Hi, I'm Tom.

I'm traveling through one of the most colorful and vibrant countries in the world,

and with the help of local knowledge, I'll be trying to find out what makes this place so special.

Join me on a journey through India.

Our first stop is Mumbai.

Located on the west coast of the country, it's home to 21 million people.

Frantic but functional, this is India's economic powerhouse and the home of Bollywood.

From luxury high rises to some of Asia's biggest slums, everyone here lives in the fast lane.

This is one of the most densely-populated cities in the world.

Getting around on the roads can be pretty slow, so we're going to take the train.

This looks pretty busy.

Right. On we go.

Not too bad.

Mumbai's suburban railway is fast but crowded,

with 11 million people using the city's public transport every day.

The elbow-to-elbow experience, however, may be coming to an end.

A new Mumbai metro network more than 100 miles long is being built.

Its aim is to boost the city's rail capacity and reduce traffic congestion.

For your wife?

Lovely roses.

Can I smell?

Perfect, smells fresh.

Well, that wasn't too bad, no worse than the Central line in London,

and now we're in downtown Mumbai ready to explore the rest of the city.

To help me do that and understand where this city gets its energy from,

I'm meeting up with a fellow journalist.

Kevin?

Hi, how are you?

Hi, all good.

Nice to meet you.

Welcome to Mumbai.

Thank you very much.

Kevin Lee is a reporter for CNBC TV18 and has lived and worked in the city for several years.

Have you gotten a chance to look around the city a little bit?

Yeah, we came in on the train.

Did you get pushed around a little bit?

A little bit, a little bit.

It's part of the charm of the city.

Have you eaten anything? Do you want to get a bite?

No, but I could eat.

Let's get you some Bombay delicacies.

Mumbai's reputation for street food is legendary, but its famous fare was actually born out of necessity.

The city's early prosperity came from its textile mills, and workers needed quick and cheap food on the go.

The mills may have faded into the past, but the cheap eats have not.

And in this 24-hour megacity, the streets are still buzzing with thousands of hawkers dishing out their specialties late into the night.

Khau Galli literally translates, the street of food.

So you have these all over Bombay, but it's not very fancy food.

It's just functional food that you can get in 10, 15 minutes, you can have a whole meal.

We're going to try some chaat first. Chaat is a famous Bombay thing. I don't know exactly how to define it.

It's just a mixture of a lot of flavors, savory, sweet, spicy, etc, just thrown together.

How spicy are we talking?

Oh, this isn't spicy. You don't have to worry that much.

Okay, we'll start low.

We'll start you off easy, yeah?

And get a bit of everything in one bite.

Okay, that's quite a big mouthful…

Yeah, yeah. You can do it.

There's just a lot going on. Right?

A lot.

You can't isolate one flavor.

There's loads of different textures as well.

He's got a tiny little kitchen back there, like this tiny stall and he manages to create

something that even looks pretty as well as tastes good.

So now we're going to try something called pav bhaji, which is another thing that's famous in Bombay.

This one involves a fair bit of cooking, unlike the chaat.

So it's this gravy that's smeared with potatoes, tomatoes and a little bit of capsicum, a little bit of onion.

It's all just mashed together and he serves it with a lot of butter, and pav which is basically bread.

Absolutely drenched in butter.

Yeah, I wasn't exaggerating.

It's just a lot of butter.

He's used half a kilo!

Good work.

Really good.

Kevin, thank you very much for showing me your Mumbai.

I hope your stomach is fine tomorrow morning.

Well if it's not, I blame you.

Thanks, man. Cheers.

Refueled, I'm heading to my next stop in the heart of Mumbai.

But with its limited public transport, we're taking the roads and this is a city famous for its traffic.

You may not realize it, but there is actually traffic lights at this intersection.

The guys who installed it must have been laughing because there are no rules.

Slightly less noisy but no less busy is Dharavi.

Home to one million people, this is one of the world's largest slums

and like the rest of the city, it's full of energy and industry.

I've hired the help of Naynish Salvi, a tour guide attached to the NGO Reality Gives.

The money from tours of the slums is used to support families and help run educational programs for people that didn't finish school,

to increase their chances of finding employment.

The word slum itself surrounds with negativity.

