Wandering The Streets of “Old Bombay” India

The modern city of Mumbai is truly a sprawling urban jungle. The city seems to continually push its existing boundaries with new developments. However, nestled in the heart of the main area of the city is a neighborhood called “Old Bombay.” It is actually not really called this but many people and guidebooks still refer to this area of the city by this name. Basically it is an incredibly dense neighborhood with numerous streets, markets, buildings, etc. Mix this with the thousands of people coming and going and you get the perfect place to “wander.” I had read about this area in our lonely planet guidebook and was excited to explore. We stepped out of Crawford Market (an incredibly busy market place) and simply crossed the street and immediately found ourselves in “Old Bombay.” The area is almost impossible to describe but I will do my best. We were walking down a very narrow street filled with thousands of people. There were businessmen, Muslim women in full headdresses, Hindu women in colorful dresses, delivery men pushing carts and carrying all sorts of things,animals wandering around, etc. There were also thousands of colorful signs adorning the old worn out buildings which really gave it a unique look. There were also hundreds of motorcycles and bicycle rickshaws that were winding their way through the maze of people and streets. The sound of the area was also extremely unique. There was the hum of motorcycles, the bells of bicycles, people talking, touts shouting from their shop doorways, dogs barking, etc, etc. Finally, the smell of the area can only be described in one two words…so India. The entire country has a specific smell (spices, amazing food, pollution, body odor, animals, etc). It doesn’t sound very good but I found myself loving the smell and missing it greatly once we left the country. The assault on the senses of sight, smell and sound was truly intoxicating and we loved it. We wandered this area for hours just getting lost, people watching and trying to take in the scene with both real pictures and mental ones. We eventually made our way out of this unique neighborhood but will never forget the experience of wandering through Old Bombay. To this day whenever I see a one of our pictures from Old Bombay I am immediately transported to the sights, sounds and smells of this one-of-a-kind place.