The Loon in Mumbai - P2

Alright!! Lets  get to it! This post will take up from day 3 and we'll try to cover all the stuff till the time of me starting to write this post. A lot happened in these last few days but I'll try and keep it entertaining and not too long.

So day 3 was working day, which meant my cousins went to work and I had to figure out for myself what to do and where to go. I spent the first half relaxing at home and then decided to hit another touristy spot, the Prtihvi Cafe. I took an auto, but somehow when I said "Prithvi Theatre" and he said "haan", I still managed to be dropped off at the wrong location. From there it wasn't too far either so I walked to my destination. Now, I had heard a lil about this place and the kind of crowd that comes here, a lot of cool folk, some hipsters, some for business and some just to hang out. My regular readers would know I don't prefer crowded places, especially if they're popular and I'm trying to have a good time by myself. So, I walk in, take a look at the crowded cafe ( on a Monday afternoon?!), ordered myself an Irish Coffee(their signature beverage) for takeaway, and headed for the beach. Juhu beach is right around the corner from that cafe, almost, so I meandered my way to the sandy shore, sipping on the delicious coffee.

It was less crowded and I could see the waves and the sky and across the length of the beach. It was nice, for a while. There was less litter across the beach too which made it better than the night before. I walked around a bit, looking for a clear spot to just stand and look at the open sea. I finally found a spot clean enough, no people within a reasonable radius and close enough to the sea that the waves would get my feet wet. I stood in the exact spot for about 20 minutes, during which the wind again had restyled my hair and about 5 pieces of litter had floated  back to shore near me, which is mostly why the charm of the beach withers quite quickly. From there I walked back home, which was a good walk in the weather but in the flip flops quite tiring. Once back home just rested and that's all for day 3.

Day 4 had me going back to Marine Drive, but this time early morning, this time hitching a ride two-thirds of the way from my cousin on her way to work. That allowed me to experience travelling across the sea link, which is one heck of a scenic drive and I missed Elaine SOOO much. From my cousin's office, I took a local cab to cover the remaining distance, and its a pleasant ride. Finally I reached Marine Drive and got off on the opposite end from Day 2, and decided to first walk as far as possible towards the other end. I got pretty close to the Air India building from where I turned around and looked for a good spot to sit on my walk back. I finally found a nice spot and settled in to it, with a nice mixtrack in my earphones. The tide was higher during the day so the waves would crash upon those rocks and the splash and spray would reach till the area where people sit. I knew that, and I enjoyed it for the most part. This time I spent about 40 mins looking out at the sea and the skies, constantly being buffeted by the wind, saw the crabs that live on the rocks chilling on them, occasionally getting splashed off.

At this point I got hungry again, so I decided to browse my phone for the nearest place to eat. While I was looking at my phone, only at that point, a particularly big wave hit the rocks near my location and the resulting splash soaked me completely. I was warned that the waves get close but it caught me off guard, so I looked up, expecting other people who were sitting nearby earlier having the same issue and then we could kind of look at each other and be like "ehhh" and laugh and then go our separate ways. Sadly I was the only one not paying enough attention who got soaked and nobody else did. So I decided to walk it off in the sun, and let my shirt and trousers, currently wet, dry off.

Luckily by the time I reached a place to grab a bite, I had dried off. I got a strawberry waffle as a snack, which was a bit pricey given the quantity, but still good when hungry. From there I took a cab again, to go till the Gateway of India which is close to another place I wanted to cross off on my checklist, Cafe Mondegar. It was still early, so I decided to explore a lil more and went to the National Gallery of Modern Art. No point really, because I don't really understand it except that it was definitely not easy and kudos to the guy who managed it. Most paintings don't interest me, but still it was nice to explore that building too. From there I went down the streets, stopping at Cafe Leopold for lunch and then finally checking in to Cafe Mondegar for a mid-day beer.

After that I headed home around 1 PM to rest up for the long evening ahead. Again, crossing the sea-link was fun and the roads were not too congested so I reached peacefully and in time.

Okay, so this has become a long post already, that's why I'm gonna talk about the second half of day 4 and my day 5 in the next post. Stay tuned for the latest updates from the loon! Thanks for reading, hope you liked it.