As we now have a car and driver, the key to comfort and freedom in Bombay, we decided to have a day exploring some of the shopping and exercise options available to us in the city.
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed south over the Bandra-Worli sealink for our first stop at the Haji Ali Dargah for some tourist focus before heading to the shops. This is a old shrine (constructed in 1431) built for a Muslim Saint, Haji Ali, together with a mosque which sits on a small island off the coast of Mumbai. This can only be accessed by walking along a causeway to the building at low tide. From the mainland, the sight of this building is quite special; a floating palace of white domes and minarets in the middle of the Arabian Sea.
We parked and walked along the causeway; lined with animals, beggars and stalls selling trinkets. At the mosque itself (much smaller and not in the best condition once you close to the building) we were allowed to go inside; once we had left our shoes outside and I had a shawl to cover my head. Men and women must enter separately, so we parted to have a look inside the building. Here we saw the tomb of the saint although activity other seemed quite limited, apparently Thursdays and Fridays are peak days to visit, with 40,000 visitors each day on average.
One aspect of our trip which did surprise us slightly is the lack of other tourists, or of any Europeans at all. Maybe it's just because we are in the middle of the monsoon and hence out of season, but sights that this really are worth coming to.
Tourist time over, and it was time to hit the shops. We decided to visit the Phoenix Mills complex; a huge network of interlinked malls close to Haji Ali, would be a good place to sort to understand what is on offer. I had visited this complex whilst in India in January and was surprised and impressed at the time at just how much could be found in this area. Admittedly, many of the shops here are geared at the wealthy of Bombay (many, many expensive designer shops) but there are lots more mid-range places too, and having so much in one place makes life at lot easier. The shops in this complex are generally for western brands, although there are lots of higher-end Indian places too.
We had three objectives; 1) to get some bedding for our new apartment, as we'll have a three weeks gap with nothing to sleep on in our apartment before our shipment arrives; 2) for me to buy another running top, as I only bought one which is beginning to suffer after me going to the gym most mornings; and 3) to generally scout it out.
Just getting in and parking was an experience. Given that you have to climb several stories into the building to get to the car park, Phil asked Sagar if it would be easier to wait outside, although he wasn't keen as he'd have to pay 200 rupees every time that the police tried to move him on! We decided that 65 rupees for two hours in the official car park was a much better option.
Once inside, we went exploring and found a big supermarket, a rarity in Bombay, and enjoyed finding many mysterious and new fruit and vegetable varieties. Rice is also sold rather differently to in the UK, in huge vats and in many different varieties. We're looking forward to getting into our apartment with our own cookery equipment so we can try some experimental cooking soon.
The linen search was rather more vexing. We found a couple of department store style shops with lots of "bed sheets" but it was very ambiguous as to whether these were sheets or covers and no one (of the 20 assistants in the linen area) seemed to be able to give me a straight answer. Everyone in the shops is very willing to "help" but this inevitably leads to assistants cornering you constantly and bed sheets being thrown at you from every angle. As soon as you get away from one person, another arrives! Having a quiet browse round the shops is much more difficult here and makes the whole process quite exhausting. Anyway, after a thorough review of every bed sheet on offer, we still haven't quite worked out what's going on so are reverting online to a couple of recommended Indian websites for the essentials, and will buy some nice local Indian linen later. Whilst eventually we prefer to shop at small shops locally, we know that we can get the essentials for now.
The sports t-shirt was purchased successfully, although with the rather distressing fact that, in India, a medium size is too small for me and I needed a large:-( I'm putting this down to Indian / Western body size difference rather than excess consumption of hotel food.
Shopping over, we escaped and went for dinner. We started with a beer whilst watching the Ashes before heading for a Punjabi feast at a nearby restaurant "The Great Punjab". Punjabi food is heavy and fairly oily; we enjoyed a selection of vegetarian food and, again, had no chance of finishing what we ordered. I'm not keen on waste, but Indian dishes appear to be served "family style" in the restaurants we have visited.
