Days 1 - 3.

Day 1

Well we arrived safe and sound im Mumbai and got to our hotel. the taxi ride was quite terrifying to be honest. There seems to be no rules for driving, no markings on the road and no road signs. But it is quite strange how quickly you get used to it. Mumbai is a quite overwhelming, lots of poverty (what they call pavement dwellers) and dogs everywhere.

The hotel on the first night was fine and clean etc. We got ourselves off to sleep pretty fast as we knew we had a bit of a mission on our hands the next day. When we got up we got a taxi to south Mumbai to a place called Colaba. We found a nice hostel which again is clean and it has a shared bathroom (8 pounds night). We had a wander around and I had to buy a shawl as not suppsed to show shoulders and Michael had to buy trousers as he is not allowed to show knees, as you can imagine we are boiling over.

We had some lunch and went to the Gateway of India and the Taj Palace Hotel and got jealous we weren't staying there. Tiredness was creeping in so we went for a nap and then got some dinner. Really nice 3 course Indian for about 4 quid each. And mum the biryani was amazing!

Day 2

We went on a tour of the city which was a bit of a rip off but the worst part was was that the guide stole my mobile phone ot of my bag as he asked me to put it in his boot as not allowed to take in to temple. What a horrible person. anyway we spent part of afternoon in police station so we could get a crime number for insurance. By this point we are not liking Mumbai too much and can't wait to go to Goa. We picked up some bhajis for lunch 20p and went back to hostel to sulk. we were both quite cranky as it 35degrees and we'd had a bit of a rubbish day but we got ourselves up and out and went to get a couple of drinks and dinner, had a lovely evening in the end.

Day 3

Today we had to go to a money exchange as our maestro have stopped working to that whole fraud thing, have to ring to acrtivate them tomorrow. This was again a bit of a mission in really high heat, death trap roads and people constantly asking you to buy stuff and begging. however we managed to get some money and decided to go on a boat trip to a Hindu Island called Elephanta. This has a massive old temple with loads of interesting history and we had a really good guide who was really insightful etc. there was monkeys and cows just wandering around - bit scary.haha! On the boat on the way back loads of Indian tourists wanted to have there photos taken with us ONE BY ONE. A mother even gave me her baby to pose with....quite surreal.

Today was a good day but we are happy to be leaving Mumbai behind to head to Goa for some relaxing.

We love you all lots. send us some messages

Will update with more later.

Sophie and Michael