The city formerly known as Bombay, Mumbai has been described as frenetic, gritty, glamorous – in short, a beautiful mess. And Mumbai is our introduction to “incredible India.”
We have heard that you can’t consider yourself a real traveler until you have visited India, even if you have been to more than 100 countries. Well, here we are, seeking our “Real Traveler” certificate. It took seven hours to fly from Frankfurt to Delhi and another hour and a half to Mumbai. The taxi from the airport to our hotel took longer than the flight from Delhi. But it cost only $10 so what the hey.
It's all about color
Maybe it is because we have been to so many foreign cities in so many “developing” countries, but Mumbai wasn’t as overwhelming as we were led to believe – at least today – even after the orderliness of Germany. The streets were no more crowded than New York City at lunchtime, the traffic no worse than Cairo – louder but not nearly as lethal, and the poverty doesn’t approach that of some African countries For a bonus, English is the lingua franca. But our impressions began even as the plane approached the airport over derelict high-rises and the meanest of slums; this before we experienced the noise and smells, the press of people and the confusion we always have in a new city.
