Results tagged “Mumbai” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Food writer and Modern Spice cookbook author Monica Bhide recently returned from visiting her family in India, and we asked her to share some glimpses of contemporary life she noticed while there. You can read her previous posts here and here.

One of my favorite things to do in India is to visit temples, but as I set out to visit several in New Delhi during my recent trip, I noticed that one major thing had changed. At the entrance of all the temples were metal detectors and police personnel checking each person entering and leaving.

Yes, it is a sign of the times, and not a happy one. After the events of November 2008, when a group of terrorists held the city of Mumbai under siege, security has become a prime concern for all places frequented by locals and tourists alike. There are metal detectors at hotels and malls, monuments and museums. On this particular visit, I went to the ISKCON Hare Krishna temple (pictured, above), one of the most beautiful temples in New Delhi. (It has a loyal following, and the restaurant attached to the temple offers vegetarian food, with some rather contemporary choices on the menu: baked beans, walnut pies and pizza!) While we waited patiently for the security check, what broke my heart was a young man standing in line with his mother behind me. His words to her: "If God needs all this to protect him, how on Earth will he protect me?"

Photos: Monica Bhide

In the course of fact-checking Peggy Loftus's latest online special on poverty tours, we talked with Reality Tours and Travel co-founder Chris Way. His company runs tours through Mumbai's Dharavi, considered by some to be Asia's largest slum. Since the rebound of tourism in Mumbai after last November's attacks and the buzz around Slumdog Millionaire, he guesstimates business is up 25 percent.

How did you create Reality Tours and Travel? How did you get it off the ground?
I got the idea from the favela tours in Rio. I found the concept fascinating with a lot of potential, as there was definitely a market for people wishing to see this side of the city. Having been in Mumbai previously in 2003 doing some volunteer teaching, I knew about the slums (although not Dharavi at that point) and so decided to return to India in late 2004 with this idea in mind. It quickly became apparent that Dharavi was this fascinating place, with so much industry/ energy/ sense of community that it would definitely appeal to tourists. Krishna, who I met in 2003 when he was waiting my table in Colaba, took a little bit of persuading that tourists would find this place interesting (!), but soon saw the potential and we then formed the company in September 2005. Reality Tours, after a few problems, started in January 2006.

What's the rationale behind your no-camera policy? Do some tour-goers bristle at this prohibition?
We started off asking customers to be considerate and respectful while taking photos. We got some criticism in the press for the tours being voyeuristic and having seen some of the photos in the press (of our customers taking photos), we re-considered this policy and felt that on this issue, they had a point. Also there were some comments from people who felt aggrieved that these "rich people were coming here, taking photos and then making lots of money." We do find that the tour runs a lot more smoothly with the no-camera policy; there is no time wasted as photos are taken and people aren't distracted wondering where is the best location to take a photo; the focus is on the tour and the information behind it. To be fair, most people are fine with this policy and understand it, although some people would like some places where photos could be taken.

To what do you account the growth in numbers of people interested in and taking your tours over the past two years?
First and foremost, the area is fascinating and more people have got to know about the tours that we run through word of mouth and publicity in the press and guidebooks. As a company, I think we provide a very good, professional tour at a very low price and people see that we use the money in a responsible way. Also, I think that this kind of tourism is becoming more popular; people are not just interested in the landmarks and sites of historic importance, but also in the day-to-day lives of people, particularly where this way of life is different to their own.

To many, it's no surprise that Hollywood-hit Slumdog Millionaire took home eight Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. But who knew it would boost tourism in and around Mumbai, a city whose tourism industry was hit hard after the 2008 terrorist attacks?

"There was a time when most travelers tried to avoid the dicey parts of town," says National Geographic Traveler contributing editor Margaret Loftus in our online special "Slum Tours: Real or Real Tacky?" "But an increasing number are now seeking them out on so-called reality tours. From Rio's favelas to Mumbai's Dharavi slum to Nairobi's Mukuru district, the trend is gaining steam as the latest frontier in travel."

According to the Economic Times, "Mumbai now tops the chart of global tourist destination followed by countries like Japan, made popular by the movie 'Memoirs of a Geisha', South America because of 'Motorcycle Diaries' based on Che Guevera's life, and New Zealand for the 'Lord of the Rings' which has 17 Oscars to its credit for the trilogy."

Arthur Hoffman, managing director of Expedia Asia-Pacific, told the Times "movies have a powerful ability to evoke a sense of the exotica about the locations in which they are filmed. They are widely acknowledged to inspire travel to those destinations. For travellers, the fascination of picturing scenes in the film and then comparing it to real life can lead to a strange sense of déjà vu, particularly for those who have seen the movie several times."  

Our colleagues at National Geographic magazine were on the ground in Mumbai -- Slumdog's setting -- documenting the construction of India's superhighway for their October '08 feature, "Fast Lane to the Future,"  with photographs by Ed Kashi.  Called the Golden Quadrilateral, this new highway is an enormous, ambitious infrastructure project connecting Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkota and Bangalore, improving quality of life and bringing economic opportunities to much of India (although there are plenty of disadvantages as well). Check out their video after the jump.

Earlier this month, we posted about the travels of contributing editor Carl Hoffman, who is currently working on a book, The Lunatic Express, and blogging about it as he goes. Hoffman was in Mumbai just ten days before yesterday's terrible terrorist attacks, and he sent us this dispatch after hearing the news:

My phone pinged about three am last night as news rolled in about the attacks in Mumbai. I'm safely ensconced behind the high walls of the British High Commission in New Delhi, 700 miles away, but it was shocking - one of the places hit was Leopold's, a venerable bar and restaurant in Colaba where only ten days ago I'd eaten lots of meals and whiled the nights away over cold Kingfisher beer.

Leopold's is a rarity in India, a relaxing bar and café where tourists and middle-class Indians mix; it's on a corner, with wide, open doorways. You can sit under the high ceilings and fans at 30 or so tables covered in plaid cloth and read the Times of India or watch the throngs walking by outside or strike up a conversation with someone. I shared a table one evening with the chief electrical engineer of the Mumbai commuter trains; one afternoon at lunch I talked to a Dutch filmmaker. It's been around for more than 100 years; it's the center of action in the sprawling Mumbai novel Shantaram. And I stayed at a small guesthouse two doors down.

Apparently grenades were lobbed inside. At ten or eleven o'clock Leopold's would have been full, every table taken, with music throbbing and a mix of Indians, West Africans and westerners dancing and drinking upstairs, sellers of bangles and leather sandals and tobacco on the sidewalk outside, the air warm and humid and smoky. Apparently 101 people have died so far, with more than 250 injured, though I haven't heard any casualty figures form Leopold's.

The New York Times website mentions the symbolism of the attack on the Taj Mahal hotel, writing that "It's the aorta through which anything glamorous, sentimental, confidential or profitable passes in Mumbai." But somehow the attack on Leopold's seems even more cynical, insidious. The Taj is a center of power and money; Leopold's just conviviality, curiosity and intercultural mingling on a much less elite scale, and that makes it even sadder and more shocking.

Photo: Amar Singh via About.com