OK, the time has come for us to write the final installment of this blog from India, in a few short hours Fran will be boarding a plane destined back to blighty and I will be jetting down to continue my travels in Sri Lanka. In the last week since we last updated this, we have moved on from Goa up to Indias largest metropolis of Mumbai (Bombay).

While we were in Panjim, we did a few day trips out to places in Goa, we visited a spice farm and we're shown the interesting world of spice cultavation, complete with a free lunch and sample of the spices, we visited a few temples around the town of Ponda and we visited the famous Anjuna flea market; a huge market where people are selling everything from cd's to huge silk wall hangings. While we were at Anjuna I went for one last swim in the Arabian Sea.

We had a 12 hour train overnight from Goa up to Mumbai and for once actually managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep before arriving in the busiest train station in India. We checked in to a hotel in the morning and spent the first day exploring the Colaba area where we were staying taking in the gateway of India, before taking a long walk along the seafront up to Chowpatty beach, halfway accross Mumbai. We attempted to find a small hamlet of several old wooden two story buildings but in the end just got confused wandering the streets.

On Friday we took a boat to Elephanta Island in the middle of Mumbai Harbour, on the boat we passed hundreds of cargo ships, oil tankers, cruise ships, war ships all queueing up to get into the port. We arrived at the island which is famous for 2500yr old caves containing temples and carvings. We were shown round by a very informative guide and learnt about the various Hindu sculptures. We also went for a walk up to the top of the island, where there is a cannon and would be a nice view except the haze and pollution for the city meant you couldn't really see much.

We travelled up to the area of Mahalaxmi (named after the Hindu godess of wealth) where we saw the largest Dhobi Ghat in India, an area where thousands of people stand in troughs of water and do their laundry- watching from above up can see nothing but hanging clothes and people scrubbing away for miles! We also took a trip to a large mosque out in the sea reached by a thin causway which is only passable at high tide. We also stopped of at the Mahalaxmi temple.

We were recruited by an agency to star as extras in a bollywood blockbuster and so we headed out with several other western tourists accross town to a rather rundown looking studio. However once changed into our well used costumes we saw the inside of the studio. It was a very impressive looking coctail bar and luxury looking rooms with floral decorated balcony. The day itself was mixed, while I was filmed constantly staring a social w**** in many different coctail party scenes. Fran unfortunatly was feeling unwell with some form of food poisoning and before actually getting filmed had to argue her way out of the set and take a taxi back to the hotel for many hours of sleep. The day lasted much longer than was planned, was swelteringly hot and not much water was provided, is was standing for long periods in my thick black jacket thinking I may not after all take up a career in show business. I got back to the hotel at about midnight and fell straight to sleep!

So today we leave and end our adventure together, I will however continue to update this blog with my travels, so keep on checking (If you are one of Frans friends and don't know who I am, please read on regardless!)... so if I dont write before I wish you all a Merry Christmas et al

Jon