It had only been a day that I quit my job. The next night I decided to leave for Mumbai. Yes, Mumbai famously known as "Sapno Ka Shehar" (translated 'The City Of Dreams') . Which other city could be more apt to start my journey , to start living my dreams ? Every day thousands of people come to this city to turn their dreams into reality but only a few succeed. The rest give up and just live here trying to survive . There are few more still struggling to change their lives and chasing their dreams, waiting for the day when the dreams will turn into reality.
I booked a bus ticket to Mumbai from Bangalore; the bus was bound to leave in the afternoon on the next day. I couldn't sleep the whole night because I was too excited and a little scared . I hardly slept . I boarded the bus from Anand Rao Circle , Bangalore and got down at Andheri, Mumbai at around 8:00 am in the morning.
I quickly checked how far was the hostel that I planned to stay at and it was around 2.3km away from the place where I had got down. So, I decided to walk to the hostel using Google Maps. After around 10-15 minutes of walking, I reached the Backpacker Panda Hostel next to Chakala Metro Station.
I checked into the Hostel and got my bunk , everything was pretty smooth. The Dorm was quite dark since the fellow backpackers were sleeping and respecting that I didn't switch on the lights. Well, I was just settling down and I see one more guy walks into the dorm and we introduce each other realizing that we knew each other already. Yeah, he was from Bangalore too and was a friend. Without wasting anytime I quickly got freshened up and packed my bag , got out of the dorm and my grin faded upon the sight of rain . It was raining cats and dogs and Mumbai rains and traffic are pretty bad. A tough start to my Day 1 at Mumbai.
The rain stopped after an hour and I left the hostel to explore the city since I didn't want to waste any more time. I was damn confused about the ways and about how to reach to the places so I took some help from the localites and got into a metro from Chakala Metro Station to Andheri. From there I took a local train to Church Gate.
Believe me or not Mumbai local trains are very crowded. I have no idea how I entered the train and when I reached the other side of the entrance. It took me 5-10 mins to reach Church Gate and I was automatically out of the train , thanks to the crowd. I got out of the station and asked people for directions to The Gateway of India. One good man whom I asked for directions gave me a lift till Gateway of India.
The Gateway of India is a monument built during the 20th Century. It is located on the waterfront in the Apollo Bunder area in South Mumbai and overlooks the Arabian Sea.
Well, this beauty is a marvelous piece of creation.
Next I went to The Taj Mahal Hotel , the exact same place where the 26/11 bomb blast terror happened and left whole country in shock. This hotel was really a lavishly luxurious place. Since I was on a budget hitch hike trip I dint plan on blowing my money there so I got in asked for a glass of water and walked out like a cool boy trying to be funny(was quite embarrassing though).
Later I went on exploring the streets of Colaba asked for directions and walked my way to Marine Drive the Queens Necklace was never ending after walking for 20 mins I reached the place. The whole place is just a slab by the sea shore where people come and sit and chill around enjoying the sunset. I sat their for a while alone in between millions of couples thinking about life staring at that magnificent view. I was lost for a while I didn't even realize but I sat there for more than 3-4 hours just thinking and wondering about life.
After the sunset I walked back towards Church Gate railway station but on the way I took a diversion and went to Colaba Causeway.
This place you can find the most beautiful antique pieces if you try your luck a bit hard. Everything was quoted so expensive but if you know how to bargain then you are the boss.
