South Asian Business Association @ Stern

Mumbai

Bombay (as it was called earlier) was once a group of seven islands whose inhabitants, the Kolis, have given the city its Indian name, MUMBAI, after their goddess, Mother Mumbai. Bombay is a city of paradoxes: renowned as the country's financial nerve center, it is an important center of theatre, art, music and classical dance.

Today the cosmopolitan population of the city consists of people from all over the country. It is center of industry, commerce and foreign trade, a city of skyscrapers and huts (a result of too quick growth and inadequate accommodation), a city of milling crowds and vitality, a city on the move. A city steeped in tradition, and a rich historical past, it is yet a city where contemporary scientific and business practices flourish. A vibrant, colorful and busy metropolis, Bombay is the premier city in western India.

Your Guided Tour of Mumbai

After buffet breakfast at the hotel, you will proceed for a short city tour. Your first stop is the Gateway of India, the landmark of Bombay, which, was before the advent of air travel, the only gateway to India. It was built to commemorate the visit of King George and Queen Mary to India in 1911. Your first stop will be the Jain Temples, built of marble and dedicated to the first Jain Tirthankara.
From the temples you will be driven along Malabar Hill via the Tower of Silence - a round stone construction on which Parsis place their dead to be eaten by the vultures and Hanging Gardens which is built over Bombay’s reservoir. From Malabar Hill you will be driven to the Dhobi Ghats a huge open-air laundry, which makes an interesting viewing. You will be then driven along Marine Drive, the sea - Front Boulevard. It is also known as the Queen’s Necklace as in the evening, the breeze from the Arabian Sea comes over Marine Drive and as the streetlights on this U-shaped road light up, the view resembles that of a Queen’s Necklace.