10 Things to Do in Mumbai That Aren't the Gateway of India
Look, the Gateway of India is fine. It's a big arch. You stand in front of it, someone takes your photo, you move on. But if that's your Mumbai highlight, you've missed the city entirely.
Mumbai is the kind of place that reveals itself in layers — the deeper you go, the more it gives you. Here are the ten things that actually made me fall in love with this chaotic, sweaty, magnificent city.
1. Watch the Dabbawala Ballet at Churchgate Station
Every weekday at 12:00-12:30 PM, something miraculous happens at Churchgate station. Five thousand dabbawalas — Mumbai's legendary lunch delivery workers — sort 200,000 lunch boxes with an accuracy rate that would make Amazon weep. They've been doing this since 1890.
Stand on the overbridge and look down. It's organized chaos — hundreds of men in white caps sorting tin lunch boxes marked with an alphanumeric code, loading them onto bicycles and handcarts, fanning out across the city. The entire operation uses no technology. No app. No GPS. Just a coding system painted on tin lids.
Harvard Business School wrote a case study on them. Their error rate? One in six million deliveries. Free to watch. Just don't get in the way.
2. Have Breakfast at Kyani & Co (Before It Disappears)
This 128-year-old Irani cafe near Marine Lines hasn't changed since 1904. The marble-topped tables are chipped. The waiters are perpetually grumpy. The ceiling fans wobble in ways that suggest structural compromise.
And the bun maska with Irani chai is perfect. INR 60 for the combination. Order the akuri — Parsi scrambled eggs on toast, spiced with green chilies and coriander. INR 120.
Irani cafes are dying in Mumbai. There were 350 in the 1950s. Now there are maybe 25. Kyani is one of the last great ones. Go before it becomes a memory.
3. Walk Mallick Ghat Flower Market at 4 AM
I know. Four in the morning. But hear me out.
Mallick Ghat sits at the foot of Howrah Bridge — wait, wrong city. I mean at the base of the eastern shore near Crawford Market. Actually, Mumbai's flower market at Dadar runs from 4-8 AM. Thousands of marigold garlands, jasmine ropes, rose heaps — the colors under the pre-dawn lights are unreal.
The wholesale traders have been at it since 3 AM. By 5 AM, the market hits peak energy — shouting, bargaining, loading trucks. By 9 AM, it's mostly done. Free to walk through. Just don't block the narrow aisles.
4. Take the Dharavi Walking Tour (And Rethink Everything You Assume)
Dharavi is not what you think. Yes, it's one of Asia's largest informal settlements. But it's also a $1 billion+ economy with 15,000+ micro-factories producing recycled plastic, leather goods, pottery, and garments.
Reality Tours runs ethical walking tours (INR 1,000-1,500, 2.5 hours) where profits fund local NGO programs. You'll walk through the recycling district, the pottery area, and the leather workshops. Photography is restricted out of respect.
The tour demolished every assumption I had. The entrepreneurial energy in Dharavi puts most startup hubs to shame. This isn't poverty tourism — it's education.
5. Ride the Local Train (But Not During Rush Hour)
Mumbai's local trains are the city's circulatory system. 7.5 million riders daily on trains designed for about a quarter of that. During rush hour (8-11 AM, 5-9 PM), humans are compressed to a density that defies physics.
Don't do rush hour. But mid-day (11 AM - 4 PM), buy a first-class ticket at Churchgate (INR 60-100) and ride the Western Line. You'll have a seat, a breeze through the window, and a view of Mumbai's neighborhoods flashing by — from the Art Deco buildings of Marine Drive's backyards to the vast suburban sprawl.
The tourist pass at Churchgate/CST is INR 85 for one day unlimited travel. Best deal in Mumbai.
6. Eat Butter Garlic Crab at Trishna
Forget everything else on this list. If you do only one thing in Mumbai, eat the butter garlic crab at Trishna in Fort.
This is Mumbai's most famous dish, and it deserves that reputation. The crab arrives swimming in a garlic butter sauce that you'll want to drink straight from the bowl. Mop it up with pav (bread rolls). INR 800-1,200 for two. Book ahead — the restaurant is tiny and always full.
If Trishna is booked, Mahesh Lunch Home in Fort does a comparable version. But Trishna is the original.
7. Sunset at Marine Drive — But Walk the Whole Thing
Everyone knows Marine Drive. The 3.6 km Art Deco promenade curving along Back Bay. The "Queen's Necklace" at night. But most tourists drive past it or sit at one end.
Walk the entire thing. Start at Nariman Point around 4:30 PM. Walk north along the seawall. By Girgaon Chowpatty beach, you're 45 minutes in, the sun is setting, and you're surrounded by families, couples, cricket games, balloon sellers, and the orange sky over the Arabian Sea.
Grab bhel puri from a Chowpatty vendor (INR 50). Then walk up to Bachelorr's for sitaphal kulfi (INR 80) — they've been making it since 1930. This is Mumbai's evening ritual. Join it.
8. Haji Ali at Low Tide
A 15th-century mosque sitting on an islet 500 meters into the Arabian Sea, connected to the mainland by a narrow concrete causeway. When the tide is high, the causeway floods and the mosque becomes an island.
Check tide timings before you go. At low tide, the walk across the causeway — sea spray on both sides, the mosque growing larger ahead of you — is one of Mumbai's most atmospheric experiences. Free entry. Dress modestly.
The qawwali singers sometimes perform in the evening. If you catch them, stay.
9. Get Lost in CST's Victorian Gothic Madness
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus isn't just a train station — it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site that happens to process 3 million commuters daily. The Victorian Gothic architecture is bonkers. Stone gargoyles, stained glass, pointed arches — it looks like a cathedral that accidentally became India's busiest railway junction.
The heritage gallery is open 3-5 PM weekdays (INR 20). But honestly, just stand outside and photograph the building against the chaos of rush hour. Turrets and gargoyles above, humanity streaming below. That tension IS Mumbai.
10. Late-Night Kebabs at Bademiya
If Mumbai's intensity gets overwhelming, Goa is a short flight away for beach decompression.
For a tale-of-two-cities experience, pair Mumbai with Delhi — India's political capital.
Behind the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, tucked into a lane that smells like charcoal and spiced meat, sits Bademiya. They open at 7 PM and peak after 11 PM. At midnight, Bollywood actors, taxi drivers, clubbers, and jet-lagged tourists stand shoulder to shoulder eating seekh kebab rolls and chicken tikka.
INR 150-300 for a roll. The seekh kebab wrapped in roomali roti with green chutney is the correct order. Eat standing up. That's part of the experience.
Bademiya isn't trying to impress you. There's no decor, no menu design, no Instagram moment. Just genuinely excellent kebabs served to people who are done pretending for the day. That's Mumbai at its best — raw, honest, and feeding you at 1 AM without judgment.
