Spending the PERFECT day in Mumbai 🇮🇳 (NOT what I expected)

Hey it's Phoebe and today I'm in Mumbai. A vibrant city with over 23 million residents, Mumbai is one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world. Renowned for its bustling streets, vibrant outdoor bazaars, rich history and mouth-watering cuisine, Mumbai stands as India's financial, commercial and entertainment capital. In this episode, I explore Mumbai for the very first time. Embarking on a solo adventure to discover the city's top sights, flavors and experiences as we dive into the heart of this incredible city and uncover just what it is that makes Mumbai truly unforgettable. I'm just in the middle of a crime. I'm in the middle of an active crime scene. This is what I've been waiting for this whole trip. We are starting our day off at the world's largest open-air laundry. No, I can hold it but let me introduce you to Anand. Don't run away. This is Anand, our guide for today. He is already amazing, you guys. They know I've been having a bit of a rough time here in India and some of the guides have really made it. Our guide Singh in Udaipur was amazing and now Anand here is amazing as well. Do you want to tell them about this, what we're seeing? Hello, boys. Hello, guys. Hello, girls. How are you? My name is Anand. Anand means happy. Perfect. You can remember me as Mr. Happy. So, I'm with Miss Lee. We are in front of the world's biggest laundry. They are washing more than 300,000 clothes every day. That's a lot. The site is very colorful. It's known for its very efficient logistic and management system that ensures that there's never a case of wrong delivery. It's a very interesting place. I would request you to visit Bombay and have a hands-on experience of this particular laundry. Have a nice day. I agree. I think it's amazing. Now, you can actually book a tour to go in there and it's about a one-hour tour or so to explore it. I would love to do that. We do not have time today, unfortunately. I'll have a link below for where you can book that or if you come here with Anand, he said I could just pay somebody 500 rupees, which is a bargain, to go in there and have that experience. I think that's a good way to bring value to that community rather than just standing up here and photographing it and then leaving. Actually getting in there and adding some value to it would be amazing. So, I definitely recommend doing that. If you do, let me know how it is because I'm jealous you're going to get to do it and I'm not. Our video this week is sponsored by the amazing team at Aerolo, the world's first eSIM store. Aerolo helps travelers find eSIMs to provide data connectivity in over 200 countries and regions. Now, I actually switched to using Aerolo many months ago, so I was thrilled when they reached out and asked to sponsor this video as I genuinely love and use them. To use, you just download the Aerolo app, choose your destination and package, install and activate your eSIM and you are ready to go directly once you land. Now, the reason I actually switched to Aerolo was because I love that I can buy my eSIMs using Apple Pay and install them so easily through the app. It has honestly made my whole travel life so much easier. Now, I'll have a link for you in the video description. You can also use the QR code you see on screen now. You can download the Aerolo app and use my special code PHOEBE3 for three dollars off your first eSIM and you too can get connected on your next adventure. Our next stop is here to the Hanging Gardens and Anand has just told me a story. It's not a story, it's a fact about what's going on at this garden. It's knocked my socks clean off. Tell them, Anand. Hello friends, we are at Hanging Gardens. It is the highest point in the city. We are at the level of 1,000 feet above sea level. Underneath this garden is a water reservoir that is used to supply water to the citizens who are living in the vicinity of this particular region. That is not the shocking part. Yeah, I'm coming to the shocking part. Behind this, we have a place called Tower of Silence. Now, this is the place where my followers of Zoroastrian religion, they dispose of the dead bodies by keeping the dead bodies at the top of the tall tower and allowing and they want the vultures, crows, eagle and kite to be eating these dead bodies. So, unless the garden was built, these birds were eating the dead bodies and they were dropping the bones in the reservoir. The water quality was getting polluted and that is the reason by building the garden over this reservoir, the quality of water has been protected. So, now we are drinking pure water. Do you like the way you said it so casually? I'm really enjoying Mumbai. I'll be honest with you, after the start of this trip, the last few episodes, if you watch them, you know, I'm having a rough time. I was talking to my sister on voice notes this morning and I was just saying to her like, I don't know what to expect from today. I probably don't think I'm going to like it, but I'm going to try and make the best of it. I was really negative. I was the worst version of myself. I was like, I don't know what to expect. I have to tell you, I'm really enjoying Mumbai already. As you know, I travel because I love the history and the connection and that's what I've been missing so far. Udaipur was great. It was so beautiful and I had a great time there, but this is even better for me and Anand is just teaching me so much. It's not even funny and just coming into these like neighborhoods like this and coming into the streets, like the people are like waving and smiling at me and just that authentic, genuine connection that I love so much when I travel and I'm learning so much and I'm seeing so much and it's just, this is what I've been waiting for this whole trip and it is finally happening. I'm so glad I hung in there. So I'd just like to introduce some of the food items, street foods. This is the most popular street food called a bread sandwich. You can see we have a couple of vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, onion, capsicum that are placed between breads. So when the bread is toasted, it is called a toast sandwich. When it is grilled, it is called a grilled sandwich, vegetable sandwich. Yeah, but that feels like what I used to have for lunch in Australia at school. What if I want to try something more authentic? I'll give you more authentic one. