Saturday - A walk around Mumbai, Part 1

An early breakfast followed by a taxi ride down to the Gateway to India. The trip took about half an hour and brought with it the first of many lessons learnt during the day - nobody has change for large notes. 1000 rupees (£15) counts as a large note. When I tried to pay the 300 rupee bill with one the driver wasn't happy. He took me round the corner to one of the little shops and got it changed there.

I walked back to the Gateway, which was unfortunately mostly roped off. It looked like there was some sort of function or concert going to be happening in front of it, which was a shame as it meant that the view was somewhat limited. You could still get round to the back of it, down to where the boats leave to go to Elephanta Island and the like. As I was walking round to the monument (built to commemorate the landing of George V and Queen Mary there) I was selected by a young woman as her target for the morning. As with gypsies everywhere she started by trying to give me something - in this case a bracelet of Jasmin - and then kept appearing and asking me to buy her some food. In the end I gave her some money in the hope that she would go away (like that ever works) and then resorted to the ignoring her policy which is tough but the only one that works in the end.

From the gateway it was a short walk up to a big roundabout. This was the first opportunity to see the contrast in buildings. In essence, Mumbai has three types of buildings - brand new ones, Victorian ones which have been beautifully maintained, and ones which have essentially been left to rot. In the slums there is also a 4th type - buildings which aren't actually buildings at all but are actually a ramshackle collection of various bits and bobs to make up walls and rooves. The roundabout has a couple of fascinating looking buildings - the National Gallery of Modern art and the Prince of Wales Museum. However, there are also a fair number of buildings that are well past their glory days. When originally built they may well have been quite spectacular, but now they're less so (or for a completely different reason).

Further up the road and then turning right brings you to the Oval Maidan. This used to be the coastline and is a large park, now used mostly for cricket matches by the dozen. On one side (the side that was on the coast beforehand) is a collection of Victorian buildings, the High Court, Mumbai University and Clock Tower amongst them, which are in good condition and look lovely. On the other side (where the sea was before the land was reclaimed in the 1930s) are some art deco buildings that were probably magnificent when built but don't look as if they've been maintained since then.

Part 2 to follow.