Anyway after spending some time at the causeway I walked back to the station borded a train and got down at Dadar station where the most famous the ' Chor Bazaar' (thief's market) was situated. The actual name of this place is 'Shor Bazaar' ( Noisy Market) which was pronounced wrong as Chor by one of the British colonial in the past. Getting famous with that name the thieves kept the name by selling all theft items. They literally had IPhones to Nikes. One guy was selling Adidas Superstars for just 700 bucks and iPhone 7 was just 28000. One guy was even selling laptops which clearly looked used and old. I was laughing out loud all this while I couldn't control my laugh and of course few of the products were fake and the other few which were original were robbed. (Couldn't capture anything since my phone got switched off. )
It was getting dark so I just went back to the station and went to bandra where I went to Banstand. It's just like a small rock beach with lot of rocks instead of sand. But , these rocks were slippery, so slippery that walking on them was almost impossible. I even slipped twice or thrice and almost fell. No wonder it's called " Ban-Stand". I was a bit tired so I just sat at the shore and relaxed for a while enjoying the cool breeze. It was very peaceful, all my tiredness went off in a while and now I had to head back to the hostel since it was already 9pm and I had not eaten my dinner. So I got into the train to Andheri East and took metro and got back to Chakkala and eventually lost my way back to hostel on the streets , everything looked pretty much the same and after struggling a bit I somehow reached.
Hostel life is really great , you get to meet fellow backpackers from all over the world who have been traveling the world. Many of them even quit their jobs to do this which was a bit similar to my case. In the night we all sat in the common area and chilled with a beer and dinner . Everyone shared their experiences and moments and got along so well and became good friends in such short span of time. It was 2am in the night and we all were tired and quite sleepy so we went to bed to sleep.
Websites and apps used :
Bus : https://m.redbus.in
Hostel : www.agoda.com , www.hostelworld.com , www.goibibo.com
Expenditures for Day 0 & Day 1 (in INR) :
Day 0 Bangalore to Mumbai
First day was pretty productive and I was suprised after I realized that I visited so many places in a day even though I wasn't rushing at all and had my moments everywhere.
Where was I going ? I don't know !
What was I doing? I don't know !
All I knew was I was living in the moment trying to find myself.
Did I find myself? I don't know !
Do I wanna stop ? No.
Until next time.
Go solo and try finding yourself!
-Srikanth Dannana
I booked a bus ticket to Mumbai from Bangalore; the bus was bound to leave in the afternoon on the next day. I couldn't sleep the whole night because I was too excited and a little scared . I hardly slept . I boarded the bus from Anand Rao Circle , Bangalore and got down at Andheri, Mumbai at around 8:00 am in the morning.
I quickly checked how far was the hostel that I planned to stay at and it was around 2.3km away from the place where I had got down. So, I decided to walk to the hostel using Google Maps. After around 10-15 minutes of walking, I reached the Backpacker Panda Hostel next to Chakala Metro Station.
I checked into the Hostel and got my bunk , everything was pretty smooth. The Dorm was quite dark since the fellow backpackers were sleeping and respecting that I didn't switch on the lights. Well, I was just settling down and I see one more guy walks into the dorm and we introduce each other realizing that we knew each other already. Yeah, he was from Bangalore too and was a friend. Without wasting anytime I quickly got freshened up and packed my bag , got out of the dorm and my grin faded upon the sight of rain . It was raining cats and dogs and Mumbai rains and traffic are pretty bad. A tough start to my Day 1 at Mumbai.
The rain stopped after an hour and I left the hostel to explore the city since I didn't want to waste any more time. I was damn confused about the ways and about how to reach to the places so I took some help from the localites and got into a metro from Chakala Metro Station to Andheri. From there I took a local train to Church Gate.
Believe me or not Mumbai local trains are very crowded. I have no idea how I entered the train and when I reached the other side of the entrance. It took me 5-10 mins to reach Church Gate and I was automatically out of the train , thanks to the crowd. I got out of the station and asked people for directions to The Gateway of India. One good man whom I asked for directions gave me a lift till Gateway of India.
The Gateway of India is a monument built during the 20th Century. It is located on the waterfront in the Apollo Bunder area in South Mumbai and overlooks the Arabian Sea.
Well, this beauty is a marvelous piece of creation.