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. It is time for a coffee break. So Anand brought me here to Third Way Coffee because I let him know I have some very specific requirements for coffee. I like a cold brew and I really needed to have some dairy-free milk. He was kind enough to find me somewhere that wasn't Starbucks but I think maybe it's kind of similar. Is this a chain? Are there multiple? Yeah, Third Way Coffee is a chain. It's a chain? I don't mind. I'm happy if it's a good coffee. Let's try it. That, sometimes the coffee just hits your soul. That one's hitting my soul. The coffee's for me a few and far between here and I really appreciate it when I get a good one. They also had some just like easy breakfast stuff like chocolate chip pancakes. I would happily sit in there and just take a breather in the aircon if you're here on a really hot day, have some cake, have some coffee and relax. And then behind this is Chowpatty Beach. So you can easily just walk across when it's a little bit cooler and explore Chowpatty Beach. I gotta tell you, Mumbai, you've taken me by surprise. And now guys, I request you to videograph me because your viewers will like what I have to say. Do you want to try and vlog? I'll show you how to do it. You just hold that and then talk to the camera and I'll hold the umbrella. Hello, we are at the Gateway of India. This is the symbol of the might and pride of the Great British Empire which you can see behind me. He's doing it. Yes, this was built when we have King George V and his wife coming, Queen Mary coming to India. And this is inspired from a very prestigious monument in Paris, Arc de Triomphe. You can see a beautiful building behind me, that's the building of Taj Hotel. There are many interesting things about the Taj Hotel. I'm giving the camera to Miss Lee. This is my favourite day. So the Taj Hotel is like a super fancy hotel, right? Yes. So if you want to stay like uber, uber, uber, uber luxury, that's the place to do it. Well, we just need to talk for a second about Elephanta Caves. That was something we were meant to do today. And Anand and I had a bit of a strategy meeting this morning about what we were going to do and see and film. And he was like, oh, we'll go to Elephanta Caves. By the way, that's four hours. And I was like... Minimum four, four and a half hours, actually four and a half hours. I refused to go because that's a huge chunk of our day for one thing. And you guys, it's so hot. We're here in the height of summer. So Anand agreed with me. He was like, yes, amazing. An absolute must do, but just not today, given this heat and how much time we have. It is time for lunch. And I told Anand that I like South Indian food. So he brought me here to a place called Anna Idli. So this is idli and vada. They are made up of a batter of lentils and rice. Idli is just, the batter is steamed. It is put in mold and then steamed while vada is deep fried version of the batter of lentil and rice. Okay. The idli was great. It was so light and soft. It was almost like you get really soft white bread and you cut the middle out of it like a hole. It was like that. That's excellent for coffee. Oh, wait, you can probably do it better than me. You have to get a maximum. Maximum torque? Use the height. That, that one is very hot. I don't know how you did that so easily. They did ask me if I wanted it with sugar or without. I said without. This is going to be made on cow milk. I don't like the taste of cow milk, but I really want to try this anyway and that tastes very much like cow milk. I think maybe the flavor of cow milk isn't my favorite, but that is good. And if you do drink normal milk, try it. Oh, I need a water chaser. I would have just ordered my regular paper masala dosa. He said, no, we're ordering something else. They've got the henna hands. So an Indian is using spoon and fork. I'm going for you. While an Australian is using her finger. A white lady is sitting here with her hands. While an Australian is using her finger. Oh my God. It's so funny. Let's try some sauce. So this is called exchange of culture. Oh my God. Really good. If you saw my golden triangle videos, I was saying that there were some places I was taken to that I thought were tourist traps. There were places that were jacking up the prices. One of them was just a roadside restaurant. It was a thousand rupees just for one little curry. It was so expensive. And then I was demanded to pay a tip on top of that here. We have just eaten all of that food that you saw and the coffees and it was 820 rupees. Come on, come on. That is good value. And that's what you should be paying. What they were doing to me up in the North. They were ripping me off here. This is, this is excellent. I'm very happy with that for really