Mumbai is a city that never quite stands still, and for a rider the first lesson is that the road belongs to everyone. Taxis, buses, rickshaws, scooters, handcarts, cows and pedestrians share every lane, and the horn is a language, used for greeting, warning and complaint. More than twelve million people live in the city proper, and many more in the surrounding region, making it one of the largest urban areas on earth. It was called Bombay until 1995.
The city grew from seven islands on the west coast of India, which were joined by land reclamation, and it became a great port under the British. The colonial buildings near the harbour, among them the Gateway of India, a basalt arch built to welcome a king, and the Victorian Gothic railway terminus, now a World Heritage site, still dominate the old south. The film industry, Bollywood, grew up in the north, and the beaches and the seafront promenade along Marine Drive fill each evening with people watching the sunset.
The ride that begins here follows the Konkan coast, a long strip of green land between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, to the south. The road leaves the city through Navi Mumbai and Panvel, and the first hours are slow, with trucks and traffic, before it opens into hills, rice fields and coconut palms. Fuel is easy to find in the city and along the highway, though stations get sparser in the lush south. Avoid the monsoon months, from June to September, when rain is torrential and landslides can close the roads.
The coast is famed for its seafood, its fine mangoes and its quiet beaches. The Alphonso, a small golden mango from this region, is among the best in the world, and in April and May it is sold from roadside stalls. Leave before dawn to beat the traffic, and carry water. The road south becomes a pleasure, but the city has to be crossed first.