People always try to relate it with favelas and basically those kinds of things.

But when they come over here, when they see the kind of things, it's something different to what they expect.

Because there are thriving businesses in Dharavi slum, that's right?

Roughly all in total, Dharavi has nearly 10,000 different businesses.

Wow.

And if we tell you, the annual amount of revenue generated from this slum,

only from businesses, is roughly $665 million a year.

$665 million? That's amazing.

That money comes from industries like pottery production, which began in Dharavi in the 1840s.

The slum is also home to a thriving recycling industry, which the city has become increasingly

dependent upon to manage waste, particularly plastic.

Everyday people roughly recycle between 13 and 14 tons of plastic a day.

Hard work?

Yeah, very hard work sir. 15 hours work here.

Leather production, however, is what Dharavi's most recognized for,

and it all started here at the city's first ever leather factory.

As well as developing its own brand, the factory also supplies leather to fashion houses around the world,

ensuring that Mumbai maintains its status as the fashion epicenter of India.

The owner, he was the person who introduced leather production to the city.

Basically, he started working when he was 12 years old.

Because sometimes the skins are thinner, some of them are thicker, they need to be surfaced.

Okay, so it's to a level?

And all the surfacing makes the skins softer.

There's a lot of guys here. I mean you've got six guys sorting...

They need to also be separated by the size as well, the size and the thickness as well.

They need to check what skins need to be shaved off or not.

Even just walking down one of the side streets, you wouldn't imagine that

there's 20 guys in here working hour after hour producing some of these leathers.

It's kind of amazing that it's all tucked away in these tiny little nooks and crannies of the slums.

When they say, "I've been inside Dharavi," it means they've actually passed within, from the street.

They haven't seen what you are able to see today. They just think, "Oh I've seen Dharavi, it's a slum, that's it."

But to break that barrier, to make them realize what actually they're missing

is the reason why we are here for.

This city doesn't seem to stop, so neither am I. I've got one final visit across town before the day ends.

A bit of retail therapy, but unlike I've ever experienced before.

So I've come down to Crawford Market, possibly one of the craziest places I've ever been

but hopefully, we'll find a little bargain, something to take home so that we have a little memento from our trip.

Crawford Market is the largest and most famous in Mumbai.

It began as a fruit and vegetable wholesale market way back in 1869,

and many of the city's big restaurants still come here to source their food.

But if you're looking for clothes and souvenirs, then the surrounding streets is where you'll find them.

Love it.

Could I give you ₹100 for this?

No ₹100, ₹250 best price, only price.

Okay.

Not sure about that, a little bit creepy.

I'm buying a present for my daughter. It's quite big. I don't think I can fit it in my suitcase.

Oh, I quite like that. How much is that?

₹100 only.

100?

Do you think it will fit me?

Yeah, perfect size.

Cheers guys, thank you.

Supposed to buy something for other people, but ended up buying something for myself.

About one-year-old girl.

Girl, girl, what do you want? Shoes?

Something traditional Indian, maybe a small sari or something?

Sweet.

I don't think my wife will let my daughter wear that, but I think it's quite fun.

What do you think? How much for?

₹175.

How many pieces do you want?

I only buy one, I only have one child.

Okay, take it.

I haven't actually said yes that I'm going to buy it, but he's sort of given it to me.

₹175?

₹175.

What about ₹150?

Okay then.

Yeah, or what about ₹100?

Just terrible at haggling.

Cheers boss, thank you.

Thank you, welcome.

I want to buy a scarf.

Come, come, please sir.

Forcing me to sit.

What about this one here?

Show me how long two meters is.

Yeah, yeah.

Maybe I should have just bought a t-shirt.

Thank you very much.

Welcome, another time.

Cheers, thank you.

Lovely. It's lovely. No, it's okay.

If I had to describe my overall impressions of Mumbai, I'd say it's fast-paced and busy.

That can be overwhelming at first, but getting to meet people who live and work here

has helped me understand that they all thrive off that energy - and it's infectious.

All the shopping's now done, and I think I've experienced a fair bit of Mumbai, onto the next stop.

Hi everyone, thanks for joining us on our journey through India.

To catch our next stop, make sure you click here.

And do let us know your favorite travel destinations in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe.