Mumbai

We are now in Mumbai. We travelled by train yesterday for 13hrs almost and it was not the greatest journey. Our seat was broken and uncomfortable so we put the beds out which was ok...Until some idiot travelling in our compartment decided to trade his ticket to a family of 7. They then proceeded to take over the whole compartment and generally annoy us. The ticket inspector told them to clear off to their own carriage about an 90 mins later, but then we got idiot traveller back. We arrived in Mumbai at about 22:20. I must admit that was not a good time to arrive. Coming into Mumbai with the train passing through slum area's at the time of night is not the best introduction to the city!!!! We didn't get any hassle (other than some guy dressed up as a woman in full sari requesting that I should give him one rupee) but I think it spooked us both. We didn't even know we had arrived at Mumbai CST as there were no signs anywhere. It took a local to tell us that we had reached the end of the line.

So we left the train walked to the main part of the station and thought what now?? A quick look outside made both of us think that we did not want to wander around looking for accommodation as there were people and traffic everywhere. So we decided to take a cab and head for a hotel that the restaurant owner from Goa had told us about. 150 Rupees...both of us and luggage - no extra's. When we arrived at our destination we found that the taxi driver had no change of a 500 rupee note. He only had 300, meaning we would have to pay 50 Rupees extra. A taxi driver with no change!!! Pull the other one mate. Eventually we got change from a stallholder and sent the taxi driver off on his way.

When we went to the hotel reception he had no rooms. "Try upstairs" he says.. No rooms...Oh Fu#k!! "Try along the road" he said. We did. One single room available.."That will do" we said. So I slept on a mattress on the floor while Eri had the single bed. We were going to upgrade to a double bed today but have decided to save the money and stay as we are. Its quite comfy actually unless you take into account that there is no water to shower, shave or flush the loo in the morning lol....Its just getting better lol...

So Mumbai.....It ok....Its growing on us. We walked around today and saw the Taj hotel, the Gateway of India, a nice Jain temple and sat in some nice gardens. We also has the pleasure of visiting Chowpatty beach!!!! Now Goa was lovely and we were both a little sad to leave but Chowpatty beach is not Goa... Just let me say that the homeless beggars seem to use one corner of it as there toilet. There is literally human shit everywhere...Disgusting..and it stinks... There also seems to be a permanent smog over Mumbai. The sun tried to appear a couple of times but could never quite break through the clouds and permanent haze which I can only assume is smog caused by pollution. I could be wrong but that is my impression. I'm glad that I have seen Mumbai, but am equally glad that we are leaving on Wednesday night....

Tomorrow we plan to explore our local area of Colaba. There is a market nearby so we are going to take a look. I might try and buy a couple of tee shirts because the white one I stupidly brought is as brown as anything and isn't going to get better by my cleaning it again. That leaves me with 2 others and one pristine white one which I am not going to let succumb to the same fate. Why didn't anyone tell me not to pack white clothing?????

No pics at the moment as this entry was made after we visited the local Macdonalds lol. Maybe tomorrow.