Mumbai is a wonderful city. We 3 girls quickly perked up as we entered the great city. I must admit to feeling a bit nervous about my first Indian city stay having nightmare visions of overcrowded streets, overwhelming poverty and chaos. I was very pleasantly surprised with Mumbai being a very manageable modern city despite its 20 million population. SLUM TOUR The tour of the famous Dharavi slum was the highlight. It began on a sombre note, with the tour guide ...

Goa...state of sunshine, beaches and Russians. Anita said that last time in Goa all the signs were for the Israelis but the Goan tourist industry has swiftly moved on with the the language after English being Russian. Goa was the down time point in our trip. At this point , the E coli caught up with Chez and I necessitating a li-lo period of time. Apparently there were SOME sights to see but we mainly settled down for a few days of beach and bar exploration (an...

Hampi is a glorious place. It's in a very dusty spot in south-central India surrounded by spectacular rock formations and temples that are up to 800 years old. To the Hindus it's an extremely sacred place. There's a push by the police and the locals to keep Hampi under control, and to not let it turn into a party area like Goa. There are signs telling tourists to be in their homestay by 10pm and to not drink or take drugs anywhere.This is almost well enforced. Ma...

WE CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN Yes. We did. With much huffing a puffing these travellers marched up Chembra Peak (near) Wayanad Nature Reserve. I don't think the photos truly picked up the tomato-red hue of my face at the top. We were a little bit nervous when setting out from our hotel as the jeep and auto-rick drivers were still on strike (Kerala has been a Communist state on and off for 50 years). Fortunately, there's always someone around doing the sneaky thing and o...

Australia is flat We had a largely uncomfortable train ride in general class yesterday. Cheree and I were more comfortable though than Luke and Anita who didn't have seats the whole 4 hours. One cheek of my buttocks laid claim to the end of a bench seat, as some ladies had put their shopping up on the bench. At one point a young lady came through and told the woman off and then proceeded to sit in the cleared space which obviously didn't improve my situation as ...