Feb 26, 2008 - Mumbai (Bombay)

Tome un bus a Mumbai y despues de cruzar la ciudad por 1 hora llegue al hostal. Fue el peor hostal de India, sucio, viejo y lleno de gente. Lo bueno era que conocias a mucha gente. Mumbai es una ciudad gigante, como 16 millones (la mas grande de India), pero felizmente la mayoria de "sights" estan cerca unos de otros. Esta el GAteway to India, por donde entro el rey ingles cuando vino a visitar su imperio. Hay un par de iglesias catolicas, varios edificios coloniales muy bonitos como el High Court, el Victoria Station (la estacion de tren...

Feb 20, 2008 - Bombay dreams with Austin Powers!

Bombay dreams were about all we could manage by the time we arrived into Mumbai on the morning of the 20th... The 20 hour train journey...or 'The Big One' as we've been calling it wasn't too bad but was definitely the final nail in our Indian coffin. With less than 36 hours before we boarded the next train beast to Goa so we took the opportunity to sleep loads (again!) and just take it easy. West End Hotel was great for this! A right retro place (totally unintentional though!), we expected to see Austin Powers swinging from the lampshades...

Feb 18, 2008 - Mumbai

We flew to Mumbai in the evening and the timing was great because Deven Pabaru was leaving his office near the airport and picked us up on the way home. It's always great to pass through the new domestic terminal in Mumbai; it has set a standard that we hope will apply to major airports in the future. It was great to see Deven and Kajal, Anil's niece, again but we were a little disappointed that their thirteen-month old son Parth was already asleep for the night. We sat up late catching up on all the news of the past year and debating...

Feb 8, 2008 - Mumbai/Bombay, India Day 2 -Maggots

Today was an interesting day to say the least. If you have a weak stomach then don't read the second part of this entry. We started off early and walked across the street to the docks of Mumbai. We jumped on a boat and headed to Elephanta Island, home of one of the coolest temples! We spent the morning exploring but nothing other than that was too exciting. ***Disclaimer... This is gross**** So a few days after I returned from the Amazon I noticed a little bump on my head. Well today it was really starting to feel funny and looked funny so...

Feb 8, 2008 - Well I'm here!

6 days into the trip and this is the 1st time I've been able to get an internet connection - I have just read all the lovely messages from you lot back home, keep them coming! The trip so far... Landed in Mumbai early Monday morning totally shattered from the flight from hell - next time I decide to take a night flight to get some sleep remind me how awful it really is! Mumbai was insane all I had to do was get from one terminal to another to catch my internal flight to Goa it all seemed relativly simple you get a prepaid taxi from inside...

Feb 7, 2008 - Mumbai/Bombay, India

Well my first sight-seeing day in India was great. It was a lot of sitting on the bus and looking out of the window but when we did stop we had to rush through everything. So it really was a whirlwind tour day. Let's see... we saw all the beautiful buildings from when Britain controlled India (the main University, the railway station, clock towers, you will see my pictures). And then we drove to the hanging gardens of Mumbai which is essentially a park with flowers on top of an old water tank. It looked pretty but I thought it was going to...

Jan 31, 2008 - Mumbai

Sarebbe banale raccontare lo shock dell'arrivo a Bombay...che tra l'altro si e' verificato nel corso di tutti gli "arrivi" successivi, soprattutto quelli nelle stazioni, in cui si arriva quando fuori e' ancora buio e dentro si vede a malapena e si rischia sempre di calpestare qualcuno. A posteriori, lo shock fuori dall'aeroporto e' stato sicuramente quello del traffico - ed erano le 6 del mattino! Li' hanno avuto inziio le contrattazioni per i taxi - e si' che dovrebbero essere "prepagati", quindi ufficiali, a prezzo fisso - le corse...

Jan 16, 2008 - Bombay (Mumbai) - city tour

Our first stop today was the Gateway of India, an archway built at the edge of the harbor in 1924. It is a nice place to people watch and get acquainted with Indian culture. Bombay architecture is almost entirely British (for obvious reasons) and we spent a few hours admiring various buildings around town. We came upon the dabbawallahs coming off the train and organizing lunches on the sidewalks. Dabbawallahs collect almost 200,000 lunches from wives/mothers every morning from the village and deliver them to husbands/sons by lunchtime. Each...

Jan 15, 2008 - Bombay - Getting there

We left Kuala Lumpur and Southeast Asia behind to look forward to Bombay with excitement and anticipation. We really didn't know what to expect so we expected the worst. We were very pleasantly surprised during our drive from the airport into the city. The city was hectic enough but it had a real energy about it and we enjoyed the drive. Traffic was mostly made up of taxi's, a typical vehicle being a small 1950's model Fiat. For the most part, traffic inched along which was a good thing since the drivers are no less than kamikaze. They love...

Dec 29, 2007 - Mumbai (aka Bombay)

I stayed in Bombay during the New Year celebrations, and didn't like it. Bombay is a place where hello means 'I want your money' or more disconcertingly 'I want to make a fool of you'. I stayed at the New India Hotel in the Colaba area of the city where coincidently David Gregory, author of the excellent book 'Shantaram' stayed, which people tell me is currently being made into a film. Any walk from the hotel involved running a gauntlet of street sellers and beggars all wanting a piece of my time and wallet ("Hello sir, you want...

Dec 18, 2007 - INDIA: Modern Mumbai (Bombay) and moneyless!

Modern Mumbai was a shock after the rest of India. Shock on my wallet for one. I spent more than a weeks budget in a day! Mumbai the largest city in India (and world depending who you talk to) and also the richest. It is home to Bollywood and the wealth is evident on many young glam Indians. Here they are striving to be more like the west. I decided it was about time to hit the town (after 3mths of no drinking!) and went out clubbing with a few friends I met at the guesthouse and some local ladies who my friend knew. I could have almost...

Dec 11, 2007 - India - Mumbai

It is about time I started a journal - just didn't know where to start on the subject of India! So arrived in Mumbai on Tues 11/12 with no bags :( Not a great start to the trip but they turned up the next day so could have been worse. Mumbai was a big culture shock; there were a lot of wild dogs, rats, cockroaches (mostly in our hotel room) and people sleeping on the streets. We were told that many making a living from being beggars . Got asked if we wanted to be in a Bollywood film but declined - saving myself for Hollywood! We went to...