India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) (50 page)

Also facing Horniman Circle is the late-19th-century Gothic Venetian
Elphinstone Building
and, opposite it, on Veer Nariman Road,
St.
Thomas’s Cathedral,
thought to be the oldest colonial structure in Mumbai. (Note that if you head west along Veer Nariman Rd., lined with restaurants, you will come to Marine Dr.) St. Thomas’s Cathedral is a stark contrast to the pink and blue neoclassical
Kenneth Eliyahoo Synagogue,
Mumbai’s oldest and loveliest Sephardic synagogue, located off K. Dubash Marg, on Forbes Street. North of Flora Fountain, up Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Road, is the Art Deco–style Parsi fire temple,
Watcha Agiary.
Built in 1881, it features carvings in a distinctly Assyrian style.

If you prefer shopping (albeit of a tourist-trap nature) to architecture, opt for the famous
Causeway
(now officially renamed
Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg,
though, thankfully, no one refers to it as such). Budget travelers have long been drawn to this vibrant street, but in recent years Colaba and its side streets have begun to slip into an increasingly urbane and upmarket second skin. Hip bars, swinging clubs, and tasteful restaurants are drawing the smart crowd. Anything and everything seems to be available from the hawkers on Colaba’s sidewalks and back alleys, whether it’s fruit, cheap cigarettes, currency, or hashish. Shop in exclusive boutiques or rummage through heaps of cheap trinkets sold on the sidewalks, where you can bargain for everything from imitation perfume to piles of cheap, tasteless T-shirts, all the while avoiding the advances of streetwise beggars and con artists sporting half-moon smiles and incongruous American accents.

Beyond the southernmost end of the Causeway (that’s if you manage to get this far south before grabbing a taxi and heading for the peace of your hotel room!), in the restricted Navy Nagar area, you will see the neo-Gothic
Afghan Memorial Church of St. John the Evangelist.
Dating from
1858, it memorializes those who fell in the First Afghan War—proof yet again of Mumbai’s mosaic past.

TOP ATTRACTIONS

Banganga Tank
Here the paradox of traditional life coexisting with unbridled modernization is all too vivid. Near the edge of the Arabian Sea at the southern tip of Malabar Hill, several small, crumbling, stone-turreted temples and flower-garlanded shrines surround a rectangular pool of holy water in an area of looming modern-day skyscrapers and encroaching urbanization. Ritual bathers who come here believe the mossy waters have healing powers and originated from a natural spring created by an arrow shot by Rama (the hero of the
Ramayana
), who rested here while on a mission to rescue his beloved Sita from the demon king’s abode in Lanka. The source of the spring is said to be an underground offshoot of the Ganga, and the waters are considered just as sacred as those of the great river itself. In the shadow of one of present-day Mumbai’s most prosperous neighborhoods, Banganga continues to function as an out-of-time devotional hub, its tolling bells and mantra-chanting
pujaris
drawing devotees to worship the divine. If you’re here in December, scour local newspapers for news of the open-air concerts held at the Banganga Festival.

Walkeshwar Rd., Malabar Hill.

Dharavi
More than half of Mumbai’s population are slum-dwellers, most of them—and they include hotel workers, engineers, waiters, taxi drivers, most of the city’s police force, teachers, tour guides, you name it—existing with their entire (sometimes extended) families in tiny tenements smaller than a typical hotel bedroom. Although it’s not an attraction in the traditional sense of the word, interest in Dharavi, Asia’s largest shantytown, has grown exponentially in the wake of the
Shantaram
phenomenon and Oscar-winning
Slumdog Millionaire,
in which life in Mumbai’s poorest neighborhoods is given more than a cursory or condescending glance. Hemmed in by Sion in the east and Mahim in the west, this particular “slum” is spread over 175 hectares (482 acres) and is home to around one million people; 72% of these people are forced to use communal bathing facilities—or worse still, face the stress of performing personal toilet functions in the open, often along the train tracks. Visit here on any given day, and you’ll find it brimming with life and held together by an overwhelming industriousness; around $650 million is generated from goods exported from here each year—among the major industries here, are leather, recycling, and heavy machinery. A visit to Dharavi (on an escorted guided tour, of course) will not only prove tremendously enlightening, but will also touch you deeply, pulling into perspective just about every experience you have anywhere in this city and for that matter, in India.

