Mumbai here I come!

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Made it to Mumbai
Lots of people and cars BUT
Less hectic feel here.

Took an overnight train from New Delhi last night. Man was that a luxurious train ride or what. I was prepared and had all of these snacks (chips, biscuits, masala munch to name a few) but they weren't at all necessary since we had tea time and about 6 or 7 snacks arrived with my masala chai! Then came dinner which was two courses and soup...veggies, pasta and potato things, soup with breads, daal, potatoes & spinach, rice, chappati and poppodam. Plus yoghurt and dessert to top it all off! Man was I stuffed after that. The sleeper car was pretty big as well...very spacious and the bathrooms were even clean the entire journey! I had three other "cabin mates" 1) Someone that shall remain unnamed...He was a bit "different" shall we say. He complained about having to be in New Delhi for a month and that it was a good thing that his assignment finished early. Also complained about New Delhi not have much of a night life. Really a negative guy. 2) The Colonel. He was pretty cool in his track suit and runners. Really friendly and easy to talk to. 3) Najrat also with the Indian Military but I'm not sure doing what. Also very friendly and a wealth of information. Gave us a bit of geography lessons on the areas we were going through which was interesting. Told us all about the coolies working at the railway stations, the local trains (and having to force your way on and off of them...quite the experience.) and the lunch box delivery boys. Chatting with genuinely nice people always helps to pass the time.

Breakfast was another huge meal and the Colonel teased me about my snacks. lol I thought it was a bit weird to have hot milk with my cold cereal but it actually tastes alright that way. So it was a really pleasant train journey although I felt a little bit out of place in my cargoes and t-shirt!

The taxi ride to my hotel was a different story. After a bit of haggling and then calling Tania (Vijay's niece) to confirm how much a fair price to pay for a cab fare, the cabbie went from 350Rs to 125Rs...I was trying for 100Rs since that's what I was told to expect earlier. After thanking the cabbie for letting me call my friend Tanya we had a pretty civilized conversation. Apparently he is originally from Nepal and is a Buddhist that's been driving cabs for 24 years. He made some comment about trusting cabbies because they know the roads better. I didn't want to get into that so I said something along the line of you never know who you can and cannot trust these days...then he agreed with me!

My room wasn't ready right away so I waited in the lounge area and read a couple of newspapers while the TV was showing the India/Pakistan cricket match. I eventually settled into my room before heading out to explore the area around my hotel.

India Gate is really close to my hotel. I was going to see if there were any tours to join but I was too late. I will have to wait for the weekend. So I just wandered around and got onto the internet before wandering back to the hotel to rest up before dinner which is included with my hotel...sure makes looking for a place to eat easier!

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Comments

[anonymous]

two negatives make apositive
remove my name from your crappy canadian blog - Leon Sharkey