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Mumbai, Take 3

I haven't yet blogged about Mumbai 1 or 2 yet as it's now Sept 10th and I last updated the blog in May for trips taken in March. I went through a training for the last 2 days and one suggestion for my profile is to make small goals and congratulate myself when I accomplish them, so expect more regular blog updates.


Mumbai is an amazing city from my point of view. It has the ocean, sidewalks, rooftop bars, a fabulous brunch place called Olive. I'm hooked on the fact that I can walk for hours, which is how I've spent most of the time I've spent there. This trip was much the same as the first two- visiting my favorite places.

Arrived on Friday night on a flight from HYD. It was remarkably shorter than coming from DEL. The traffic wasn't so good, so it took about 1 hour to get to Colaba, which is in the south. We stayed at Fariyas hotel. It was basic. Getting the bed types we wanted - 2 large - was a fiasco and we ended up with 2 twins and a rollaway.

That night we headed out for some dinner and drinks at Busaba, a lounge that has creative cocktails. Food was decent. Upstairs is a restaurant, which doesn't have the atmosphere of the lounge, but the music downstairs is so loud you would have to yell to have a conversation. Instead of straining our vocal chords, we headed to Dome, which is on top of the Intercontinental. It is normally open air, but during Monsoon, covered with plastic. Regardless the view over Marine drive is spectacular.

We slept in, which was really nice and then headed to Basilco for lunch. Yummy! I love the food there. This time I had the Eggs Benedict sandwich, without the hollandaise sauce.

We took off walking after this and saw some of the sights, including India Gate (below).



Then we set out searching for Fashion Street, a very elusive place where there were to be good deals on clothes. After walking for about 2-3 hours, we gave up the search and headed to the Oberoi shopping arcade off the recommendation of a local. A few pairs of shoes later, we headed to the Bayview for cocktails and cheese. Yum!



An interesting street corner



Dinner was at a Japanese restaurant. It was empty at 9:15pm and we were told that we couldn't eat, despite the restaurant being empty, as we didn't have a reservation. They conceded to letting us have a table if we ate quickly - by 10:30pm. Sure thing. Food was tasty and reasonably priced (compared to the Oberoi, that is). When we were ordering the 2nd round of drinks, our waiter suggested that buying a bottle would be more cost effective. Shocked that the 4 of us could drink a bottle of vodka, we paused.... then went Vegas style. A first for me.


Full of sushi, teriyaki chicken and noodles, we headed to Polly Esters, for some dancing 80s style. 'We will, we will ROCK YOU! ROCK YOU!' and Faith were popular, but the crowd really started going when the Bhangra started and of course 'Hips Don't Lie' and 'Gasonlina' were played about 2-3 times each. We were befriended by a couple of Israelis, one in the diamond industry and they other opening a falafel chain in Mumbai. Yum!

Sunday, sleep in. Then brunch at Olive. What a place. Mediterranean goodness. We spent about 4 hours there and then headed off to shop for an hour or so before our flight. To pass the time, I got a makeover from an aspiring film makeup artist at Stop or Shop.

Another goodbye to my fav city. Wonder if I will make it back.

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