For details of tour companies that visit Dharavi, see “Into the Belly of the Beast: Getting Beneath Mumbai’s Skin.”

Elephanta Island Caves
For a taste of Mumbai’s early history and an opportunity to view the city’s skyline from the water (not to mention escape from the tumult of the streets), grab a ferry and head out to Elephanta Island, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The hour-long trip also provides a good introduction to Hinduism; the guides on board describe the religious significance of what you’re about to see, though the origins of the Shiva temple caves—thought to date from the revivalist Hindu movement between
A.D.
450 and 750—remain obscure.

Entry is via the main northern entrance to a massive hall supported by large pillars, where the enormous Trimurti statue is housed. At 61⁄3m (21 ft.), the remarkable sculpture depicts Shiva in his three-headed aspect: as Creator (Vamadeva, facing right), Protector (Maheshmurti, the crowned face at the center), and Destroyer (Bhairadeva, facing left, with serpents for hair). Left of the Trimurti is Shiva as both male and female: Ardhanarishvara, an aspect suggesting the unity of all opposites. Other sculptures refer to specific actions of the god and events in Hindu mythology, but many were damaged or destroyed by the Portuguese, who apparently used the Hindu gods for target practice. It’s practical to bring along a local guide (free) even though they rarely speak very good English. Watch listings for music and dance performances.
Tip:
Plan your trip so that you can witness sunset over the Mumbai skyline on your return journey, then pop into the Taj Mahal Hotel for a postculture cocktail. Note that music and dance festival performances are held here every year in February.

9km (5 1⁄2 miles) from Mumbai. Admission Rs 250. Ferry tickets sold at booths near the Gateway of India. Ferry ticket Rs 120 return. Boats depart from the Gateway of India every half-hour Tues–Sun 9am–2:30pm; last ferry from Elephanta departs 5pm—do not miss it.

Gateway of India & Taj Mahal Palace
Easily the most recognizable remnant of the British Raj, the Gateway was designed by George Wittet (also responsible for the Prince of Wales Museum). The Gujarati-inspired yellow basalt structure was supposed to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary, who arrived in 1911 to find a fake cardboard structure instead; the Gateway was eventually completed in 1924 and was the final departure point for the British when they left Indian soil in 1947. It is the most obvious starting point for any tour of Mumbai (and is where the boats to Elephanta are launched), and to this end it draws large numbers of visitors as well as hordes of locals keen to take money off unsuspecting foreigners. The area makes for a quick-fix introduction to Mumbai tout dynamics; expect to be offered everything from photographs of yourself posing here to hashish to young girls. Opposite the Gateway is an equestrian statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Maratha hero who gives his name to several renamed Mumbai institutions.

More impressive—in beauty and size—is the hotel behind the Gateway, which in many ways symbolizes Mumbaikars’ determined and enterprising attitudes. Inspired by its namesake in Agra, the
Taj Mahal Palace
(see “Where to Stay,” later)
was built just over a century ago by an ambitious industrialist named Jamshedji Tata—according to legend, because he wanted to avenge the whites-only policy of Watson’s, then the city’s poshest hotel. Designed by a European architect who mailed the plans to India, it has been said that the hotel was mistakenly constructed back-to-front, so what was meant to be a fantastic sea-facing facade actually overlooks a side street. Of course that modern myth is patently untrue: The hotel was designed to receive guests arriving by land and was built to shelter the entrance from offshore winds. So, although the original front facade now faces the swimming pool, it was certainly never intended to face the sea. What cannot be refuted is how much it dominates Colaba’s waterfront, its six-story domed structure best viewed from an offshore boat. (We cannot, however, account for the unwieldy, terribly vulgar modern tower wing attached to the original “palace.”) In fact, it is the hotel’s image as a symbol of the city’s prestige (and popular hangout for Western visitors and businessmen) that made it a target during the awful attacks that rocked Mumbai in 2008. Here, along with other sites around the city, armed gunmen besieged guests and staff and many long hours of gruesome battle transpired, leaving among others, the family of the general manager dead. It was a serious blow at the very heart of the city, but as countenance of Mumbai’s indomitable spirit, the hotel reopened on December 21, 2008, albeit not in its entirety, and with intense new security procedures that have left the building looking cordoned off to the outside world.