Mumbai, India

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We were delayed 5 hours at KL because India were experimenting with a new air traffic control system (clearly it wasn't working!) So we were quite tired when we got to Mumbai but immigration was much easier than we had been led to expect with far shorter queues at passport control than in Birmingham! our driver was ready and waiting for us. Then into the Saturday evening traffic!!! We avoided people, cows, cars, tuk tuks and lorries all trying to use the same lane at the same time. The assault on the senses was everything we expected..shanty towns, people sleeping under plastic alongside designer shops and restaurants. We are staying in Juhu which is described in a travel leaflet as 'a posh area where many Bollywood stars live' . Well it ain't Mayfair! We are next to a white sand beach that stretches for miles and over which there are spectacular sunsets with thousands of people just standing watching. We walked along it today and I wassstopped by people who wanted a photograph taken with me because as one lady said I was 'like a fantasy' this used to happen in Korea too...the only white woman...there they always wanted to touch my hair too .,.because it wasn't black. But maybe now women everywhere colour their hair!
We walked around Juhu it was very busy with no proper footpaths and ended up stopping at Starbucks for coffee! The only place open. Then back to the hotel to relax. The climate is lovelyi34C but as we are on the coast a light breeze off the Indian Ocean keeps humidity low. Tomorrow we hope to see the city itself...all the old colonial buildings in the centre.

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