Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

  Mumbai (Bombay), India
Sunday, March 30, 2008

Had a bit of craic on the train from Goa to Mumbai. We met a German guy called Alex who was finishing a one and a half year trip around the world. We also met a Sikh called Gunjam (we think) who was coming back from his honeymoon in Goa with his new wife and his mother!! Romantic!! His wife and mother had no English but he was chatting away to us. He couldn't get it into his head that we were travelling for 2 years and that we weren't married. He also couldn't believe that Karl was only 25. He said he must be at least 35!!
We arrived in Mumbai quite late and just checked into a hotel recommended in the Lonely Planet. It wasn't great and only had shared squat toilets so we checked out the next morning to find something better. We walked around Mumbai looking at the sights. We spent a bit of time sitting in Oval Maiden watching a cricket match. We also booked tickets to a Bollywood film.
On the way back to the hotel we saw a man climbing ladder which was basically a few pieces of bamboo tied together with string at the side of a busy road. Just as we were walking up to him the ladder broke (not surprisingly) and he fell into the middle of the road. he jumped up so we don't think he hurt himself too badly. Karl thought it was hilarious!
We went to the Bollywood film on Friday night. It was called 1,2,3 and turned out to be pretty crap. It was a comedy apparently but it wasn't very funny. The Indians in the crowd thought it was great. They were all whistling and clapping. Although the film wasn't great it was an experience to see a Bollywood film in Mumbai. Karl thought the spicy popcorn was worth the entry fee alone.
Went to Mahalaxmi Gaht yesterday (Saturday) to see the worlds largest washing machine. It was a large area with hundreds of people beating the crap out of clothes. After that we went to look for Mumbais largest shopping centre only to find it was closed for rennovations. We went to see Mahalaxmi temple where people go to give offerings to the god of wealth and then to Haji Ali's Mosque. We took a taxi to Chowpatty beach which was actually quite clean. There were a few people in swimming but the water is filthy there. We went for some lovely Italian ice cream.
We went home to get changed before going to Leopolds for a few drinks before going to a night club called Polly Esthers. The music started with an 80's cheesefest, then moved on to some modern hits and then the DJ started playing loads of Bollywood songs with all the Indians doing the dance moves. It was good craic.
We got up early enough this morning with slightly sore heads. We took the 1 hour ferry to Elephanta Island. We walked up to the caves and Karl tried to get us in for 10 rupees which is the price for Indians. Foreigners have to pay 250 rupees. Karl thought we might be tanned enough now to pass for Indians but needless to say it didn't work and the man behind the desk just laughed at us. Ah well, it was worth a try. We looked around the caves for a couple of hours. Karl was more interested in the monkeys than the caves though. While we were walking around a group of Indian lads asked if they could take a picture with us and a few minutes later a family asked if they could get a picture too. It's weird.  The ferry  back was quite rough and we weren't feeling too good.  We thought  it was never going to end.

Going to a fancy fish restaurant tonight and then back to Leopolds for a few drinks and to watch the football again.
Getting the train to Udaipur tomorrow. Not really looking forward to the 18 hour train journey.
We have really liked it here in Mumbai. We heard some bad things about how dirty and poor it is but we thought it was a really nice city with great sights and genuinely nice people. There is a lot of poverty here though which we really noticed when we were walking home from the cinema late on Friday night. There were so many people sleeping on the street including a family with 2 kids that would have only been around 3 and 1 who were just lying on the street with no blankets and rats running around them. It was really sad to see.

We really squeezed a lot in our 4 days here. We really enjoyed it and now it's on to Northern India.