Mumbai Trip in December 2018
Mumbai is the capital city of the state of Maharashtra in India.We decided to visit Mumbai during our 2018 December vacation.Since we had a few relatives there it was easy to plan the trip.We browsed some of the must visit places in Mumbai and also discussed about this with our relatives there.
We started from Chennai in Jet Airways.After a 2 hour flight we landed in Mumbai.Actually we landed in 1h 40 mins but it took time to come out of the flight and collect the baggage.Once we came out of the airport there is an Uber taxi stand where we boarded the taxi to reach Navi Mumbai.
We had lunch and in the evening visited an ISKCON temple,rock garden and few other near by places in Navi Mumbai.
The next day morning after having breakfast we started off in cab to R-city mall at 9.10 am.We reached R-city mall at 10.20 am.We directly went to Kidzania to buy tickets.We bought flexible 5 hours ticket for my son and 2 adult tickets for me and my husband.Since it was only 10.50 am ,we went to snow world since it is also situated in the same mall as my son was keen on visiting it.We got tickets for 11.15 am slot.We were given winter jackets,gloves,boots etc and were made to wait inside a waiting hall for few minutes which had lesser temperature than outside climate so our body will get accustomed to the change in temperature inside the snow world.We were then called inside the snow world..The area was comparatively smaller than the one in Chennai (VGP snow world.Only if you have visited the one in Chennai you can visualize it but if no comparison,it is a spacious hall)..There are statues of cartoon characters and snowman with whom we can click pictures of.Then there are two sliders,one is using a tyre you can slide and the other is normal sliding in the snow.There is an igloo house wherein you can go inside and click a picture.They play songs for which we can dance.Since we went in the first slot only 10 of us were there so the chillness inside was too severe that we came out in 20 minutes,stayed outside for 5 minutes and then again went inside.We came out after our 45 minutes duration.
We then had lunch in a nearby restaurant and proceeded to "Kidzania".Its definitely a must place in Mumbai for kids.Here kids have a chance to role play various professions like painter,fire fighter,pilot,reporter and so on.My son had a great time here after he got a chance to play the following roles:
1)Painter in camlin art studio
2)Robotics hand on workshop
3)Manager in Big Bazaar
4)RJ in FM
5)Reporter in Times of India
6)In Fire station
7)Kelloggs factory
8)As pilot
9)Delivery boy in Pepperfry furniture shop
There are many more such activities for kids.Five hours is definitely not enough.Few other activities are Maruthi driving school,dabbawala,Dentist,Nerolac paiting studio,Banker at Yes Bank and so on.
On the third day we went to Mumbai zoo located in Byculla East(details can be found in https://www.tourmyindia.com/states/maharashtra/byculla-zoo-mumbai.html) .Since it was Christmas on that day,we planned it in such a way that we were there at the ticket counter at 11 am.It is a small zoo with limited animals.One main attraction of this zoo is Penguins.They are well maintained in a cool snowy atmosphere.Other than that are not much wild animals found here.But looks like in the near future we can expect wolf,bear,cheetah etc to be there.By the time we came out,the zoo was heavy crowded since it was a holiday.We then had lunch and proceeded to Taraporewala Aquarium (Details can be found in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraporewala_Aquarium).There were many species of fish.We then proceeded to Prince of Wales museum(also known as Chhtrapathi Sivaji museum).The museum houses Indus Valley Civilization artefacts, and other relics from ancient India from the time of the Guptas,Mauryas,Chalukyas and the Rashtakuta. Some of the galleries here include:
- Sculpture gallery
- Pre and Proto History gallery
- Natural History Section
- Indian Miniature Painting gallery
- Krishna gallery
- Himalayan Art gallery
- Decorative Metalware gallery
- House of Laxmi- Coin gallery
More about the museum can be found in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhatrapati_Shivaji_Maharaj_Vastu_Sangrahalaya.
We then boarded the train at Chhtrapathi Sivaji railway station and reached Mulund where we were staying.
The next day we hired a tourist car and visited Hanging Gardens(which is merely a normal park with some floral decorations),Bandra Worli Sea Link,Mahalakshmi Mandir,Siddi Vinayak Temple,went for a marine drive and the driver showed the residences of famous personalities like Shah Rukh Khan,Amitabh Bachchan,Salman Khan,Rekha,Mukesh Ambani and so on.Due to severe traffic it was 8.45 pm by the time we reached Navi Mumbai.
On Thursday morning we started off to Elephanta Caves. We clicked some pictures near Gateway of India and went on a Cruise to Elephanta Caves.The cruise journey was really awesome and we had a wonderful experience of feeding the birds that flew near our Ship.It took around 45 mins to reach Elephanta Caves.We have to walk a long way in elephanta caves.There are many shops on the way which include everything from dresses,accessories,handbag etc.We had lunch in one of the pure vegetarian restaurant there and returned back to Gateway of India in the cruise again.While we were clicking pictures near the Taj Hotel we were reminded of the horrifying attack by the terrorist on 26th November 2008(10 years back)!!
On Friday morning we did some shopping in Mangaldas market and visited Kalba Devi temple.There are so many shops at reasonable price in mangaldas market.The next day we visited Bollywood film city.There we were taken around the film city in a van for 1.5 hrs wherein we could see some of the famous shooting spots.But my relative who accompanied had visited Ramoji Rao film city in Hyderabad who felt that for that fees they charged,what we saw was very less and that Ramojo Rao film city was far better than this.If this is the first time you are visiting any film city,then you will like it.Actually we crossed Sanjay Gandhi national Park to visit the film city but due to lack of time we couldn't visit there.
The next day which was our final day at Mumbai we visited Sri Balaji Mandir at Nerul,Saneeshwara temple,a Goshala which houses more than 70 cows and offered banana/cucumber and a Hanuman temple.We boarded our flight to Chennai at 9.20pm and reached Chennai at 11 pm.
One thing to keep in mind while in Mumbai is that there is heavy traffic and travelling from one place to another by road takes hell lot of time.Having said that,Mumbai is well connected by trains.If you want to avoid travelling by road and if you are fine to travel in a heavily crowded train,then your travelling becomes easier.One other point to remember is most of the sight seeing places like gateway of India,Aquarium etc are closed on Mondays.
Overall it was a memorable experience and we were able to cover almost all the prominent places during our short stay.My little son thoroughly enjoyed this trip and he would like to visit Kidazania again :-)