Seven Days in Mumbai: A Journal of Train Crushes, Butter Garlic Crab, and Walking 20,000 Steps Daily
Day 1: Arrival and Sensory Overload
Landed at BOM at 11 PM. The pre-paid taxi counter saved me from the tout gauntlet outside — INR 700 to Colaba, no negotiation needed.
The drive from the airport is a full introduction to Mumbai. Ninety minutes of stop-and-go through a city that feels like it's still wide awake at midnight. Slums and skyscrapers. Street food carts still serving. Construction everywhere.
Checked into a mid-range hotel near the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Dropped my bags and walked to Bademiya for late-night kebabs because I'd read about it and couldn't wait. Seekh kebab roll, INR 180. Eaten standing up in a lane behind a five-star hotel. The meat was smoky and the chutney burned perfectly. Mumbai was already making sense.
Day 2: South Mumbai Heritage
Started at CST — the Victorian Gothic train station that's also a UNESCO site. Three million commuters pass through daily, and the building looks like it belongs in London if London were designed by someone on a sugar rush. Gargoyles, stained glass, pointed arches. I stood outside photographing it for 20 minutes while commuters streamed around me like water around a rock.
Walked to Crawford Market. Rudyard Kipling's father designed the reliefs above the entrance — a fact that seems too perfect to be true but is. Inside: wholesale chaos. Mangoes, dried fruits, imported cheese. A man selling live chickens next to a man selling Swiss chocolate.
Pav bhaji at Cannon for lunch. INR 150. The butter-drenched pav was golden and crispy. The bhaji was thick and spicy. I understand now why Mumbai treats this as a food group.
Afternoon walk along Marine Drive from Nariman Point to Chowpatty. 3.6 km along the seafront. The Art Deco buildings on the left were stunning — Mumbai's Art Deco ensemble is the world's second largest after Miami's. Bhel puri at Chowpatty (INR 50) while watching the sunset turn the Arabian Sea orange.
Sitaphal kulfi at Bachelorr's. INR 80. Since 1930. Custard apple ice cream that reminded me kulfi and gelato should be discussed in the same breath.
Dinner at Trishna in Fort. The butter garlic crab. I need a moment. This dish — muddy, garlicky, impossibly rich — might be the best single plate of food I've eaten in India. INR 1,100 for two with rice and drinks. Worth every paisa.
Day 3: Elephanta Caves
Ferry from Gateway of India jetty. INR 250 return. Buy from the Government counter, not touts.
The boat ride takes an hour. Elephanta Island rises from the harbor with 120 steps to the caves (toy train available, INR 10, for the non-ambitious). The 5th-7th century rock-cut cave temples are remarkable — the three-headed Shiva sculpture (Trimurti) is 6 meters tall and carved from living rock. Entry INR 600 for foreigners. Closed Mondays.
Back in the afternoon. Lunch at Cafe Mondegar in Colaba — retro jukebox, Mario Miranda murals on the walls, beer and burgers (INR 500). Then to CSMVS Museum — excellent Indus Valley artifacts and Mughal miniatures. INR 500 entry for foreigners.
My feet are already protesting. Day three and my phone says 22,000 steps.
Day 4: Dharavi, Dabbawalas, and Haji Ali
Dharavi walking tour with Reality Tours. INR 1,200. Two and a half hours that rewired my thinking. The recycling district alone processes 80% of Mumbai's plastic waste. Leather workshops, pottery kilns, embroidery units — all in narrow lanes where community runs on trust and handshake deals.
Photography restricted. Which is right. These are people's homes and livelihoods, not a photo opportunity.
12:15 PM: Churchgate station overbridge. Watched the dabbawalas sort 200,000 lunch boxes in 30 minutes. The coding system — painted symbols on tin lids — works with zero technology. I've seen billion-dollar logistics platforms that don't work this well.
Lunch at Kyani & Co. Bun maska and Irani chai. INR 60. The cafe is 128 years old and feels every year of it. Marble tables, surly waiters, ceiling fans that predate independence. Perfect.
Haji Ali Dargah at low tide. The walk across the narrow causeway with the sea on both sides — 500 meters into the Arabian Sea — is meditative. The mosque itself is peaceful inside. Free entry. I lingered longer than planned.
Dinner at Bademiya again. I'm not sorry.
Day 5: Bandra
Slept until 10 AM. My body needed it.
First-class train ticket from Churchgate to Bandra on the Western Line. INR 80. Mid-day, the first-class compartment was almost empty. The window frames neighborhoods like a film reel — old buildings giving way to suburban sprawl.
Bandra Bandstand promenade. Walked past Shah Rukh Khan's Mannat bungalow. A cluster of fans stood outside the gate taking photos. I felt like an anthropologist studying a religion.
Lunch at Pali Village Cafe in a converted bungalow. Great filter coffee, brunch vibes. INR 600 for two.
Mount Mary Church and Bandra Fort ruins — Portuguese-era remnants with sea views. Free.
Dinner at Lucky Biryani. No-frills, cash-only, legendary chicken biryani for INR 250. The rice was perfectly layered and the meat fell off the bone. Sometimes the best food comes from places with no decor and one item on the menu.
Day 6: Bollywood and Juhu
Bollywood Film City tour in Goregaon. INR 2,000. Four hours behind the scenes at India's film factory. Saw an actual shoot in progress — an elaborate dance sequence with 40 backup dancers on a fake palace set. The production value was impressive. The lunch break chai was terrible.
Juhu Beach at sunset. Pav bhaji and chaat from the beach stalls. INR 150 total. The beach itself is wide and busy — families, horse rides, cricket, balloon sellers. Amitabh Bachchan's bungalow visible in the distance.
Dinner at The Table in Colaba. Farm-to-table, global influences, beautiful space. INR 2,800 for two. After six days of street food, my stomach appreciated the gentleness.
Drinks at Aer, Four Seasons. 34th floor. Mumbai's skyline spread below. Cocktails INR 900 each. Expensive, but the view of the Queen's Necklace from above made it worth one round.
Day 7: Last Morning
Breakfast at Britannia & Co in Fort. Parsi institution since 1923. The berry pulao — rice with dried barberries — costs INR 450 and is unlike anything I've eaten. Sweet, savory, aromatic. I asked for the owner, 97-year-old Boman Kohinoor, but he wasn't in that morning.
Final shopping on Colaba Causeway. Picked up scarves and jewelry. Bargained hard — started at 40% of asking price, settled at 55%. Both parties seemed satisfied.
Pre-paid taxi to BOM. INR 750. Left four hours before my flight because Mumbai traffic is genuinely unpredictable.
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.
I'm already planning the return trip. Mumbai broke my feet and my budget, but it's the most electrically alive city I've visited anywhere. The combination of colonial history, Bollywood energy, unimpeachable street food, and the sheer humanity of a city where 21 million people somehow function — it's addictive.
Next time: monsoon season. Everyone says I'm crazy. But I want to see this city in the rain.
