Our train arrived in Mumbai this morning at about 5am, its the station that got bombed last year in the Mumbai bomb attacks and from what we could see it looked like it had just been left! Lol Laura went to go to the toilet at the station and in the ladies toilets they have urinals for the women to kind of stand/squat in front of everyone like in the gents!! Anyway, our over night train was a experience, you basically get a pull down bed each and thats it, so Lau went on the upper one and i had the lower one next to the draughty windows.You don't actually get too much sleep as you are aware your on a train and it kept us up a little bit but i think we managed a good five hours before Laura got cold and joined me on my bed.

So we arrived and got a taxi to Colaba, which is the area we wanted to stay in (which is south Mumbai), right close to the 'Gateway to India' and the Taj Palace Hotel (the other thing that got bombed in the attacks last year).The first thing we noticed about Mumbai was how expensive everything is compared to the rest of India, its literally double the price, so we eventually found a decent room with sky t.v etc for 600rps a night, which is far more than we have been paying, but cheap for Mumbai.So as we were tired after our night train we staying in for an hour and watched the Office on sky which was good, we then headed out to see the sights of Mumbai.We had to do as much as we could today as we leave tomorrow at about 10am to catch our flight to Bangkok, so we got our guide book out and went round the Harbour, the Taj Palace, the markets and then we caught the local bus over to another area calledChowpatty Beach .Over here we went to a place called the hanging gardens which is basically a really nice botanical gardens in the middle of the city, after relaxing there for and our or so, we walked to a place called the Silent Temple.In India there is a really small religious group called the Parsi's who believe that earth, water and fire are sacred, so when people die they take then to this Silent Temple and here they suspend them by their necks and leave the bodies for the Vultures to eat!! Pretty grim...we actually went whilst there was a funeral taking place so we got ushered off the premises.After the Temple we caught a local bus over to Chowpatty Beach to watch the sun go down over the city.

At night we decided to go for a few beers and then ended up eating at a nationally famous street vendors for dinner.It's like a kinda BBQ at the side of the road with loads of tables and chairs all along the street and they serve all kinds of Indian food. We got there about 12.30am and it was so busy we had to wait for a table, apparently all kinds of famous Bollywood actors go there and it goes on serving until the early hours of the morning! The food was really good; we splashed out on 4 different dishes as it was our last Indian dinner before we leave the country...now it's off to bed ready for our flight tomorrow.

Before we go, we just wanna summarise our experience of India... it's dirty, smelly, dusty and uncomfortable... but we loved every minute! It's an amazing country with vivid colours. gorgeous food, real culture and beautiful people and we can't wait to come back!

Best backpacker scene/party - Gokana/Vakala

Our favourite destination(s) - Gokana & Hampi

Our least favourite destination - Delhi (although we didn't see much so can't really judge!)

Best experience - seeing a wild tiger on safari in Ranthambore

Worst experience - arriving in Delhi!

Place we wish we'd been - Andaman Islands/Si Lanka

What we'll miss - The food, the culture, the people, and the proper traveller feel!

What we're glad to be leaving - the dirt/dust/rats/mice, and the sound and sight of the Indian's coughing up phlem at all hours of the night and day!!!