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Published: March 3rd 2008
We were up at 9 on our last day in Jaipur, we had to say goodbye to 'Jimmy' our driver and get to the station for our 2pm train. 'Jimmy' is actually called Amit apparently, we found this out when writing in his book, he asked us to write him a note and leave him contact details, he has emailed us since to make sure we are ok in Mumbai. If you ever need a guide in India we have his details and highly reccomend him! We said goodbye to him at 10am in our room and then got breakfast at the hotel, toast and jam again, and out of date again. Almost everything we have been sold in this country has been out of date, so its hard to avoid eating it! After eating we got a Tuk Tuk to the train station and figured out where our train would be leaving from, platform 1.
We had 18 hours to fill on the train, so spent the start of the afternoon playing cards and looking out the windows. The train stopped at a few big stations and people jumped off to buy food and jumped back on, we weren't
Inside the train...
The middle beds aren't folded down just yet, but you can get the idea...too sure about doing this lol. Adam jumped off and had a look about, then swiftly came back on due to fear of missing the train, although they move off so slow i'm sure you could catch it up. Second time around Adam jumped off and got some indian snacks and some custard creams all for 20 rupees (about25p)! We then made our beds on the train (some pictures this time for you) and used the dodgy indian toilet on the train, you could see the tracks down them.
We woke up about 6am when it got light and arrived at Mumbai Central Station at 8am. They was the usual people trying to take us off on trips and just generally try and rip us off at the station, but we were wise to this by now and told them to get lost. Some of them were very rude and refused to let us go, but we just headed to the nearest internet cafe to find a place for the night. the internet cafe didn't open until 10 so we sat around, and so did one of the idiots that wanted our money. We got the internet eventually and
Local Train
Surely they could get a few more in that... found Pals Hotel for 440 rupees a night (about £6). We got a cab to the hotel and paid the genuine price thanks to a guide in the map we brought. We would soon realise that the local taxi drivers have little interest in taking forigners anywhere if you understand the meter, they try to charge double everytime. This guide saved us some good money! We settled into the hotel that night and had a walk about outside, tried the wifi in the rooms but it was slow and expensive. The hotel was the dirtiest looking so far, but the shower was hot and the beds were clean, plus we had a nice little balcony looking over the street of beggars that would pester us for the next 3 days everytime we left or entered the hotel.
We were up at 9am the next day and went to the station to use an ATM (hotel doesn't take card!?), we got this cab down from 100 to 50 rupees. Then got a cab to Chowpatty beach, this was reduced from 80 to 50 rupees due to our knowledge of the meter! Chowpatty Beach is a hugh sandy beach, no swimming
Chowpatty Beach
Empty during the day it seems... or sunbathing goes on here. The poor and beggars sleep in the shade in the day and by night it is full of crowds, entertainers, food sellers and more beggars! We walked up and down the beach before heading to the Aquarium. This place looked big from the outside, but inside it wasn't as big as we expected, and a lot of the fish had small tanks, especially these 2 turtles we saw, but it was a bargain at 20 pence each to get in! We then stopped in the university area for some Italian food. This place must have been posh because the prices were triple most places we had been to, and some people in there had iphones and camcorders, not many people here even have phones or Tvs! The food was good
and we decided after that we would eat cheap for the rest of our time here! We then continued our walk through town and stumbled across some football, it was in the local ground and free to enter. It was a kids football tournament sponsored by the Premiership, we watched them for a bit and saw some good little players, they also had the REAL
Our Room
I know it doesn't look appealing, but it was big. Maybe less WiFi and more painting the walls? premiership trophy there, being closely guarded by Chris and Keith from England! We then got to the Gateway of India, this was almost the same as India Gate in Delhi, except smaller and had lots of building work going on all over it. There was a yacht show on
here but it didn't look very exciting for the 200r entry. Instead Adam managed to get some sunglasses off a street seller for a bargain 100 rupees (£1.20), saved some money not buying them before leaving! There was boats going to Elephanta Island from here but we were to late by now to get one, maybe tomorrow. We walked back towards Chowpatty beach to see if it had kicked off yet, we stopped at some shops on the way to buy a Blank DVD and some washing powder. The funny guy in the DVD shop charged us 25 rupees and then asked where we were from, when we said England he joked he had made a mistake and it should be 50 rupees for us - made us laugh! We then got a taxi the rest of the way back to the beach, it was a bit busier and there was
Local Stadium
Not quite like the premiership stands, but free entry! a crazy naked beggar boy on it. He didn't last long before the police beat him off the beach with thier canes! There was some food sellers starting to appear now and we noticed the beach had flood lights for when dark. We decided to spend tomorrow night
there ad headed for the hotel. We got some food from the hotel, which was cheap and very tasty, and stuck to our new veggy diet. Adam is over his illness now (thank god), and Nick still hasn't got ill - I'm sure he will do soon. We watched some live saturday football and Adam did his first load of washing while Nick watched. God bless the washing machine is all I can say. Washing your clothes in a hot bucket by hand is seriously hard work! We both then fell asleep early after a long hot day.
