Our train slowly rolled into Mumbai's main train station, the grand Victorian terminal, the busiest train station in the whole of Asia. We were two people out of an incredible average two and a half million passengers who pass through the station each day. At 6am the majority of the 16 million inhabitants of the city were still sleeping, and after an argument with our taxi driver about a new 50 rupee baggage fee he decided to apply, we drove easily through the st...

The hippies were responsible for first finding of Calangute Beach in Goa, although one or two of other beaches in Goa have now taken that badge, however, Calangute is all about package holiday Brits and Western tourists, bringing the British pub and a full English Breakfast. It was empty of tourists when we arrived, we had our hostel to our selves which always a bit spooky in a 'Shining' kind of way. Calangute beach was awash with Indian tourists of every age spl...

The following day we decided to head north to Panjim, the capital of Goa, its very Portuguese. When the British Raj gave India back to the Indians in 1947, the Portuguese decided to keep Goa. So, according to a man we met on the train the Indians flew a plane over Goa and dropped a single bomb, apparently the Portuguese reaction was, ok, its yours, keep it, and they surrendered Goa. The peoples faces are an interesting mixture of Indian and European, and everyone...

After Cochin we took a 24 hour train ride to Goa, the trains are such a welcome change from buses, they go in straight lines and only gently rock and brake as opposed to sharp U turns and sudden braking that shoots you out of your seat just as you finally drift off to sleep! They aren't luxury but its nice to be able to get up and walk around during the day and people called wallahs come on selling everything from chai, coffee and samosas. Its fun trying to work ...

We arrived in the busy town of Kochin and took an expensive ferry (3p a ticket) out to the island town of Fort Cochin (no fort) where accommodation is all about the 'homestays'. We stayed in the Princess Inn (no Princess) run by two friendly lads who spent their time chatting (up) the female backpackers who drifted in and out during our four days stay. Sorry, no more brackets now. Being separated from the mainland Fort Cochin is nice and quite, more goats than r...