Day 55 - Mumbai - Saturday 10th December 2011

Dada - we're here!! 5.20am and we're outside Dada station trying to work out how to get to our hotel in Juhu. After several haggling sessions with different drivers, we picked one out and got in our yellow and black hunk of rust and sped off at a shattering pace towards our pad. We're being spoilt for accommodation in Mumbai as Alpesh booked and paid for us to spend the night in the 5 star Novatel on Juhu beach for our wedding present - mega posh and well needed after 2 months of Indian hostels and guesthouses!!

We arrived at our hotel and before we'd even got out of the taxi, the driver was trying to rip us off - trying to pretend we gave him a 100rs note instead of the 500rs we actually gave him. Welcome to Mumbai! We walked over to the reception desk and told the lady our name for check in, "congratulations on your wedding!!!" came the answer - so cute and the first time we've heard that since being on our travels! Unfortunately we couldn't check in until 12 noon; it was 6am. So after a quick trip the toilets and a wet wipe wash (nice), we sped off in a rickshaw ready to tackle the delights of Mumbai.

We got to Andheri train station and jumped on the train heading for Churchgate station in the heart of Colaba. Once there, we strolled in the early morning light through the empty streets filled with British buildings. We passed the Victoria Terminus - now named Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. This is a magnificent building with stain glassed windows, gothic turrets and is the main heart of the Indian railway network. Built and designed by the British (it looks it!); it's the busiest train station in Asia. We also walked past the High court , the University of Mumbai and the Flora Fountain and then came to a big green holding several cricket matches all surrounded by British style buildings and something that looked remarkably similar to Big Ben! We finally arrived at the Gateway of India monument; we stayed for a while and watched the early morning sun rising over the shore and gateway whilst a beggar feed the pigeons. Just next to the Gateway of India is the infamous Taj Mahal Palace - it's an impressive building and although was originally built in 1903 it was completely restored after the November 2008 terrorist attacks. We decided to treat ourselves for breakfast at the Taj - it was a buffet style and mega expensive at £35 but so absolutely delicious and well needed after no sleep!

With our bellies full and a couple of hours gone by, we walked back out to the Gateway and pondered on what to do next. So much to see but only a day to do it in! We thought about going over to Elephanta Island but it was cloudy so thought it might not be worth the 500rs. Whilst working out what to do, a guy approached us with an offer of a tour of Mumbai in his car which did all of the sights - all in 3 hours! With no sleep and not having washed, we opted for this rather than slum it around on public transport. Our guide was called Vijay and was very chatty and extremely pro-British! According to Vijay, India would be much better off if the British still ran it - an interesting point of view for an Indian living in India!

The first stop on our tour was the Mahalaxmi Dhobi ghat - this is a 140 year old clothes washing ghat. Apparently the majority of Mumbai's washing goes through the ghat - it has 1,026 open air mini pools of water and hundreds of people bashing and scrubbing clothes. It's the oldest and biggest human powered washing machine in the world! This place is a photographers dream - just wish I had my big camera (it stopped working about a week ago so we only have our little compact). Next stop was the fisherman's slums with its pretty port and hundreds of drying fish - very photogenic but a little bit smelly. We then drove on for a while and passed Marine Drive and the Girguam chowpatty beach on the way to our next stop of the Jain temple. The Jain religion is one of the lesser known religions in India and the Jains believe that liberation (as in no reincarnation) can be attained by achieving complete purity of the soul - they believe strictly in nonviolence in thought or deed to any living thing. I've just read a book about Jain nuns and apparently they take it as far as sweeping the floor in front of them before walking to make sure they do not step on any living thing! That's commitment for you! Adam posed the question of what happens if they kill something with the brush?! A festival was going on in the Jain temple so we, as non-Jains, were allowed in to look around - it was quite manic with people praying, lighting candles and offering presents to the gods. Next we drove through the neighbourhood of Malabar hill; this is the most exclusive neighbourhood of Mumbai where Bollywood actors and even the governor or Mumbai lives - in a huge house that was, according to Vijay, built by the British. We stopped off for a quick pit stop at the Hanging gardens to look at the plants and exotic Indian butterflies. Back in the car we drove past the Tower of silence, also know the "dokhmas". These concrete structures are where the city's community of Parsis bring the bodies of their dead, exposing them to the air so that scavenger birds can pick the corpses clean. Vijay then drove us on to Mani Bhavan, the museum of Gandhi and apparently where he stayed in his visits to Mumbai. We'd already seen most of the artefacts and information on this when we'd visited the Gandhi museum in Madurai so didn't spend that much time inside. The most interesting part of this stop was listening to Vijay's point of view on Gandhi and his contribution to India - Vijay was very blunt and open with his view that Gandhi didn't do anything good for India! Interesting, this is not the first time we've heard an Indian with this opinion even though Gandhi's face still appears on every single currency in India…..

With our tour over, we headed over to Leopold's for a beer. It's a massive tourist trap but it's got to be done and the cold beer was a welcome relief after several hours of sightseeing. Much to my disgust, Adam even bought a Leopold's T shirt!

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel and once checked in, got straight into bed! It was the most amazing and comfortable bed we have ever slept in and for this reason decided to stay in it for the rest of the afternoon and evening! Come 8.30pm we were tucked up in bed, watching telly when the doorbell went. We looked at each other and decided to ignore it. 4 doorbells later, we gave in and Ad got up, wrapped in a towel to answer the door - we were awarded with bottle of wine and a huge chocolate cake with congratulations written across it - plus a very embarrassed delivery man! Brilliant!!! We stuffed the whole of the cake and promptly went off to sleep for the best nights kip we've had in 2 months!

Day 56 -Mumbai - Sunday 11th December 2011 - Last day in India!

We woke up the next morning, rested and happy in our comfy bed. The posh hotel has a gym so we decided that as we'd eaten so much food in our 2 months in India and hadn't done any exercise, we should pop along and have a go. 5 minutes on the running machine and we were done in! We decided that travelling is for eating and not exercising - man we're going to be fat when we get home! With this thought process, we decided to go for yet another all you can eat breakfast!

Full up (again), we checked out of our room and chilled by the pool all day, reading our books and checking out the hotels clientele. Come evening, a film crew and quite a large crowd gathered by the hotels outside bar - we wrestled in to check out what the fuss was about. It was some guy who we've never seen before - apparently an up and coming Bollywood actor!

Come night, we left our hotel in Mumbai and headed for the airport. With a heavy heart we said goodbye to India, ready for our next stop - Hong Kong.