Mumbai

We took our first overnight train of the trip from gokarna into mumbai. We whimped out of travelling sleeper class and got two beds in the AC3 carriage as we were both ready to enjoy some fresh air after the heat and humidity of the beach.

We soon felt the pressures of being in a big city as we jumped off the train in the cool early morning and were surrounded by rickshaw and taxi drivers. We decided to use one of the taxi guys who tried to pull a well rehearsed trick on us; chat nicely to the customers, set the meter to max and cover it so they cant see it. It wasnt long before we found ourselves on the side of the main road with our bags a fraction of the way to the hotel. We quickly got into another cab (reasonably priced this time) and headed to our mid-trip treat of a 4* hotel in colaba.

In mumbai we just went for long walks past the gateway to india and the taj hotel, watching cricket played by locals young and old on the oval (pic 3), down the marine drive checking out the sunset (pic 4), doing a bit of shopping picking up some weird cds and cool posters and niki splashed out on some new clothes, gazing at some local modern art, checking out the chor bazaar and mad antique shops (pic 2), put together some parcels of presents to send home (pic 1), going to a decent restaurant and tucking into some meat for the first time in 6 weeks (pic 6), scoffing proper streetfood and eating another meaty kebab treat pics 7 & 8) and we even found a cat with one eye who would be a good side kick for ours back home (pic 5).

We really enjoyed mumbai even though we hardly touched the surface. Its clean, not too much hassle around and there's always something to do. It was pricey though. At times were drinking beers at london prices however booze did seem to be one of a small number of expensive things. It was fun having a booze up watching india to come back and beat pakistan in the asia cup. I thought the whole town was gonna explode. The meal we had at khyber was stellar, probably one of the best indian meals ive had in a long time. The lamb seriously challenges tayyabs back home and it course it was cheaper. The architecture was stunning in places, the cst train station quite rightly holds unesco status and projects a slightly gothic image much like that of kings cross back home. All in all mumbai was a great way to break up our trip and prepare ourself for our stay in rajasthan.