6 Best Sights in CST and Environs, Mumbai

As soon as you step into the neighborhood of Bhuleshwar, you are immediately swamped under a sea of scurrying humanity. Bhuleshwar is home to myriad temples, including the Shree Mumbadevi Temple, the Shree Bhuleshwar Temple, and the Shree Jagdish Temple, as well as a clutch of baugs—walled community centers, each one home to rest houses, eateries, temples, stores, and the like. Bhuleshwar is also home to the Panjrapole, the city’s oldest existing animal shelter, where you can feed grassy blobs (available at the reception for a miniscule fee) to the cows and buffaloes sheltered within. Bhuleshwar is a world unto itself, and offers an excellent insight into the way various Hindu communities lived under the British.

Renamed Mahatma Jyotiba Phule market decades ago, but still known by its original name, this building was designed in the 1860s by John Lockwood Kipling (father of Rudyard, who was born in this very neighborhood). The market's stone flooring supposedly came from Caithness, Scotland. Check out the stone relief depicting workers on the outside of the building. Come here early in the morning for a colorful walk through Mumbai's fresh-produce emporium, and if it's late spring or early summer, treat yourself to a delicious Alphonso mango—the experience has had many people rhapsodize that they've never truly had a mango until they ate one of these. Everything from cookies and party streamers to cane baskets is sold in other sections of the market—the meat section can be a bit hair-raising. In the middle lane (Sheikh Memon Street) of Crawford Market, is the chaotic Mangaldas Market, a covered, wholesale cloth market with a tremendous variety of fabrics at hundreds of indoor stalls. Across the street from the market's main entrance on the west, spread across a trio of lanes, is a smaller but popular bazaar area called Lohar Chawl, where the selection ranges from plastic flowers to refrigerators.

If you're headed to the market during the monsoon, wear rain boots or shoes you don't mind getting dirty. The floors can become quite mucky.

Built by the British in 1888, this is one of India's—and probably the world's—busiest train stations, overflowing at rush hour with enormous, surging, scurrying crowds who use the suburban lines that also originate here (Mumbai's suburban trains carry 8 million people a day). Although it's been renamed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, it's still commonly called Victoria Terminus or just VT, and it bears a hefty statue of Lady Progress on its imposing dome, the haughty structure combining Indian and Victorian Gothic architecture for an Eastern version of London's St. Pancras station. Why visit? To spend a few minutes admiring the enormous, incredible UNESCO World Heritage site, which is even more arresting lit up at night. It also houses a small museum within that opens every afternoon for a few hours. If you're brave, walk around the corner to the modern suburban extension of the station around rush hour—9 am or 5:30 pm—and experience Mumbai's maddening crowds. Even better, take a ride on a local train (but avoid the rush hour); many say you have not experienced Mumbai unless you have ridden one.

At the Bhuleshwar (the name of a neighborhood) end of Zaveri Bazaar is the six-century-old Mumbadevi Temple, a noisy, busy structure that houses the mouthless but powerful patron goddess who is the city's namesake. Aarti, evening prayers, take place at 6:30 pm.

North of Crawford Market via P. D'Mello Road, past Carnac Bunder and right next to the Masjid train station, is the hard-to-find Shaare Rahamim, built in 1796. The mildly dilapidated synagogue is still in use, and you're welcome to peek inside.

Mumbai's crowded, century-old jewelry market a few blocks northwest of Crawford Market has shops filled with fabulous diamond, gold, and silver in every conceivable design. The tumultuous streets are lined with tiny, decades-old family jewelry businesses. Duck into one and sip a customary cup of tea or coffee while a salesperson shows you the merchandise. Most shops are authentic, but beware of false silver and gold; it's difficult to spot the fakes, so it might be best to buy primarily for appearance and make intrinsic value a secondary consideration.

Most of the traders working in Zaveri Bazaar are from the Gujarati community, which is why the food stalls in the area serve all manner of Gujarati snacks. Look for the sev khamni, a savory chickpea flour dish served with sweet and spicy chutneys.