Well we are here at last our trip has finally begun.

Things have got off to a great start no delays on our flights no dramas and when we got onto our Lon-Mumbai flight it was empty so after our meal & several glasses of wine we got 4 middle section chairs each to ourselves and lay down and slept like babies the whole flight .

So we arrive at the airport in Mumbai with all these expectations of it being chaotic and stressful but we got off our flight with another wee indian man who Marc had been chatting to on the flight giving us tips on places to see etc and he even offered to give us some cash till we got to the cashline seemed genuine enough and really nice – we then casually strolled to the prepaid taxi counter and got to our hotel – totally stress free – was this really the Mumbai we had heard about??

So then its to the hotel, again no drama, clean sheets we didn't get air air con so its hot but bearable and not seen any bugs yet and the shower works so its all good.

We then ventured out for the day got a taxi, again helped by a friendly passer by who told us what it should actually cost (55p) so we heading to the Gateway of India and into the Taj Hotel & Leopolds Café where the terrorist attacks happened – the hotel is beautiful…and had air con so we chilled out in there as its hot outside – bearable but its in the high 30’s – people stare at us and shout hello but nowhere near as bad as we thought it would be and we have been barely bothered by anyone or beggars so far .

It was time for food, Marc was hungry !!! We found this wee place that seemed busy and we ventured in………. we didn’t really know what to order I knew I wanted a Dosa had seen them on the TV and we picked some random stuff from the menu – it was all veggie but I will let the pictures speak for themselves we were all embarrassed when the super sized dosa appeared – the whole meal & water cost us £2.90 and it was soooo tasty - after that we had definitely mastered the art of eating with our right hand !

We ended up walking back to the hotel with no map and it was a good few miles – Marc has turned into Mr Navigator, we walked for ages past all these people selling everything you could imagine just taking in the sights and sometimes horrific smells of sewers but delighted with ourselves at finding our way back.

Had a couple of Kingfishers back on the wee balcony of the hotel which knocked us out - it was siesta time we were shattered.

Woke up and headed out for a walk about 10pm but outside was a different place – most things were closed the hustle and bustle had gone and it was dark smelly and intimidating, people rummaging though the rubbish on the streets leftovers from the days market stalls, lots of families sleeping in doorways with babies only months old laying naked on the pavement too – we quickly realised this was nowhere for beers so we promptly got back to the hotel room, noone bothered us but it wasn’t really somewhere to stroll about in the evening so it was back to bed to sleep and take in what a great day we had from start to finish.

Tomorrow we are going on the Dharavi slum tour around one of the biggest slums in India and going to investigate getting our train to Goa !!

Excitement has kicked in at last and we are loving every minute of it so far at last its finally real that we are travelling the world.

Below is just to help anyone reading this planning their own trip to get an idea of how much things cost.

Hotel - £25 per room per night

Taxi from Airport to Fort area - £7

Kingfisher beer from shop - £68p