The Mumbai zoo and city museum (pic-heavy)
So, you know how you never do the tourist stuff where you live until you have visitors? Guilty. Two of my wife's friends from Austria were in town, so we went to the Mumbai zoo and the neighboring City museum.
The zoo was kind of a bust (it's been "under construction" since 1987, apparently, and there was a backhoe that just kind of wandered around the grounds digging as far as we could tell at random); many of the cages are empty, and it's a very old school "jail for animals" model of a zoo (it was built in 1862, so there's that, but still...)
The obligatory elephant
And the hippo
Tapirs and crocodiles(!) I'm not sure if crocodiles don't eat tapir, or if that's just how they feed the crocodiles
A monkey that needs to join a gym
It's full of pithy signs about the importance of conservation and biodiversity
And the botanical side is much more informative than the zoological side; I had no idea these grew on trees (but, seriously, just about every plant was properly labeled with English, Latin, Hindi, and Marathi names, plus range and conservation status, whereas the animals' pens just said "monkey" or "bear" or "elephant"
.
Shhh... you'll wake the invisible bear....
The sign says "Do Not Sleep on the Lawn"
The most interesting animal to us wasn't on display; it was the colony of flying foxes (giant fruit bats) that live in one of the banyan groves. Unfortunately they don't come out until dusk, but you can sometimes see them flying around over my neighborhood (I live across the train tracks from the zoo).
Next to the zoo and gardens is the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad City Museum (formerly the Victoria and Albert Museum), a museum of the history of Mumbai. Disappointingly, it didn't include anything after Independence, so nothing on Bollywood, the city's rise to global prominence, etc., but the collection was solid.
It was built in 1862, fell into neglect in the 1970s or so, and was only renovated a few years ago.
The restored interior is spectacular
I particularly love the ceiling
It includes some east asian art from the Presidency period (mid 19th century)
A cool suit of armor from Shivaji Bhosale's 18th-century army
An awesome hookah
A bunch of model boats featuring the lateen, the sail rig that changed the world
Some very old musical instruments
And some troubling ethnography sketches ("This is a representative of the Marathi race. They are less fair than the Parsees but more fair than the Kopis. Their main activities are agriculture and fishery." etc.)
The zoo is only 10 rupees (25 if you want to take a camera in; a lot of sites have a "camera fee" . The museum is 100 rupees for foreigners, 10 for locals (most tourist spots have that dual fee structure; I'm not sure why the zoo didn't). They take about 2 hours to do in total; if you ever find yourself in central Mumbai, I recommend the museum, at least.
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Thanks for posting this. 
K & R!