And we thought it couldn't get any worse than New Delhi.....

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Our flight was delayed at Goa this afternoon by about 45 minutes, there was nothing to do at the airport at all...

We arrived in Mumbai and our driver was there as promised, relatively pain free, Mumbai airport was definately more busy than Delhi, we didn't get warned about this one.

We arrived at the hotel, checked in and then got to our room- I thought he was joking when he opened the door.. The room was absolutely filthy, damp covered the walls, the air-conditioning unit was falling off the wall and window was jammed open- plus swarm of mosquitos flying around... So the room was a mess, we could deal with that- even though we thought it couldn't get ant worse than our room in New Delhi, here it was, we were in a dump! We decided to go out to go online and see exactly where we were and contact STA to see if they could move us to a decent hotel. I was in shock that we booked this place through STA it was a dump ( and I am not exaggerating) We have taken pictures for evidence and are writing a lengthly complaint letter as we speak. The room itself we could have dealt with but the area itself is...... well....I can't really think of a polite way to describe it..... What annoyed me even more was that the boy who took our bags to the room wouldn't leave us alone and kepp on saying 'no tips?' what a bloody cheek, i didn't even respond- cos if i did it wouldn't have been very polite.

We spoke to the Mumbai subsidiary of STA who had to speak to someone in Delhi and then get back to us, of course this was no good we would still have to spend a night in this hell hole- I was in tears.... and we thought it couldn't get any worse than Delhi... Delhi was paradise compared to this!

The area that the hotel is situated in the very locally oriented there is 1 internet cafe in a 2 mile radius, plus hardly anyone spoke English. I know its a bit obnoxious of me to expect English speakers but forgive me we were spoilt in Delhi and Goa, everyone spoke English- of all the places we expected Mumbai to be the most cosmopolitan- were we wrong or what!

We didn't even eat today I felt so sick and disgusted-we found some solace in thinking that this will be the worse place we will ever be staying- but that is what we said about Delhi.... We then did what we do best, started planning for the next couple of days. We were gonna try and move our flight to one day earlier as Cathay was closed by the time we managed to call, move hotel and get a taxi into the centre of town and spend the whole day there. We also tried to organise a tour of Mumbai but the man at reception tried to rip us off, he was offering a whole day with a driver( not a tour guide) for 1800 Rupees- what a bargain! NOT!! It was only 400 Rupees for a whole day tour in Delhi.

There was some sort or Gala at our hotel last night, which made the stay even more pleasant, we could here music through the floorboards and some annoying man on the the microphone comparing, whilst the children were left to upstairs to run riot though the halls and playing marbles against all of the doors- even my earplugs could not block them out- this went on til 2am. At least in Delhi we had a TV which showed Friends, the OC and had E entertainment and if it came to it, we had BBC world news- here we only had local channels...

Well this is what we came for, to experiece the world, the highs as well as the lows- I sincerely hope that this will be the lowest of the low- otherwise next time I am not even checking in, I'll get a taxi to the nearest Hilton/Intercontinental- whatever the cost!

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Photos

A taxi
About as exciting as it got in Mumbai

Comments

[Golts]

Hang in ther Pumkin!!
Punkin you crack me up I can just see your face when all this was going on..hang tough...there will be ups and downs... DAD