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All we can say is what a culture shock! We have heard lots of stories from travelers and have read books about India but nothing can quite prepare you until you’re actually there yourself.
Our Indian experience started as soon as we got off the plane and got in a taxi. We decided to go for a non air-conditioned cab so we could save a few pennies to take us to our hotel. We quickly realised that this was a mistake. Mosquito's were flying in and out of the car. It took us about 2 hours to get there and most of this was just sitting in the traffic so as you can imagine we were extremely hot. Also the cabs are very small and Sonny couldn't sit up without banging his head. Shall we just say that it wasn’t the best of journeys we’ve had but we weren’t too bothered as we thought we had a nice hotel to relax in when we get there.
When the cab pulled up outside our hotel there was a big rat. When they showed us to the room it was small and dingy and there were 2 cockroaches on the
Fancy a game of cricket?
Not a bad spot to have a game of cricket! bed. Of course Sonny kicked off and asked for a cleaner room and also one that had a resemblance to the pictures on their website. After much arguing and asking for our money back (yes we had already paid for the room via the website- will not be doing that again in India!) they offered to upgrade us to a “Deluxe room” for £2.00 extra per night. In the end we agreed and the room was a lot better and also similar to the one on the website.
As we were tired and it was late we only ventured across the road to get something to eat. After we filled our bellies we went for a walk to get some bottled water. During that 5 minute walk we spotted 2 more rats the size of small cats not further than a meter away from our feet! No wonder they’re big fat healthy rats here when you see all of the rubbish on the streets!
On our first full day we decided to go for a walk and we quickly got used to all of the stares and hardened to the begging. We caught a cab to the gateway
of India (was actually a 10 minute walk from our hotel but we didn’t have a map and the cabs are cheap). We didn’t even get a chance to take a picture before being approached by a guy wanting to take us on a tour around Mumbai for 1800 rupees (£22.50). We managed to bring him down to 1000 rupees (£12.50) in the end and popped in his big air-conditioned car (lovely) for a 4 hour tour around Mumbai. He took us around the various sites of Mumbai. Dilip our driver was very good and was also very informative. The thing we found the most interesting was the story about the Tower of Silence. He told us that the Persians put deceased bodies on the tower for the birds to eat them up. They believe that the body is useless after you are dead and you may as well give it back to something that can make use of it. When we were in a nice little park near the temple we noticed that the sky was full of birds. Sonny said to Dilip "Have all those birds got full bellies?" Dilip replied with a smile "yes, yes my friend.”
Washing day!
On our tour around the city Dilip took us to where they wash the clothes. We finished the tour at Gandhi House who was basically the man who got India's independence- his head is also on all of the Rupee notes.
On our last day we took a ferry from the Gateway of India to Elephanta Island. The 1 and a half hour ferry ride, tourist taxes and entrance fees the caves for the two of us set us back 750 Rupees (£9.40). As soon as we got off the ferry a local guy offering to be our tour guide approached us. We got him down from 400 rupees (£5.00) to 270 rupees (£3.40). He told us that there would be 120 steps and then raced up them (you can tell that he does it everyday) and kept looking back at us. We certainly don’t climb 120 steps everyday in 36 degree heat but our pride kept us right behind him. We were sweating like pigs afterwards though!
He showed us around the caves and told us a dozen times that the carvings have been damaged due to the Portuguese shooting them because they don’t like culture (we got a feeling that this guy didn’t like the Portuguese much). After taking pictures of
Artist at work
We took this picture in the Temple that Delip took us to on our city tour. the caves and the little monkeys feasting on the scraps we climbed more steps to see the cannon.
That night we went to a restaurant called Apouva to have dinner. We were told that this was an expensive restaurant and was recommended by the guy that works at the hotel. We had a big feast and lots of beers for £8.00- not bad!!
The next morning we were packed and ready to fly to Goa. We were definitely ready to chill out by the sea after our short but hectic time in Mumbai. Once we got used to the poverty, begging and all of the stares we did enjoy Mumbai.
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Barbara
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ROLAND
Hi Kathtyn Sonny, enjoying reading about all your adventures. Can't wait for the next episode. Fancy Roland sneaking in your rucksack and following you all the way to India !!