Its Back!!!!(to bore you) Mumbai, India

---

Good evening!! After a summer of working at home to refill the coffers, im back on the road....

This trip kinda creeped up on us after the previous few days of brilliance at Electric Picnic and the session before i headed away. And next of all i was getting off a plane in Mumbai(Bombay) after a sleepy flight. First impressions of this city isnt decribable even after reading about the 4 million homeless(out of the 16 million population). Met a french couple in the airport and agreed to share a taxi to the tourist haven of Coloba. The taxi was nothing more than a tin can and small one at that. In previous blogs i may commented on the quality of the driving in Argentina and Bolivia but this was unbeliveable. To say the driver nearly got us killed might be exagerrating a little cos the taxi couldnt go over 25 miles an hour but we thought he was doing his best to get us crushed!!

After looking at some slightly(you could say) run down accomodation that a heroin addict showed us(he tried leading us to a room in a building site) we ditched him for the realitivly expensive Moti Hotel. The owner was nice and the room was at least clean. Said we would try expierence some of the city and not let anything put us off, so we headed to the tourist hub of Leopolds. Its situated on the main street of Coloba which is a mill of homeless people, crammed street stalls, beggers, tourists, restaurants, grubby buildings and of course the obligatory Mcdonalds(without the beef). The food was good(veggie meal of course) and the beers where better.

Hit the hay deciding to get away from the stress and head to Goa's beaches for some sun and sea. Next day we went to buy our tickets for the train in the 30 odd degree swelter. After nearly being scammed by a little grubby man who told me to tell my wife to put more clothes on we finally got the tickets with the help of the police.

Had a walk around the city and a visit to the modern art museum. I found the city nice enough(if again you ignore the homeless people and constant staring from people). We have found Indian people dont have the instinct to look away when you catch them looking at you, they will literally keep on staring(without blnking!!)and staring until you walk miles and miles away from them. We werent sure if it was the fact that melissa had her shoulders uncovered(which is offensive) or we were just foreigners. In Mumbai Had the rest of the day to kill before our train left that night so we ended up in Leopolds drinking all day trying to kill some time. Then it was onto Goa.....

---

Comments

[kinger]

yeerrwww!!! good man mumbai looks deadly. Have wanted to visit ever since i read shantaram. Have a good time and keep the blogs coming. peace kinger

[nialljenkins]

yeah it was cool alright. finished shantaram there the other day, picked it up cos i remember you saying it to me. its a deadly story. in Agra now and going to the taj mahal tomorrow so cant wait, its looks spectactular!! other than that trying to avoid the delhi belly but the grub is lovely. take care man n.