Next day we got up at 9am, Nick did his clothes washing and Adam attempted to cut his hair on the balcony. We got a cab to Gateway of India and then brought tickets to Elephanta Island. It cost 120r return on the boat and was about 1hr20 each way, we paid an
Boat to Elephanta
The boat that took us to and from the Island! extra 10 rupees to sit on the top deck and catch some sun, and get better photos. Elephanta Island is a small island about 11km from Mumbai shore. It has no elephants suprising but is named after a monument found there. The island is cover in man made caves, these have many carvings in them, mostly all based around Hindu gods and stories. We walked along the pier (there was a train but it was 10r to go about 200 meters!), and then they is a long walk up this hill to the caves. There are shops and street sellers either side of the walk up the hill to the caves, selling mostly carvings, gems and silks. Adam decided to buy a cooked corn on the cob from some street seller, Nick opted out, and missed out a a delightful treat! The caves were quite good, got some nice photos, and it all felt a bit egyptian in there. We walked up above the caves to see some canons (not as big as Jaipur's!). On this walk Nick got chased by a Monkey! He growled as we walked past and Adam made it through, but Nick hesitated and got cornered,
Leavig Port..
This is where we sailed from, you can see Gateway to Indida and Taj Mahal hotel to the left (5 star) the monkey moved which ever way he went and wouldn't let him out. Eventually he got passed with no risk of rabbies. We then got our boat back and got some more sun, and were followed by some seaguls all the way, got a good photo! We then got Adam and razor as the charger on his shaver doesn't seem to work here, and stopped at a
rather spicy subway from some food. We then got a cab to Chowpatty as evening was approaching, on the way we saw a bit of Bollywood filming being done on the sea front. There was a big crowd here and we couldn't really see what was happening! We then walked the beach a bit and saw a bit crowd gathered, so we headed over. It was some sort of beach wresting game being played, we couldn't figure out the rules but it definetly involved grabbing some poor guys feet and seemed to be about 7 people vs one. We got a video and will try and put it up for you! As it wasn't quite dark we went for a walk to the Bollywood filming we went passed in the cab, once we
Carving
This was a carving inside Elephanta caves of a Hindu God...(yeah that one with 8 arms) got there it had just finished and was being packed away. We then went back to experience Chowpatty at night. This place was nice, so many families relaxing on the beach, lots of flashing light toys being sold to kids, people having big family meals on the sand, fresh food being cooked up and sold all over the place, and of course some beggars, one of
which followed us for ages - which the locals seemed to find rather funny. There atmosphere was really good here - maybe better than usual due to India winning the cricket today? We then got a cab back to the hotel, every cab driver has had trouble finding it, and its even harder when the driver doesn't speak english. This one tried to charge us 200, even though the meter converted to 80, we gave him 100 and jumped out quickly! We then chilled out for the night preparing for a long day tomorrow. We are flying to bangkok, but have to change flights at Singapore, and our first flight is at 11pm - long night. But hopefully some good plane meals and a comfy seat to sleep in. These late flights save a
Entrance to the caves..
This si just one of the many ways in... night accomdation evertime at least!
India has been a great experience for us, it has a bit of everything, and too much of some things. We have seen some amzing sights, the Himilayas, Taj Mahal, Elephanta caves, India Gate, crazy street markets. We have seen a whole new culture and learnt never to take the first prive given to you here! We have ate some great local food, and some not so great. The downside of it all is the poverty, which we havn't wrote about so much in here, and its hard to get across in photos. Most times you walk down a street here you get kids begging you for money. Everytime our car stops in traffic they knock at the windows. We have seen people brushing thier teeth in drains. The other down side is the constant pestering and presure selling by street traders/tour companies/taxis, but I guess this is part of the culture. It certainly won't encourage the tourists to keep coming back!
We have enjoyed our time in India though and met some great people in all the craziness! Now we head to Thailand and thats where our next blog will be from...
Inside the caves...
A bit egyptian looking we thought... If this Blog has been more useful than your guide book, saved you some money, helped you re-live old memories or just given you a good laugh...
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Adam Gibson and Nick Burke
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Jane B
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Great detail and fantastic pictures, hope Thailand is just as much fun for you, but I know you will find it very different from India