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Mumbai, India
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Mumbai, India
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 Famed as Bombay until recently reverting to its original name, dedicated to the local goddess Mumba Devi, it's hard to believe that this cosmopolitan city was once a cluster of seven sleepy fishing villages spread out along a string of islands on the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. The region belonged to the Portuguese, until it was gifted to England's Charles II as part of Catherine de Braganza's dowry, and it was under British rule that the city and with it the whole of India were eventually brought into the modern age - although not by any altruistic desire on the part of its new rulers.
There is a vibrancy here, and an energy that is more than the sum of its parts. This is a city of anachronisms. Native citizens still live here as they have done for centuries, but nowadays in central Mumbai, they do so in the shadow of skyscrapers reflecting neon adverts in their gleaming, mirrored windows. It's the most affluent city in India, but has more poor on its streets than any other Indian conurbation. Frustrating at first you soon learn to go with the crowd, and it's rare that you find such irredoubtable optimism and energy among a large city populace. Ironically in many ways it's only once you have visited and departed Mumbai that you retrospectively appreciate its allure.
There is also plenty to see in the Victoriana, that still forms much of the city's landscape (such as the Victoria Terminus train station or the Rajabai Clock both of which would look equally at home in London) and the even older attractions such as the caves of nearby Elephanta Island. And there is much to be admired in the attitude of the city, built by a foreign power it has developed a character distinctly its own, and if it isn't typically Indian, equally nowhere else can claim an influence on it either. Nobody will come here planning on spending their entire stay on the sub-continent in the city, but Mumbai is no longer merely the "Gateway to India". Spend a few days here at either end of your journey and discover the India of the 21st century as well as the relics of an India from centuries past.
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