Next I went to The Taj Mahal Hotel , the exact same place where the 26/11 bomb blast terror happened and left whole country in shock. This hotel was really a lavishly luxurious place. Since I was on a budget hitch hike trip I dint plan on blowing my money there so I got in asked for a glass of water and walked out like a cool boy trying to be funny(was quite embarrassing though).
Later I went on exploring the streets of Colaba asked for directions and walked my way to Marine Drive the Queens Necklace was never ending after walking for 20 mins I reached the place. The whole place is just a slab by the sea shore where people come and sit and chill around enjoying the sunset. I sat their for a while alone in between millions of couples thinking about life staring at that magnificent view. I was lost for a while I didn't even realize but I sat there for more than 3-4 hours just thinking and wondering about life.
After the sunset I walked back towards Church Gate railway station but on the way I took a diversion and went to Colaba Causeway.
This place you can find the most beautiful antique pieces if you try your luck a bit hard. Everything was quoted so expensive but if you know how to bargain then you are the boss.
Anyway after spending some time at the causeway I walked back to the station borded a train and got down at Dadar station where the most famous the ' Chor Bazaar' (thief's market) was situated. The actual name of this place is 'Shor Bazaar' ( Noisy Market) which was pronounced wrong as Chor by one of the British colonial in the past. Getting famous with that name the thieves kept the name by selling all theft items. They literally had IPhones to Nikes. One guy was selling Adidas Superstars for just 700 bucks and iPhone 7 was just 28000. One guy was even selling laptops which clearly looked used and old. I was laughing out loud all this while I couldn't control my laugh and of course few of the products were fake and the other few which were original were robbed. (Couldn't capture anything since my phone got switched off. )
It was getting dark so I just went back to the station and went to bandra where I went to Banstand. It's just like a small rock beach with lot of rocks instead of sand. But , these rocks were slippery, so slippery that walking on them was almost impossible. I even slipped twice or thrice and almost fell. No wonder it's called " Ban-Stand". I was a bit tired so I just sat at the shore and relaxed for a while enjoying the cool breeze. It was very peaceful, all my tiredness went off in a while and now I had to head back to the hostel since it was already 9pm and I had not eaten my dinner. So I got into the train to Andheri East and took metro and got back to Chakkala and eventually lost my way back to hostel on the streets , everything looked pretty much the same and after struggling a bit I somehow reached.
Hostel life is really great , you get to meet fellow backpackers from all over the world who have been traveling the world. Many of them even quit their jobs to do this which was a bit similar to my case. In the night we all sat in the common area and chilled with a beer and dinner . Everyone shared their experiences and moments and got along so well and became good friends in such short span of time. It was 2am in the night and we all were tired and quite sleepy so we went to bed to sleep.
Websites and apps used :
Bus : https://m.redbus.in
Hostel : www.agoda.com , www.hostelworld.com , www.goibibo.com
Expenditures for Day 0 & Day 1 (in INR) :
Day 0 Bangalore to Mumbai
Bus - 750
Cab to pick up point - 50
Snacks -40
Day 1- Mumbai
Hostel - 650
Breakfast - 10
Metro - 40
Local train- 20
Bus -20
Lunch- 60
Dinner - 120
Beer- 120
Though I tried to keep my expenses really low since I was on a budget trip I still ended up spending Rs.1880 the first two days.
Cab to pick up point - 50
Snacks -40
Day 1- Mumbai
Hostel - 650
Breakfast - 10
Metro - 40
Local train- 20
Bus -20
Lunch- 60
Dinner - 120
Beer- 120
Though I tried to keep my expenses really low since I was on a budget trip I still ended up spending Rs.1880 the first two days.
First day was pretty productive and I was suprised after I realized that I visited so many places in a day even though I wasn't rushing at all and had my moments everywhere.
Where was I going ? I don't know !
What was I doing? I don't know !
All I knew was I was living in the moment trying to find myself.
Did I find myself? I don't know !
Do I wanna stop ? No.
Until next time.
Go solo and try finding yourself!
-Srikanth Dannana