meats).
This was definitely my favorite place in the hotel and always a fun place to hang around at when I wanted a bite to eat or to hang out in the warmth.
Another fun spot that we peeked into briefly was the cigar lounge on the Palace side of the hotel. Sophisticated and intimate, the cigar lounge has several tables to sit at and chess boards to entertain yourself with.
Rooms
We stayed in a Superior Room with Sea View and King Bed. It was very modern, reasonably sized, and had a really nice bathroom, as well as a balcony looking out onto the Gateway of India and the Arabian Sea. It was fun to watch the Gateway area empty in the mornings, then fill up as the day went on.
Service
The service at the Taj was very good, especially from the concierge staff who helped me plan my entire sightseeing itinerary. They admittedly weren’t as good as the Oberoi, but everyone was very friendly and accommodating. At turndown, housekeeping left us with a very cute box of chocolate fruit. One disappointment was that while the room looked really clean, a few details were missed, for example some trash left under the bed by a prior guest.
Dining
They restaurants were ok. The ambiance and service were good, and they were very clean, but the food was average at best. I will caveat this with the fact that we skipped afternoon tea at the Sea Lounge, and it’s possible that that would have been a culinary highlight.
Would I stay there again?
Yes, I definitely would, but…if I visited Mumbai again, I might be tempted to stay at the Oberoi, just to compare.
AMANDA'S CHANTICS 