Mumbai: If you spot a happy looking bunch travelling in an open-air double-decker bus on a Saturday night, don't mistake it for a group of tourists on Mumbai Darshan. These guys are just crawling to a nearby pub to get sloshed!

Pub crawl always reminds one of the gay bar crawl by Chelsea Clinton through Philadelphia's night spots last year, where she was cheered, grabbed and hugged in every place.

And all those pub hoppers dressed in blanket sleeves jumping around eight pubs through the day on their Snuggie pub crawl in New York. The idea to do something like this in India then is great -- a brain wave of Best of Bombay's (an entertainment portal) Aditi Shah who was influenced by pub crawls during her travels to Europe.

So pub crawls sound "cool" and we decided to join Mumbai's first pub crawl group thinking that we could be a part of a new found group-hopping culture which has been non-existent in India so far. The plan was simple: hop four Bandra night spots in one night and get drunk without having to worry about getting back home since the chauffeurs will escort you back in a car.

The night took off with party revellers slowly percolating into Firangi Pani. And in minutes the place was full with the pub crawl crowd. It was nice to enter and immediately be offered a welcome drink --basically a vodka or a whisky for free at every pub. Everyone had come in small or big groups so they were busy interacting within their circle and didn't really mingle with others. I wondered if there was any point in coming to a pub crawl if you don't meet new people!

An hour here and the revellers were asked to leave for the next spot -- Banana Bar, a five-minute-walk from Firangi Pani. But you don't really walk or crawl to the next one. You get into the open-air bus and be waved at by shopkeepers and passer-bys who look amused. Banana Bar was fun. As I hung out all by myself, I made my first friend at the crawl. Someone finally asked me if I was alone and if I would like to join them. I didn't feel intruded upon like I would have if I had not been at a crawl.

Three guys, one of them a young Indian from London started talking to me. I thought they had been friends for a long time. But surprisingly the trio had bumped into each other at the last bar crawl. They had kept in touch and decided to meet at the next one. As far as I know -- the three are planning to meet for the one that's happening tonight too! Two to three drinks down, by now people were doing a lot of interacting!

The next stop was Mumbai Times Café. When we reached, the place wasn't prepared enough to receive us. Amidst all the chaos, crowding and slow service at the bar and the lack of music, people had got into the spirit of pub crawl. I met some foreigners here. They had been in Mumbai for quite some time now and were at the crawl to get a taste of the city's night life and make new friends. The night ended at Bollywood Mischief with not the best yet some good old filmi music to dance on.

Strangers did say bye to me when I left the crawl, asking me to join them for the next one. So if you don't mind being asked to get up from your bar stool each time you settle into it and love meeting new people, you should head to the next bar crawl.

Tag: MUMBAI, HAPPY, SPOT, BUNCH, MUMBAI DARSHAN, DARSHAN GUYS, TOURISTS MUMBAI DARSHAN, GROUP TOURISTS, TOURISTS MUMBAI, SATURDAY, NEARBY, GROUP, TOURISTS, DARSHAN, GUYS, CRAWLING, PUB, SLOSHED, MISTAKE,