Although for hundreds of years bridges have been connecting Mumbai to the mainland on India's Arabian Sea coast, the island city formerly known as Bombay remains a multicultural, technicolour world of its own.
Mumbai is India's financial powerhouse and nightlife HQ and yet has its largest slums. Throbbing with life, it's a cocktail of extremes where severe poverty rubs shoulders with the biggest, glitziest film industry in the world, and seething Oriental bazaars are as intrinsic a part of city life as buildings straight out of Victorian England.
Work your way through the jam-packed streets to the city's commercial hub, the Fort area, to Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus). Modelled on London's St Pancras station, it's a vast, mad Gothic feast of carved gargoyles, monkeys, peacocks and elephants, with a few buttresses, spires and stained-glass windows thrown in.
Another of the city's signature buildings is the 582-roomed Taj Mahal Hotel, which - even if you can't muster the rupees to stay there - is worth a visit just for the scenic value. Elaborately designed, it was also inexplicably built facing away from the sea towards the Gateway of India arch. Nearby, the obligatory excursion is hopping on a boat to Elephanta Island to gaze at its 1500-year-old rock-cut Shiva temples.
Heading north, you'll need to sharpen your elbows to work your way through the crowds of the Kalbadevi bazaars. Haggle for jewellery at the Zaveri Bazaar, textiles at Mangaldas Market, and anything under the sun at Chor Bazaar (the 'thieves' market). The best deals on leather goods are to be found further north in Dharavi.
In the evening take a stroll down Chowpatty Beach: this is where le tout Mumbai converges to snack on bhel puri, get a head massage from the malish-wallah and enjoy the live theatre of beach entertainers.
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