Mumbai - A walk along the west coast

A few days back I was dying of inactivity. Most people around had work to do or had gone away. Thus, I decided to go for a walk in south Mumbai. It had long been in my mind to do something like this.

I got off at Dadar station, walked through the crowded market street and made way to chowpaty. From there I headed southwards trying to keep as close to the coast as possible at all times. The map below shows the path I traced eventually.



Dadar chowpaty is quite long and dirty. It extends all the way from Shivaji park to Prabhadevi. A very narrow strip of sand and too many people, mostly couples trying to find some privacy but end up sitting less than 5 metres from some other couple.

I soon realised that not all of South Mumbai was fancy and pretty as I thought. The walk from Prabhavdevi to Worli was mainly through small crowded market streets with lots of shanties on both sides. In the pursual of the coast, I ended up walking into Worli Koliwada, which is a fisherman colony. It is a very narrow strip of land heavily crowded with hutments, hardly 100 metres away from the famous Worli sea face ! I reached the end of land, and had to turn back to make my way to Worli sea face. For a few minutes I was scared, when the road was becoming narrower and narrower. This was the kind of Mumbai that I had only known exists, but never been to. Here I also ate kharavas. It was the tastiest I had eaten in quite some time.

Worli sea face was a nice pleasant walk. Passed through the construction site for the Bandra Worli sea link. I am waiting desperately for that drive. Then walked along the sea to Haji Ali. Crossed Haji Ali and went towards Breach Candy hospital, making sure that the sea remained visible on the right throughout. This turned out to be an endless walk in Malabar Hill. Went right upto Walkeshwar. This again turned out to be a not-very-fancy area. And by this time, it was 11:00 pm, so I quickly hurried out of the place and kept walking towards Marine Drive. It was 11:40 when I finally got a view of the Queen's necklace. It was a very pretty sight from the hill. Then walked down the road for some time towards Marine Drive. But by then I was too exhausted to walk further. So thus, I caught a cab and ended my walk.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera then. But in the next few days, I will try to find time and get pictures and write more blogs about Mumbai.