A Day in Mumbai

We landed in Mumbai at about 4:30pm, as scheduled. We were relieved and thought that we might even get a chance to go to Leopold’s, a well-known restaurant in Colaba, before visiting relatives. We were glad to be back home and both of us were extremely excited about our time in India and our vacation to South-East Asia. So far things were running smoothly, but not for too long. We breezed through immigration and went to collect our baggage. Unfortunately, we ended up being delayed at baggage claim, an hour longer than we expected. After that, going through customs was relatively smooth. We took a cab from the airport and we were off, or so we thought. About a kilometer away from the airport, we experienced our first traffic jam back home. It took us almost an hour to get to the highway and then it seemed like we saw all of old Mumbai after which we finally we arrived at our hotel, Residency Fort. We chose this hotel because it was centrally located. We were pretty exhausted by the time we reached the hotel. We had forgotten what being caught in peak hour traffic in a big Indian city was like. But we also realized how much we missed the sheer vibrancy of life seen on the streets. Even though we was stuck in a traffic jam, not for a minute were we bored. We was glad to be back.

After dinner with relatives, we walked down Marine Drive, most Mumbaikars would say that if in South Mumbai one must experience this. On our cab ride from the airport to the hotel earlier in the evening, we had traveled on the Sea Link and Marine Drive and from there had, a magnificent view of the Bombay skyline. But we wanted to experience the sights and sounds at our own pace. We walked down the boulevard overlooking the Arabian Sea. We could hear the waves gently crash against the rocks. We saw people from all walks of life enjoying midnight strolls. We walked back to our hotel a few meters from the sea front feeling completely satisfied and looking forward to what lay in store for us over the next two weeks.