The Leela Kempinski is one of Mumbai's finest hotels

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I’d awaited my morning flight to India with the dread of a man facing the gallows. Before me lay a day of travelling across numerous time zones before touching down in a hot, humid environment at 3am the following day. As travel plans go, it seemed to have been forged in Hades.

My disposition, however, could not have been better. My mood was light and I was wearing a smile suggestive of either a significant birthday or moderately substantial lottery win. Those around me were similarly carefree and buoyant. We were seated on the tarmac at Heathrow, but already feeling joyous.

Glasses of champagne were being attentively placed on small tables beside our capacious leather seats, canapés were being proffered by a charming woman in Arab dress and the cool, wet dark of the inclement English winter was fast being forgotten.

Travelling with Etihad was luxurious

As we soared skywards on our Etihad flight for Mumbai, it became apparent why an airline more famous for its sponsorship of Chelski and Manchester City’s Middle Eastlands is presently the world’s favourite. Etihad was named the world’s best at the airline industry’s equivalent of the Oscars and it didn’t disappoint. Providing impeccable, Michelin-quality service on grotty wet Wednesday mornings was impressive indeed.
As we soared ever higher, flying east, many of us reclined our business class seats and enjoyed a light sleep in our full-length beds. Later, a rack of French trimmed lamb with a pea and leek risotto proved the highlight of an indulgent lunch. After six or so hours in the sky, we landed at Abu Dhabi, where we switched planes.

Before our second take off, we were invited into a complimentary lounge where rapid spa treatments, massages and beauty therapies were offered alongside complimentary drinks and a la carte food.

I arrived in Mumbai, therefore, more invigorated and refreshed than I had been when I left the UK. Within ten minutes, I’d been whisked to the palatial Leela Kempinski Mumbai for the start of a four-day break where I planned to drink deep at the font of international culture.

A street scene in Mumbai

The Leela is one of Mumbai’s foremost hotels, situated to the north of the teeming megalopolis that is India’s busiest city. As our courtesy limo pulled onto the drive, an immaculately dressed man opened the door so that I could alight, another took my luggage, a third placed a garland of cream rose heads around my neck and a fourth showed me to my room.

Mumbai is one of the world’s hottest destinations for discerning travellers, thanks in part to the Oscar-winning success of British director Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. A city that was famously described by Aldous Huxley as being ‘the most appaling… of either hemisphere’ is enjoying a renaissance. Huxley, were he travelling today, would doubtless reappraise.

I spent my first day enjoying the facilities at the Leela, which included a sumptuous spa, marvellous collection of restaurants and a pool that shimmered in the 90 degree temperatures – and, yes, it did bring a smile to my face to know that England was quivering through dreadful winter weather.

Authentic Hunan, Schezwan and Cantonese cuisine at The Great Wall restaurant was thrilling, cosmopolitan food from around the world in 24-hour brasserie Citrus was decidedly refreshing while rich and varied flavours of north and south India were on offer in the high class Jamovar restaurant.

Grand Victorian buildings pepper the Mumbai landscape

With thoughtful staff, classy facilities and great views, the five-star Leela defined post-colonial class and elegance. The attentiveness of its staff and standards of service put many supposedly grander hotels in the western world to shame.

Though some of my fellow guests seemed happy to spend all of their holiday by the pool, I was keen to head downtown. I hailed one of Mumbai’s ubiquitous yellow and black taxis and went into the unknown. My fare, for a journey of around 25 miles, was £6.

Any preconceptions I might have had of Mumbai were shattered when I arrived in the centre of the world’s third largest city.

It’s 18 million population seemed to be endlessly on the move. The roads were crammed with motorists, jostling for every inch of tarmac. Taxi drivers inflexed their wing mirrors, so they could drive ever closer to nearby cars. It was like being in an episode of Wacky Races.

One of Mumbai's outdoor laundries

The city itself glistened with colour and class. The Gateway of India was as stunning and proud as any of London’s great landmarks, the palatial homes of Malabar Hill were Mumbai’s equivalent of Mayfair while the Hanging Garden was an immaculately tended plot of green high above the city.

There were other incredible sights. The Jain Temple seemed to be entirely covered in silver leaf, train stations heaved with a groaning mass of humanity and there were plenty of palatial Victorian buildings in old Mumbai, redolent of a bygone era.

The two sights that stood out the most were the city’s open air laundry and Ghandi’s museum. Mahalaxmi Dobi Ghat, the largest laundromat in the world, employs 10,000 people. Svelt young men wash, scrub and ring the cityÕs clothes in the open air before drying them in the hot sun.

Mani Bhavan, meanwhile, was the former home of Ghandi. The quaint Gujarati house was home to Mahatma from 1917 to 1934. It still contains many of his writings and possessions, including a letter to Hitler dated 1939, imploring the Nazi commandant not to lead the world to war.

A wild monkey on Elephanta Island

There were other incredible sights: Oval Maiden, where hundreds played cricket; dabawallahs, who delivered tiffin boxes and even slumtours, where tourists were taken into slums to see where Danny Boyle found the youngsters for Slumdog Millionaire.

Though I spent less than a week in Mumbai, it was a vibrant, quixotic and relentless city whose influence will endure for many years.

* Etihad flies from the UK to Mumbai daily and prices vary, depending on time of the year. Visit www.etihadairways.com or for full details of timetables and prices.

** The Leela Kempinski is located 1km from Mumbai’s international airport and prices vary, depending on length of stay, class of room and time of year. Part of one of India’s most exclusive hotel chains, further details are available at www.theleela.com or www.kempinski.com