Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Mumbai - day two

We filled in our "free day" in Mumbai today with some shopping: at the beautiful Good Earth store NE of Malabar Hill........
...... then an old fave "FabIndia" back in our Colaba district, which is starting to feel like home to us after our 2 nights here.

We didn't get back to the Taj Palace until around 3.00pm - time for a very late lunch/very early dinner.
We've loved all our meals at this hotel restaurant (Shamiana). I had my favourite dish again this afternoon: Dosa Masala - yum!!
We signed up for the 5.30pm evening tour of this historic hotel - built in 1903 by the enterprising Tata family - initially to overcome the discriminatory treatment of Indians at existing hotels run by the "Britishers".
However the pool area and the surrounding relaxation areas are relatively recent additions .....

Anybody who was anybody - from John Lennon, Yoko Ono, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to British royalty, Barack Obama and Alfred Hitchcock have all stayed at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel for varying lengths of time, and there's a story or two attached to everyone of them (and more) - to say nothing of the horrendous events surrounding the terrorists attacks on the hotel in November 2008.

We really enjoyed hearing some of the stories around this hotel and the still evident glee with which the locals refer to the decline of "the British", in the process.


We joined Megan and Sophie for drinks after our tour, in their room in 1801 (in the Tower block). Unfortunately we were a bit late for sunset but their views West out over the city to the Arabian Sea were pretty magic, in the late afternoon light.
We love Mumbai!!

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