Bombay was originally a cluster of islands. The seven major ones are shown on the first map below, and consisted of Mahim, Worli, Parel, Bombay, Colaba and Little Colaba. Additional islands of Mumbai included Elephanta (Gharapuri) Island, and the Middle Ground Coastal Battery, which now belongs to the Indian Navy, and is a fortified defensive […]
Bandra Fort lies at the extreme end of Band Stand promenade in Bandra West. You walk all the way along the promenade and past the Taj Land’s End hotel, and there, on the last tip of land before it drops into the sea, is the fort. From Bandra Fort there is a very good view […]
Old Delhi We take an auto-rickshaw into Old Delhi, to the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in all of India. It is surrounded by a vast and sprawling bazaar, which fills up the labyrinthine streets made of compacted earth. The bazaar is such a throbbing hive of activity that nobody notices us; they are too […]
New Delhi We disembark from the rickshaw near Connaught Place, and wander off along the wide, clean streets lined with grand white buildings. The cycle rickshaw ride was fun but none of us are sorry to get off. Coming into New Delhi is like emerging into an entirely different place. There is very little traffic […]
We travel from Agra to Delhi by National Highway – on broad, open, empty expanses of toll road, where our bus can drive fast all the way. On the approach to Delhi we drive through two entirely new cities, being built from the ground up. These are vast developments emerging on the open plain. There […]
The day after visiting the Taj Mahal we go to Agra Fort, a vast red castle strategically located on a meander of the Yamuna river. It is built of red sandstone and dates from the 16th century. Within its broad, high walls are several self-contained palaces, and mosques. You can see the Taj Mahal across […]
I have been in Mumbai for more than three months now, and when I left my brother at the international airport I started feeling homesick. His presence here had thrown me back into a world where it is normal to have all my family and friends around me, and deeper than that – the comforting […]
The road to Agra We travel by bus from Jaipur to Agra. All the guide books and travel advice blogs I have read recommend train travel well above buses, but I cannot understand why. Trains have to be booked in advance, and even then it is quite common for there not to be any tickets […]
My brother and his girlfriend came out to visit me during my stay in India, and for the past two weeks we have been travelling within India. Our first stop was in Jaipur, Rajasthan. We arrived in the evening, having flown from Mumbai. It was 35˚C in Jaipur after 7pm when we landed. From the […]
Bandra has a skywalk, which runs for about 1.8km (1.1miles). It connects Bandra East and West with the station, a series of interconnecting footbridges (or one long one), providing a safe, elevated platform for pedestrians to walk along. The Bandra skywalk was finished in June 2008 and was the first one in Mumbai. There are […]
A photo tour of Haji Ali island tomb and causeway. On the approach to the Dargah. Inside the Haji Ali complex. This is the view upon leaving the tomb. Note the stacks of sandals all around! An empty fountain beside the tomb chamber
Just beyond Mahalakshmi station and over the rail bridge lie the dhobi ghats. These are concrete vats where dhobiwalas wash laundry every day; loads of washing are brought here from all over the city to be soaked and beaten at the dhobi ghats. Mumbai’s dhobi ghat is said to be the largest outdoor laundry in […]
Holi, 27th March 2013 Today is Holi, the Hindu festival of colours. There is a drum and brass band playing outside my building, and the pigeons are busy dropping nesting material in through my window. I clear the twigs, bits of plastic and twizzled curls of paper off the inner windowsill and out of my […]
I visited Elephanta, an island that lies in Mumbai’s harbour, about seven miles north-east of the jetty in front of the Gateway of India. I went down to the Gateway and bought a ticket for the ferry to the island (Rs 150 at time of writing), and then queued up on the jetty with groups […]
This post is for those of you who might be feeling that I am living a glamorous and exotic life in the sunshine, while you suffer the ignominy of daily life. This is to reassure you that my life is not glamorous, at all. I’ve recently realised that there’s going to have to be a […]
Last week I visited Nasik, a city about a hundred miles, and 4-5 hours by road or rail, north-east of Mumbai. I took a rickshaw from Bandra to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, where I caught the train. For part of the journey I sat in a berth beside a family who were on their way to […]
I went to an InterNations event, taking a taxi from Bandra over the Sea Link suspension bridge to Worli village. I met Hitesh, we got along well and at around 1am when the event was finishing, he took me on a drive through the city. Surrounded by dark water and lights, Mumbai is incredibly beautiful […]
This pretty Catholic church is situated at the end of Hill Road in Bandra, and is lit by bright, upward-projecting lights.
I thought it might be interesting to write about some details of my everyday life now. My flat is a studio, one good-sized room with a bed and a kitchen at the end, with attached bathroom. The kitchen windows open out onto a wire cage, which prevents the birds coming in (in theory), and can […]
I’ve been quite busy in the past week or so acquiring a flat, and moving in. I live in a suburb called Bandra West now, which lies north of Mahim Creek and west of the railway line, beside the sea. I’ve been riding on the suburban trains, and doing a bit more wandering around and […]