The journey home was more eventful that anticipated. Our driver had finished for the day just before dinner (as we could easily get an autoricksaw back to the hotel together later on, so we sent him home), but it proved to be very difficult to find one that both wasn't going to rip us off and showed any knowledge of the location of our hotel. After getting in and out of several autos, we found one that seemed honest so began our journey home. The downside was that his driving was truly crazy, to the level that you can be when there are so many cars around that moving anyway quickly is difficult. Any white-knuckle ride at a theme park had nothing on this - the line between exhilaration to terrifying was crossed for me! Phil enjoyed it though and we were both enthralled by the driver shouting liberally at any other vehicle that got in his way. We got home quickly, but I needed a lie down to recover before falling asleep in front of the cricket.
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed south over the Bandra-Worli sealink for our first stop at the Haji Ali Dargah for some tourist focus before heading to the shops. This is a old shrine (constructed in 1431) built for a Muslim Saint, Haji Ali, together with a mosque which sits on a small island off the coast of Mumbai. This can only be accessed by walking along a causeway to the building at low tide. From the mainland, the sight of this building is quite special; a floating palace of white domes and minarets in the middle of the Arabian Sea.
We parked and walked along the causeway; lined with animals, beggars and stalls selling trinkets. At the mosque itself (much smaller and not in the best condition once you close to the building) we were allowed to go inside; once we had left our shoes outside and I had a shawl to cover my head. Men and women must enter separately, so we parted to have a look inside the building. Here we saw the tomb of the saint although activity other seemed quite limited, apparently Thursdays and Fridays are peak days to visit, with 40,000 visitors each day on average.
Haji Ali Dargah
The shrine. Women are allowed on one side, men on the other
Phil on the causeway. The grumpy face is because I wasn't taking very good pictures, not aided by the expression!
Post-prayer refreshments
One aspect of our trip which did surprise us slightly is the lack of other tourists, or of any Europeans at all. Maybe it's just because we are in the middle of the monsoon and hence out of season, but sights that this really are worth coming to.
Tourist time over, and it was time to hit the shops. We decided to visit the Phoenix Mills complex; a huge network of interlinked malls close to Haji Ali, would be a good place to sort to understand what is on offer. I had visited this complex whilst in India in January and was surprised and impressed at the time at just how much could be found in this area. Admittedly, many of the shops here are geared at the wealthy of Bombay (many, many expensive designer shops) but there are lots more mid-range places too, and having so much in one place makes life at lot easier. The shops in this complex are generally for western brands, although there are lots of higher-end Indian places too.
We had three objectives; 1) to get some bedding for our new apartment, as we'll have a three weeks gap with nothing to sleep on in our apartment before our shipment arrives; 2) for me to buy another running top, as I only bought one which is beginning to suffer after me going to the gym most mornings; and 3) to generally scout it out.
Just getting in and parking was an experience. Given that you have to climb several stories into the building to get to the car park, Phil asked Sagar if it would be easier to wait outside, although he wasn't keen as he'd have to pay 200 rupees every time that the police tried to move him on! We decided that 65 rupees for two hours in the official car park was a much better option.
Once inside, we went exploring and found a big supermarket, a rarity in Bombay, and enjoyed finding many mysterious and new fruit and vegetable varieties. Rice is also sold rather differently to in the UK, in huge vats and in many different varieties. We're looking forward to getting into our apartment with our own cookery equipment so we can try some experimental cooking soon.
The Palladium Mall (generally fancy designer stuff, though it does have a Manchester United shop...)
Lots of rice
Mango selection
Marks and Spencer - Clothes only, no homeware
My desperate attempt to explain and locate a duvet cover
The sports t-shirt was purchased successfully, although with the rather distressing fact that, in India, a medium size is too small for me and I needed a large:-( I'm putting this down to Indian / Western body size difference rather than excess consumption of hotel food.
In the Nike shop with some grumpiness over clothes sizing, which Phil felt the need to capture for posterity
My favourite part of this shopping experience was definitely the individual Indian shops selling clothing and homeware. Fabindia in particular was great and I'm intending to return there soon, once we have an apartment in which we can put things.
