Columbus Cruise Review

Home > Cruise Destination Guide > Mumbai

Time Zone: GMT + 5.30.

Currency: Rupee (Rs) = 100 paise.

Language: Hindi; English is widely spoken.

Sightseeing: Mumbai is a colourful, vibrant, energetic and friendly city, with a varied and fascinating history. It boasts the finest collection of Victorian buildings anywhere in Asia and a myriad of temples and mosques. Some examples of High Victorian architecture include Mumbai University, Standard Chartered Bank Building and Municipal Corporation Building, while other sites worth a visit are: the Shrine of Haji Ali (a Muslim saint who died while on pilgrimage to Mecca), which overlooks the sea; Jehangir Art Gallery; the neo-classical Town Hall, built between 1821 and 1833 to desgins by Colonel Thomas Cowper; St Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral; Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, comparable to New York’s Grand Central Station or London’s St Pancras; and the Gateway of India, built by the British to commemorate the visit to India in 1911 of King George V and Queen Mary.

Shopping: Spices, silks, electrical goods, diamonds, Indian furniture and tailor-made clothes.

Eating Out: Mumbai duck (curried or fried bombloe fish) and pomfret (Indian salmon). Another speciality is the Parsi Dhan Sak (lamb or chicken cooked with curried lentils) and Vindaloo.