Mumbai (aka Bombay)

So I made it to Mumbai! Flew in on India airline KingFisher, totally cool flight.
My driver called me to say he was here, so that was cool. The car was a little on the down low but that's cool. But my driver once I'm all settled in "where are you going?". Here I thought through all these emails and guys are work called to verify he'd totally know where to go. So I say the name of hotel (which is a landmark hotel). He sounds like he never heard of it, and asks for a street. I was like um I don't know? It's by the Gateway to India wall (again another major icon). So he tries calling dispatch or something, doesn't get through. I pull out my travel book, there's no address for hotel. I found a picture of it and he recognizes it. Now another funny thing is drive into Bombay is 1 hour in good traffic. As we get into city I can totally tell this is a real city like Boston, NYC, LA, etc. and it's totally spread out. It feels like a hybrid of Boston because of the old british section (where I stayed), NYC's highrises and commercial buildings, and beachfront portion reminding me of SF for Embarkadero.
I guess he wanted to help be a tour guide but it was so funny what he pointed out. It was like total ordinary buildings. This is a hospital on left, I'd look left and yup a hospital (plus in big letters said, "hospital"). He kept doing this for all sorts of buildings. On left is college, (pass by another sign saying "blank" college). I just went along with it, but I was just chuckling inside. Then he'd complain Mumbai is just all commercial buildings nothing really for you to see. Once we actually got to hotel he was like you saw all of Mumbai on drive over, nothing left to see. Dude, not a very good tour guide. We didn't see anything yet from my tour guide book, and he's saying I'm done. So I was having serious doubts about having him drive me around tomorrow.
So we get near hotel, and all these security people etc (this is where the terrorist attacks happened and I'm staying actually in that very hotel where everything happened). Then driver didn't know how to get into hotel. Now I ask him how this works because he's supposed to be my driver for tomorrow and to airport. He said just call him tomorrow for when to pickup and I can settle bill then. I was like cool.
I got checked in (worked called and got me upgraded for free..very cool!) and was being shown my room when driver called. Said the security perimeter or something wanted money from him or something could I pay him for today. So he said he'll be in a second and what room number am I. So I said the room and finished with being shown various things for my room. Before I got chance to go downstairs, someone rings my room bell, and I open the door to see my driver standing there. I was totally shocked. So I paid him and said I'd call him tomorrow for time to pick me up and head back to airport. Ah, but good thing he did point out was that huge palace/skyscraper that richest man in world lives in. I made an arrow on photos. I had read about him somewhere. He's like number 4 in world for wealth. His home which is just for him and his family (4 total) live in a 25 story skyscraper. He's guy who had some feud with his bro, but they used to business partners.
Well, I went on long enough about this.
I took a bath before heading out, which was SO relaxing. I hadn't done a long bath in ages, plus Mumbai is way more humid than Bangalore. Today was all about adjusting to a different climate. So I walked around for about 3-4 hours today. Visited a couple museums and galleries. Once I got away from tourist spot like the gateway I wasn't bothered by people trying to sell me things, or go on their tour. Which was great because they would not take no for an answer when I walked by the gateway. That got old real quick after the 5th person in like 5 seconds was accosting me.
I totally loved just walking and being on my own with being driver dependent. Man, crossing streets in India is like crazy. It's the complete opposite of the US, by that I mean the pedestrian does NOT have the right of way above a car. If you don't hustle out of the way they would probably run you over.
After all that walking my feet got tired and I headed back. Tomorrow I take a short boat ride to Elephanta island.