Niya Bajaj 

Webitor’s Note: This is a continuation of Niya Bajaj’s article on Mumbai published last month. 

Like any Maximum city, Mumbai is laden to the hilt with things to do, places to see and food to devour. With options ranging from the super cheap to the super chic you are bound to find something that suits your style, budget and adventure level. Traveling around the city is inexpensive, since the baseline price for the three wheeler auto-rickshaws that zip around city is just Rs. 10 (CAD $0.25) Black and yellow taxi’s are also easy to come by, as are the blue and silver “cool” cabs which boast air conditioning for an extra fee.

Mumbai is a city of beach fronts and street food. You can find everything from fresh coconut water which is rich in potassium and vitamin B Complex (be sure to bring your own straw) and sugar cane juice kissed with lime and ginger to the infamous vada pav, a chickpea flour battered potato cake that is deep fried and then sandwiched in a bap style pav and laced with a pungent red chili and garlic chutney. Other favorite street foods include frankies which akin to burritos feature a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian fillings wrapped in an egg washed pancake.  In addition to street food there are a wide range of restaurants and cafe’s spread thought out the city. Juice bars are popular and coffee chains like Barista. High end restaurants and jazz bars also dot the city including Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s Wasabi.

In addition to eating and drinking there are lots of places to see in Mumbai, the most notable being the Gateway of India which marks the point from which the colonial British rulers took their leave of India. Also along Marine Drive (which features well spaced street lights that form the Queen’s Necklace when lit at night) is Haji Ali Mosque, also known as the floating mosque since during high tide the causeway to the mosque falls below sea level. Victoria Terminus station at lunch time with the masses of tiffin walla’s take over the trains with their thousands of individually labeled lunch boxes is a sight to see and a feat of Indian organization and ingenuity. In conjunction with Dhobi Talao, where laundrymen gather every day to pound the city’s dirty laundry clean these are two spectacles of humanity that you should not miss. Also worth checking out is the Taraporewala Aquarium and the Nehru Science Center and Planetarium.

Stay tuned for next months insights into where to stay, where to shop and where to party in Mumbai.

Image credit:

©  Niya Bajaj