Beaches and bellies

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Hello all!
I am now at the lovely beach - palolem which is a long stretch of sand with palm trees - very tropical. We are staying in a lovely little beach hut on stilts just off the shore line which is sandy but cute. Here is the catch up:
After Udaipur we caught the train to Mumbai which was quite hideous. We met a nice English couple at the platform and once on the train managed to persuade the middle aged Indian men to swap beds with them so we could form a little camp in our room! All was fine until we arrived at Ahmememememebad (or whatever it was called) at 4.30 in the morning (not pretty) Fran was feeling really sick so we set our bags down and took it in turns to walk about a bit, - which was fine until this 6-foot- toothless man wearing nothing but a nappy arrangement and waving a big stick started shouting at me. And he just wouldnt stop. Total nutter, and everyone was staring and No one was helping. I did the british thing of looking away, then I tried smiling, then I tried looking confused. Still he kept shouting. In the end I resorted to waving my arms around in the air singing "I dont have a clue what you are blabbing about doo dah doo dah etc" This seemed to do the trick. He gave in and started on someone else further down the platform!

Eventualy we arrived in Mumbai and to our hotel which was a cupboard in the side of a room. But it was really cheap... Mumbai was the nicest city so far - totally different - clean, lovely buildings, no cows. We spent three days walking around visiting chowpatty beach (but I repeat, no cows) looking at the buildings and on the final day we visited Elephanta Island on a boat full of people who wanted to have their photos taken with us, again. We have come up with a policy of only agreeing to female requests as the boys are just a bit too keen for our liking. A couple of times we were asked if we wanted to be 'Bollywood extras' but we thought maybe not this time... We also managed to buy our tickets to Sri Lanka so our round the world trip joins up!

After Mumbai we took another sleeper to Goa and Visited a beach called Colva. My God. It was full of overweight bright pink people from Manchester. (ok I dont know where they were from, but you get the point.) we were the youngest people in the district by at least 20 years! Everywhere we went more protruding bellies, comically these men would wear hats to protect their heads and be content to roast the oversize lumps hanging over their waist bands till they were the colour of the local saris - why people think its a good idea I DO NOT KNOW - yuck. And so the next day we caught a bus to this beach which is much nicer. The local bus was quite an experience with about 50 people stood next to the 'room for 12 standing' sign breathing in and out as people got on and off!

Anyway, we will probably set off to Kerela tomorrow or the next day and see what the next state has in store for us!

Big love to you all!

Sarah xx

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Photos

Mumbai
Chowpatty beach at sunset

Palolem
The little beach huts where we stayed

Palolem
the long white sandy bit