good quality, clean, safe, delicious food. So just something to keep in mind. I can't believe I'm about to say what I'm about to say. I'm in a stolen car market. I'm surrounded by crime. My pulse is racing. I love it. Um, so basically, sorry, people be stealing cars and bringing them here to get chopped. Um, this one's waiting to get chopped and they're chopping one down here. Let's go have a look. I did ask and I was like, is it okay for me to film? And he was like, yeah, I don't care. Um, here, let's have a look at the boys chopping this car behind me. That is crazy. That's your car. I found it. Don't fight them. This is unbelievable. So all around me is just all chopped up car parts. I'm just in the middle of a crime. I'm in the middle of an active crime scene. This is just a place where people are working hard. I'm in a chop shop. So this is pudina jaljeera. Pudina is mint and jaljeera is a mixture of spices that are digestive. Okay. So this is a drink that contains mint plus digestive product. As of now, the temperature could be somewhere 37, 38 degrees. So I'm going to chill myself at the same time. She has offered me a very heavy meal. I'm trying to digest that heavy meal. Look at him going for it. Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. Cow shelter now. The cow shelter? Oh my God. I'm so happy. Do you want a hand? Let me pick it up. Anand just brought me somewhere. I told him how much I love animals. He's like, do you want to go and make some offerings to cows? It's like 45 rupees. We'll pay him and we can feed the cows. The babies. I'm so, I've never been happy. This is my happiest moment in life. Look at the little ones. Little babies. Hello. Babies are so annoying. That's him. You guys are so cute. Look at all these curious little babies. Hey, little babies. They are so beautiful. What I love about Indian culture is I can get close to them and not feel sad because I know they're not going to get eaten. No, these babies are going to be so spoiled and revered. Thank you so much, sir. That was amazing. Thank you so much. So just said goodbye to Anand and I had to force a dip on him. I cannot tell you how today has been for me. It has been so wonderful. That man is incredible. I think up until this point, the best way I can say it to you is I have felt like, I felt like I lost my humanity in the north of India. I just became this thing to be seen and photographed. And I was kind of talking to Anand about that. And I just shared that I had had a really difficult time in the north. And he was so, just such a great listener. You know, I said to him, do you have tortoise? And he was like, yeah, I do. And I was like, I can tell you've got girls. I can just tell you're a girl, dad. He's just such a sweet, kind, generous man. So lovely, so patient, and so intelligent. Whoa, he is such an intelligent man. Like, I was never good at school. I was never book smart at school. There were subjects I did really well at, but I always struggled. Like if someone just tells me things, I'm not so good at just learning that. Today, I got to stand in places where history has taken place and have somebody talk me through it and get such a rich education on India and its history and its culture. I was able to connect with people and walk around the streets and feel so safe and welcomed and calm and happy and have those genuine moments with people. I was able to let my guard down. I fell in love with Mumbai today. I fell in love with it. I will absolutely be coming back here to do this again, because I have loved it here so very much. Now, for accommodation, I'm staying at a hotel called Wego. The hotel itself is okay. The room is fine. It's clean and comfortable. It's small and cozy. I really like it with the window up. I can sit there and watch the sunset over Mumbai. It's very close to the airport, which is really, really convenient for me. The bathroom needs a real deep clean. It gets hot and humid in that thing, and there is mold everywhere. It just needs some upkeep. I will come back to Mumbai again sometime in my life, and I wouldn't stay there again. I would book something really, really nice. I would book a really, really fancy hotel. I would really go all out and treat myself, let me tell you. So, I'll have some links to hotels that I would choose in the video description below, and I would love if you would put your hotel recommendations in there, too, if you've stayed here before. And if you're a local and you're from Mumbai, could you please add some stuff? Because I've only had one day. I barely scratched the surface. So, I would love to know for next time, you know, what are some more things that you think I should see and do? And what should other people see and do? What are the best places to eat? What are the must-try foods? What are the great cafes, the neighborhoods, the streets, the tours, the guides? Like, just tell us everything, because I will come back, and I want to have an even better itinerary next time with my dear friend Anand, who I just adore. And I will have his details in the video description. Please reach out to him if you want an unforgettable time here in Mumbai. He is just incredible. And with that, my whole India trip has just turned around in one day, and I'm so happy. And that brings this week's episode to a close. I really hope you've enjoyed this one. I know I have. Now, if you don't already, be sure to subscribe right now so you never miss a single episode, and say hello in the comments below. I hope you have a really great weekend, and I will see you with a brand new episode next week. Love you.