Mumbai Madness

Greetings from a very hot, noisy, crazy busy India! Paul and Carolyn have had a fantastic 1st couple of days in India, in it's biggest city; Mumbai. Immediately venturing out on the idiotically manic roads of South Mumbai on the 1st day, they sought out the comparatively tranquil sands of Chowpatty Beach (an area that locals come to chill out and watch the sunset). Day 2 was a whirlwind tour taking in the major sites including the Gateway to India, University of Mumbai and more importantly, the bar which was made even more famous in the book 'Shantaram'; Leopolds!

You seriously take your life in to your own hands the second you step out of the hotel; its an adventure and a challenge in itself! The streets are mayhem. Carolyn had only just mentioned in the taxi on the way back to the hotel how surprising it was that more cars weren't battered to pieces, as everyone drives ridiculously close and weaves in to impossible spaces, when our taxi crahed in to the one in front, resulting in one very broken car! Radiator fluid leaking all over the floor and the bonnet concave, it was obvious this taxi was going nowhere! We emerged from the car to 40 or so local men who had come to get involved! Paul paid the forlorn taxi man the agreed fare and then escaped in to the crowd of shouting bystanders and walked the rest of the way home! Not even 24 hours in and we've been involved in a car crash! Not surprising really considering how they drive. It's got to be one of the hardest jobs in the world!

First impressions of India is that is is crazy (expect the unexpected - for example hot water... one minute there is some, the next you find yourself showering with a big bucket of cold water and a jug!). The people are unbelieveably helpful. Anyone is more than happy to help. There is no way we'd be getting by so easily without the kindness and helpfulness of complete strangers.

We then travelled 3 hours East of Mumbai to a city called Pune. This is one of the worst polluted cities in India as it has rapidly grown from a Hill station village to a metropolis within the last 40 years. We were so fortunate to meet up with Vishal Dave (who worked with Carolyn at Madame Tussauds before he returned to live back home in Pune 2 weeks ago) and he very generously took us out for a fantastic Indian feast in a gorgeous restaurant down from our hotel and gave us a list of things to visit the next day. In the heat of the Pune sunshine, we treked around these 'attractions' including a temple to the Elephant God, where Paul and Carolyn looked as pious as possible and when handed a coconut, demonstrated a confused looking little prayer to the fruit before handing it back! The stumbled upon a very tranquil area called Koregaen Park, which is an exclusive area of colonial and modern mansions, one of which is the famous Osho International Meditation centre, where some 'Guru' who died in the 1990's, still manages to pull in millions of Westerners who are willing to pay a fortune to 'find themselves'. We 'found' the closest tuk tuk to take us back to our humble abod!

Tomorrow Goa - peace at last!

Love Judith (Paul and Carolyn) xx