Finally managing to book onto a bus headed towards Mumbai, I set off with no hiccups (or sickness). Prior to leaving the lovely hotel, I made the executive (and not-so-sensible) decision to re-dye my hair. In a pure white bathroom this may not have been the best idea that I’ve ever had. It was all going well until the part where I have to wash out the dye. This resulted in the bathroom floor turning a rather severe shade of pink that no amount of Hydrogen Peroxide or scrubbing would fix. I was getting worried, especially when a man was sent up to check the room before I left…but he was either blind or didn’t look in the bathroom because no one mentioned it. Yay.
DAY 1
The bus ride was amazing in it’s non-sickness. I slept the whole way there!
After arriving in Mumbai (at about 6.30am), I got a taxi to the Gateway of India and had a poodle around until I found the India Guest House, which smelt quite badly of wee. However, as I only needed somewhere to stay for one night until I could find somewhere else, I left my bags in the storage room and ventured out to explore Mumbai.
I walked down to The Gateway of India and looked over at the Taj Palace in all of its old school glory. I found a little cafe: DiBella. Each table has a Galaxy Tab for you to send your order through on and to play with. I used this time to check in with everyone back home.
I followed along a route suggested by the Lonely Planet guide, which took me past all of the main buildings, museums and interesting sites of the city. Along the way I found a really cool book shop called ‘Crossword’, where I bought a book (and read it that night) and found a good bar/restaurant called ‘Leopold’s’ where I bought a huge salad that I couldn’t eat!
Throughout the day I tried to find another hotel to stay in, but didn’t really get too far until going back to the hotel to find THOUSANDS of bedbugs all over the walls. This quickly led me to pack up all of my things and leave to eventually find ‘Bentley Guest House’ which was amazing. I had a room with two double beds, a huge canopied balcony thing and it came with breakfast!!!
DAY 2
I picked up a boat to the nearby Elephanta Island today. It’s an island full of labyrinth cave-temples that have been cut into the rock in the side of the hill. Apparently they were created between AD 450 and 750, but the Portuguese rediscovered them in 1814. On the island you walk from the boat jetty, up the hill towards the caves: one main and a few other smaller ones that are either ruined or unfinished. In the guidebook it tells you not to bother with the smaller ones, but I think that sometimes the best things aren’t complete, it’s the lack of being finished that makes them amazing to look at!
Later on I decided to think about where to go next and decided to fly to Kerala and make it back up the coast slowly by bus or train. Trying to find a cheap flight was really hard though and I had to settle for a flight that cost 15,000 rupees, which is about seventy five pounds.
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