Had a great one week getaway to Mumbai with my brother and cousins. The idea was there always, but i could not find the right time as all my cousins were engineering students and getting a vacations and making it coincide with a week break in my time schedule was near impossible task. But then we got
the break in june and me, my brother jeevan and cousin ashwath were on our way to mumbai. We
had our aunty and cousin jubin, who is now having his training in federal bank after his engineering.
The tickets were booked by ashwath and he was the original tour coordinator. So we took the netravati train from Ernakulam and got on in the general compartment. Although we could fo to the AC as we had booked the same train to mumbai, i was kinda hesitant. The general trip was a killer and we all were mashed up in the heavy crowd till we reached trissur. At trissur we were joined by vijay and ashwath. Vijay was the other cousin and had come to see us. He had this wish to join us but had
classes. The tickets were booked in tatkal and i had my berth in B1-52 and the other 2 had in B2. We
had booked normal tickets too which were always in waiting list and we had to cancel it.  had bought some 3/4ths to wear in Mumbai as they were alien to our regional ‘mundu’. Shaym had chappathy and bread with cheese and tomaro curry which was kinda intuitive from Mani aunty. Chappathy wrapped in tomato was a new thing to us.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

I woke up at 6 when the train was traveling though goa. It was beautiful, it was greenery everywhere.
I never felt that i ever exited kerala. It was my first konkan experience. I had always traveled in
the other routes and exiting kerala was always painful as we had to endure barren wastelands and
rocky mountains with thorny bushes scattered everywhere. THis was a totally new experience, nature in
all its marvel. We saw viaducts and hundreds of tunnels. Passing through tunnels were really fun for
the firsttimers. For once it will be total darkness, then there will be a ray of light, then blast of
light.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

Lots of farmers were working in the fields below and we all enjoyed the beautiful kerala like
sceneries. Then after some times the tunnels started to be a boring sight. As we approached Mumbai it started to rain. It was the first monsoon tain in mumbai and we thought our trip was spoiled. But it
was a welcome sight as it broke all conventions that i had about bombay.We couls see low lying mist, and slow rain. There were no big bldingd or any industrial look to the place. There were mountains
looming above and around the city. I never thought i could see mountains and greenery inside a metro. We were welcomed by a last tunnel as we approached thane station. We saw numerous suburban trains rocketing past us.

From Mumbai Trip 20-26 jun 09

Jubin was there to welcome us and we took off to their flat at Raheja gardens in the honda city. The
day was for resting and we started to see the T20 finals which turned out boring. So we went to Rmall
which was a mall nearby, it was claimed to be the first mall in India. We had a whiskey for Rs10
Getting back we had a great talk with each other catching up and planning for the days ahead.

Now onto day 1.

Related posts:

1. Mumbai Trip – VT, Taj and GOI
2. Mumbai Trip – Worli, Juhu, 4D