Saturday Walk Round Mumbai, Part 2

Okay, I need to speed this up as I'm already a week behind and I've only been here two weeks!

Last time I wrote I had reached the Oval Maidan. From there it was just a short walk to the seaside Down at that end there really isn't that much of a seashore as such - it's all been reclaimed, and is made up of lots of what looks like concrete shapes in a somewhat higgledy-piggledy jumble. The concrete shapes are three pronged bollards, all emanating from a central point.

What the seashore lacks in attractiveness, however, is more than made up for by the view over the bay of the Mumbai skyline, both north and south, and also by the walk itself. The road, Marine Drive, is itself very wide in both directions, but next to that, on the sea side, is an equally wide promenade area lined with trees by the road and a reasonably wide wall / seating area by the sea. Perhaps inevitably, it is the narrow wall that the vast majority of people walk along, leaving the main promenade almost entirely undisturbed.

Facing the sea on the other side of the road are a series of buildings, many of them apartment blocks, that were presumably much sought after when they were first built in the 1930s. Now, probably not so much. If anything has been spent on them since they were built, it's certainly not obvious now.

Walking north along the promenade you come to an area where there are various 'gymkhana' as they are called - open playing areas. Inevitably, there's cricket matches going on on them. Further north you reach an aquarium, although, again, it has clearly seen better days. However, the art deco design and fish shapes on the roof and walls do make it quite an amusing building.

Just after the aquarium the concrete shapes stop and there starts to be actual beach, Chowpatty beach, which gets to be quite wide after a while. In some ways, the presence of a lovely beach seems to be something of a waste - nobody sunbathes, and it would be a brave person who decided to go swimming in the sea here.

At this point I decided that I needed to add water at one end and probably remove it from the other. Turning off from the main sea road I found a coffee shop and went in.

Inside the coffee shop I was asked if I fancied a cold coffee rather than a hot one. Somewhat unthinkingly, I said yes. It was only while I was drinking it that I remembered that amongst the advice I had been given before coming out was not to drink anything with ice. Whilst there wasn't any ice obviously in the coffee, there may well have been some used in its preparation(or at least cold water). Not necessarily my brightest move, and a reminder that you do need to keep thinking. In reality, there doesn't seem to have been any ill effects.

Incidentally, there seems to be the following advice about drinking water:

• If it doesn't say it's drinkable, don't drink it
• If it does say it's drinkable and its not in a bottle, don't drink it
• If it is in a bottle, but the seal is broken, don't drink it
• If the seal on the bottle is unbroken, you should be all right.

I was given advice before coming out that I should only ever drink through a straw. Since coming out here I have been advised to update that a bit - best to bring your own straw! Straws here are not necessarily the cleanest things.

Anyway, back to the coffee shop. It was at this point I learnt something about the differences between Indian and UK cafes / restaurants - there is no requirement in India to provide loos. Fortunately, this was by no means urgent.

The other thing I got to appreciate again was how much of a service culture there is in India. I'm used to picking up your drink and paying at the counter, but in India you order at the counter and then go sit down, where the drink is brought to you and then you ask for the check at the end.

Part 3 to follow, hopefully this evening after tea.