The train journey to Mumbai was relatively pain free. We both had a good 4-5 hours of sleep during this time and woke up feeling slightly more refreshed than previous sleeper train encounters. We got talking to two Indian guys that were sharing our bunker area; Sanket and Frankie. They had missed their flight to Mumbai so had to get the train but were not happy about it. Frankie kept saying it was his first and final time on a sleeper train. After chatting for some time, Frankie informed us he had family contacts in the Indian government, including the ministry of tourism. We told him all about our tourist company and he was furious about it. He kept calling them cheats and that they should never get away with that. He was so annoyed about it as I think he felt they were giving India a bad reputation. He said he would make some phone calls for us to try and resolve the problem.

On arriving at the station platform in Mumbai, we didn't even have enough cash for a taxi to our hotel and of course the tourist company hadn't organised one for us. Frankie gave us enough money to reach our hotel which was very kind of him. He didn't want anything from us, just that we enjoyed our last few days in India. It was kind of refreshing actually.

The Hotel Annex Executive was clean and tidy, and we were greeted with Chai Tea. It was still early in the morning and check in was usually 12 midday but they were trying their best to organise a room for us beforehand. On arrival, I double checked with the receptionist that the room was paid for but the tourist company also hadn't paid this bill yet. I could feel the sick feeling in my stomach return and we started to stress. The hotel was more than what we could afford per night so we weren't going to be able to afford to pay the bill if the tourist company didn't. We explained the situation to the hotel and although they sympathised with us, they said that if the tourist company didn't pay, that we would be responsible for the bill. I couldn't believe this was happening again. We'd already paid for this hotel once, we just were not going to pay again. At the thought of the potential risk that we would need to fork out the money, we told the hotel we would look for a cheaper place to stay, but they told us because we had already checked in, we would already need to pay anyway! We argued and debated for ages with the receptionist (we've developed really good skills at this now) but he was adamant, we couldn't win! After endlessly ringing the tourist company and getting nowhere, as they either wouldn't answer or they would continuously reply with "yes madam, you give us 5 minutes" which after 4 hours became a complete waste of time and energy, we decided our best bet was to go and file a complaint at a nearby police station.

On arriving at the police station, it was an absolute nightmare trying to get across our concerns. All we wanted was for the police to put a little pressure on the tourist company to pay the bills they needed to. Obviously, the language barrier was our first issue. They asked us to write a statement of the events, but even then we don't think they understood. They took us through to the Sargent's office, and he initially told us that we would have to spend our next three nights in Mumbai sleeping inside the airport and just to wait for our flight out. I just lost it at this point! What an absolute load of crap! Even the police wouldn't help us. They felt quite comfortable telling British tourists who had been screwed over and scammed by a tourist company in their country, that our only option was to basically just accept it and sleep in the airport for three days!!! Was he having a laugh?! It's not like we just didn't want to pay (although of course we didn't, we had already paid too much), it was more due to the demonetisation that has nothing to do with us, or will even benefit us in the future, we couldn't access our money and the hotel wouldn't accept our cards.

After, looking him square in the face in complete disbelief at his lousy suggestion, another Sargent came into the room who spoke better English. On hearing our situation, he offered that the police would pay our hotel bill if the tourist company didn't pay, and that we could get free meals from a restaurant that they would organise. Finally, something helpful! They filled the report and we were on our way, although we weren't convinced the report would even be looked at again in all honesty. They sent a police man to meet us at the hotel to inform them of the plan. At lest we had one night we could sleep well for.

The next day was dedicated to trying to resolve our crappy situation. I had to keep on the the hotel to keep ringing the tourist company as it would be more powerful coming from them. I also called the tourist company maybe 20-30 times trying to get them to pay but it was causing so much negative energy and tension. I cried a number of times that day. What a horrible way to end India. We couldn't wait to leave! We tried to take our minds of it but I felt sick constantly. When checking that the hotel were fine with the police picking up our bill, they literally laughed in our faces saying they will never pay, the bill still lies with us. We marched back to the police station and asked them to phone the hotel. The Sargent practically acted as though he had never seen us before. He called them right in front of us after our request to do so. On arriving back at the hotel, the hotel told us the police had never phoned them! I just couldn't get over the pure ridiculousness of the situation! What more could we possibly do!

Later that evening, the tourist company finally paid. We went out for some food and genuinely sighed with relief! At least we had a place to stay until we left that had been paid for. Obviously, the 'free food' in the restaurant they had 'organised' did not follow through but apart from us looking like idiots, we really had given up relying on anyone by this point. We were just going to make the most of the rest of our stay in Mumbai. The next morning, we decided to cease the day and organise a taxi to The Gate of India. The hotel organised us a taxi and told us it would cost 400 Rupee and would take 1 hour. When we got into the taxi, the taxi driver told us it would actually take 3 hours to get there and would cost over 1000 rupees. We weren't happy with this at all and we're annoyed that once again, the tourist information was all wrong. We were still ordered to pay the taxi driver for his time which annoyed me but nothing surprised me anymore! We decided to make our own way to The Gate of India. We caught the train to Church Gate, which was quite an experience and only cost us 10 rupees each. When the trains arrive at the station platform, the carriages were overloaded with people who just burst off the carriages while they slow to a short stop. People then push their way onto the carriages before it quickly pulls off again. Matt and I managed to bundle our way onto the train amongst the crowds of people.

We saw The Gate of India and the Raj Palace, then decided to take a ferry to Elephant Island. Unexpectedly, it took over an hour to get there, and after climbing 50 flights of stairs to get to Elephant Island, it cost 1000 rupees to get in! Firstly, we didn't have this on us and more annoyingly, it cost only 30 rupees each for locals. After the disappointment of getting all that way and not actually seeing it, we headed back.

That night, we prepared our bags for our early flight to Sydney the next morning. I organised our morning transfer to the airport with the hotel and charged all our electricals so we always have enough entertainment. We FaceTimed my parents and called it a night. Considering I hate flying, I'd never been so excited for a flight in my life! I couldn't wait to see my beautiful sister. Oz here we come!