Shopping over (for now), we moved onto our second big task of the day, visiting some of the places with options for us to do exercise in Bombay. Space is at a premium in Mumbai and the options to walk / run for exercise in relative comfort are limited; the way to get regular exercise (and any access to a gym or swimming pool) is to join a "club". There are many of these in Bombay which vary hugely in terms of facilities, price, exclusivity, style and location. These can also be social clubs (to a varying extent) and membership at an elite club seems to play a big part in Indian business networks, so for many people, being part of one of these is about the networking opportunities rather than the facilities. The oldest and most famous clubs in Bombay used to be bastions for the colonial lifestyle although, as space availability has decreased and the wealthy of Bombay have prospered, many are now closed to new entrants, and only allow new Indian members (for life) at astronomical rates. Most clubs though, have temporary and less costly arrangements for expats, so is something that we decided to investigate.
Anyway, we visited three options which are relatively close to our apartment. There is no point looking further afield in Bombay, as the traffic means that it will take far too long to get there.
The first club we visited covers a huge area in the Bandra Kurla Complex (a big business district) and had every sports facilities we could possibly need; gym, swimming, tennis, squash, badminton, cricket, jogging track, classes; plus four restaurants, accommodation and plenty of outdoor space. This was an older style Indian club and, although our tour guide was friendly, a big focus of membeship seemed to be on the need to be "elite" and the prospects of making connections here. This seemed to be a primary concern above the facilities. Whilst it was all very nicely done, we're more interested in making friends than connections (I'm not sure that the two are necessarily the same), so the price tag associated with an elite club is probably not worthwhile for us.
The second option was the leisure facilities at a nearby 5* international hotel. Again, this has a gym, swimming pool, spa facilities, tennis, jogging etc. and great service, though the prospect of meeting friends here is much lower than in a more traditional club. The membership here is really for the leisure facilities only. It also seems to cost a huge amount to bring in guests to use the facilities. The focus is clearly on keeping membership numbers down through the fees charged to join
We did though see this amazing building whilst travelling between options 1 and 2:
Spotted in BKC
The final option is a smaller club spread over several floors in a building much closer to our apartment in Bandra. Membership here is a fifth of the price of the two places listed above, although the facilities are really not too different. There's a gym, swimming pool, bars, restaurant, cafe, free wireless throughout, a salon and spa, and even a couple of snooker tables! Most importantly, this is so close to us that we can realistically imagine spending lots of time there. The primary difference is just the lack of outdoor space, and focus on elite connections, which seems to add a whopping amount on to the price tag of membership. Given that we're not too bothered about that, I think we'll go for this one.
Club visits over, we headed back to a main shopping road in Bandra (the Linking Road) for a quick visit to an Indian department store before heading to a Punjabi restaurant for dinner. The shop was fascinating, and the set-up reminded me of "Are You Being Served" but just with Indians on a hard sell behind the counters rather than Wendy Richards and John Inman...
The colours of the materials on sale are wonderful and it wasn't long before we'd found the sari section. Despite me having no intention of buying a sari, within 5 minutes I'd been shown a whole range of materials and was being dressed up by the shop assistants.
Being shown lots of materials - beautiful colours
Stage 1 - Being cornered for sari dressing
Stage 2 - Mid construction
Stage 3 - Complete!
We didn't purchase on this occasion as we've got plenty more time to look around and sari purchase / dressing feels like a bit of a cultural minefield. Every aspect of the material pattern, quality of material and arrangement means something so I'm going to try to figure this out before buying anything. Plus I don't yet know how to put a sari on so need to work that out too.
Saying that, I did make a purchase in the salwar kameez section:
Salwar Kameez
These are sold in 3-piece sets with the tunic, trousers and scarf and the materials was extremely silky and light. I put this on and it was so comfortable that I bought it (which was also well worth it just to appease the shop assistants). This was around £12 for the set. You could easily wear the top with jeans too.
The journey home was more eventful that anticipated. Our driver had finished for the day just before dinner (as we could easily get an autoricksaw back to the hotel together later on, so we sent him home), but it proved to be very difficult to find one that both wasn't going to rip us off and showed any knowledge of the location of our hotel. After getting in and out of several autos, we found one that seemed honest so began our journey home. The downside was that his driving was truly crazy, to the level that you can be when there are so many cars around that moving anyway quickly is difficult. Any white-knuckle ride at a theme park had nothing on this - the line between exhilaration to terrifying was crossed for me! Phil enjoyed it though and we were both enthralled by the driver shouting liberally at any other vehicle that got in his way. We got home quickly, but I needed a lie down to recover before falling asleep in front of the cricket.
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