Mumbai

The cab brings us to our hotel (prebooked) in one piece. We are so excited to be alive, this combined with what we have just seen/smelt on the way here distracts us as our hotel room has no window.
We don't care.

We hit the streets in the busy tourist area of Colaba. Its all madness, people everywhere, beggars, street children, street stalls.. (if you vaguely look you get a fierce selling routine - to be explained later)... our highlight is seeing a man with no eyeballs. We are so overwhelmed we duck into the 5-star Taj Mahal opposite the Gateway of India. We have lunch there and thinks it s a steal at about 14 Quid. Suitably recovered, we walk the streets again only to find shelter in our hotel room after a few hours.

The combination of jetlag and no windows mean we wake up at about midday the following morning. We hit the streets again. More of the same. Walk + Taj Mahal (no lunch this time, just using the facilities) = Tolerable.

Our highlight this day is we walk past Leopolds. Its a coffee shop that has a intricate part in the book 'Shantaram' by Gregory David Roberts. Sim and I have read it and loved it so we were happy to see the place. We walk the streets again.

Roadworks Mumbai style

The next few days are like this again. Throw in a trip to the train station to book a ticket to Chennai, a rickshaw drive down Marine Drive, a sunset moment on Chowpatty beach (Mumbai's version of Camps bay), a bout of food poisoning and an accidental walk past the slum (interesting to put it lightly) our highlight is another trip past Leopolds. However, this time the author is there and we stop for a chat and a signature. He's and amazing man but we chat for a while and he signs an autograph for us. Sim's friends can only laugh in disgust as she took so long to read the book they say.. she doesn't deserve the signing!

Left:Ant outside the entrance to Leopolds Right: A side road in Mumbai at night