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By Root 2013 0

must-do experiences is high tea at the Taj Mahal Palace’s gorgeous Sea Lounge ( 022/6665-3366; daily 10am–midnight), a popular haunt of the city’s socialites who famously gather here to exchange gossip and tie up arrangements for family weddings. In fact, you won’t only be watching boats floating by in the harbor behind the Gateway of India (seen here through gigantic picture windows), but inevitably witnessing couples in the throes of courtship while their mums and aunties get to know each other over cucumber sandwiches and cups of the finest Assam and Darjeeling teas. Along with an update of its design that’s added a few contemporary colors and exquisite fabrics to the posh-but-cozy interior, the Sea Lounge now also serves traditional street snacks and chaat from a metal cart parked near the cake and sandwich buffet. For a mere Rs 850, you can stuff yourself silly, washing down the pani puri and vada pao with as much coffee and tea as you can manage. Take your time and lose yourself in the spectacular juxtaposition of the glamorous world you’re in against the lively scene down by the harbor wall, always brimming with camera-clicking vacationers immortalizing themselves in front of one of India’s most celebrated monuments.

Surrounded by colonial buildings that testify to the solid architecture of a bygone era, Flora Fountain has, since 1960, had to compete for attention with a Martyrs’ Memorial that honors those who died in the creation of the state of Maharashtra. As you head toward the fountain, take in the impressive High Court building (which overlooks the Oval Maidan [also called The Oval], where aspiring cricketers practice their paces), the neoclassical Army & Navy Building, and the 78m (256-ft.) Rajabai Clock Tower, which towers over the Mumbai University complex. East of the fountain lies Horniman Circle, where you will find the Town Hall, a regal colonnaded building with original parquet wood floors, wrought-iron loggias, spiral staircases, and marble statues of leaders associated with Mumbai’s history. The major draw here is the Asiatic Society Library, which has a collection of around 800,000 valuable texts. You can join the seniors and students who fill the library’s popular reading room to peruse local newspapers and check out the public book collection, but you’ll need special permission if you’re interested in viewing the priceless treasures.

Also facing Horniman Circle is the late-19th-century Gothic Venetian Elphinstone Building and, opposite it, on Veer Nariman Road, St. Thomas’s Cathedral, thought to be the oldest colonial structure in Mumbai. (Note that if you head west along Veer Nariman Rd., lined with restaurants, you will come to Marine Dr.) St. Thomas’s Cathedral is a stark contrast to the pink and blue neoclassical Kenneth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai’s oldest and loveliest Sephardic synagogue, located off K. Dubash Marg, on Forbes Street. North of Flora Fountain, up Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji Road, is the Art Deco–style Parsi fire temple, Watcha Agiary. Built in 1881, it features carvings in a distinctly Assyrian style.

If you prefer shopping (albeit of a tourist-trap nature) to architecture, opt for the famous Causeway (now officially renamed Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg, though, thankfully, no one refers to it as such). Budget travelers have long been drawn to this vibrant street, but in recent years Colaba and its side streets have begun to slip into an increasingly urbane and upmarket second skin. Hip bars, swinging clubs, and tasteful restaurants are drawing the smart crowd. Anything and everything seems to be available from the hawkers on Colaba’s sidewalks and back alleys, whether it’s fruit, cheap cigarettes, currency, or hashish. Shop in exclusive boutiques or rummage through heaps of cheap trinkets sold on the sidewalks, where you can bargain for everything from imitation perfume to piles of cheap, tasteless T-shirts, all the while avoiding the advances of streetwise beggars and con artists sporting half-moon smiles and incongruous American accents.

Beyond the southernmost end of the Causeway