Mumbai day two: bike trip

Walking in the heat of 30-something degrees and a late night did not stop us from waking up early for the Bike tour of Mumbai. There's only as much as you can see and find out on your own, so having seen the historical buildings, we got on the bikes and saw some more of contemporary Mumbai districts. It's streets on a Sunday morning were quiet and ...safe to ride :)

 Apart from the station, which we must have seen more than 3 times by now, we visited the fruit / meat / pet market – usually bustling and too busy to go through, it was quiet and easy to explore at this time of day. The butcher shop was a surprise – you might become a vegetarian for a couple of days after you see the hygenic conditions there. And rght next door there is a pet section. This location makes you wonder whether the pets are for being kids' cute friends at home or are they a source of fresh sub-product for the butcher section. Also, everyone should visit at least one spice shop. When we did, we got to sniff many colorful powders.... „this ma'am you add to chicken – this is spicy, this one you add to chicken – different different masala, this is tandoori, and this one you mix with tea......”. I never had a taste for spices, but even in this matter India trained me well. Eating potato wedges later, I was craving for some masala.

(Mumbai spice shop)

Next stop was the flower market and a „small zoo” where people come to feed cows and pigeons. With several compartments for „special” cows, pregnant cows, small cows, the über-awesome bulls, and a rather big open cage for roof-shitters. Here, it's not allowed to take pictures, as this is a sort of a holy place (a home for holy and special cows), but you can buy grass (1m long straws) and feed the holy animals. The pigeons, so despised in where I come from, are praised here for having been the postmen and peace symbols.

The last stop after a Marina Drive ride, was the fish market, or rather a harbour. It was not allowed to take pictures here as well, as this was the way terrorrists got here in 2008 (I still don't understand the logic, but I stopped trying), alas. This place would make you a vegiterian for another couple days. Fish being offloaded from the boats, decapitated at the spot, prawns sorted on the dirty concrete, fish insides lying around... Increadibly colorfull place, as every woman would wear a „fancy” saari peeling the golden prawns, squatting on the concrete.

As a nice finishing touch our cool guides took us for indian breakfast – fried Parata with mashed potatoes and spinach and some Chai. Yum! Doing no sports, and eating fried food at all times, no wonder the poeple are a little heavy. Not if this ever made anyone feel bad about themselves, seeing ladies proudly exposing their bellies in saaris.

As it was too hot to spend time relaxing on the beach we took a cab to the Hanging Gardens. From there, one could admire the overdone, over-designed, single-family skyscraper. I'm sorry but some Indian billionaires simply have no style (remember the guy who had a gold shirt made for him?). The place is also famous for the too-early-for-me morning view of the bay.

(view on Chowpatty beach from the Hanging Gardens)

Havng some time to waste, and having spotted a UNESCO Heritage island ont he map, we decided to board a 2 hour ferry to see it's famous caves. It's hard to call them caves, as they hardly go underground. The first one had sculptures of Vishnu and Shiva, but the others were quite disappointing, as filled with rubbish and not well preserved. Actually, despite having trash cans on the walkway (must be the only ones in India), the place was quite dirty. It especially slapped me in the face, when two women in burkas angrilly tossed their empty plastic bottles into the grass. Made me wanna hurt them. UNESCO, what the hell were you thinking not imposing some basic preservation rules ?! Overall, not worth the ferry ride or the foreign-price ticket (250 Rp, versus 10Rp for Indians).

To wash down the bitter experiance of Elefanta Caves, we headed to the Colaba Causeway street for some pub crawling. Recommended by everyone, the Leopold Cafe – deffinately worth a visit, but if coming with more people and in the evening, better book ahead. Seems like the major hangout for foreigners, so if you feel lonely – thi is deffinately the place to meet other travellers. Here I had the most amazing Indian food (and I thought i was a lost cause in that matter). The Mondigar Cafe, not 200 meters away, offers cool ambience with its cartoon covered walls and the highlight of the evening...sangria pitcher :)