It was a late night, we flew out of Aurangabad after 1800hrs and the flight was only 45 min back to Mumbai. We had the usual crazy take off and landing..these pilots are off their chops I reckon.. Anyway we survived to tell the tale.. We were onto a shorter bus this time and off into the Mumbai traffic.. We couldn't see a great deal due to it being too dark but it took around an hour to manoeuvre around the traffic to get to our hotel.. It's a sister hotel to the one in Aurangabad and they definately had the same decorator..in other words it was pretty dumpy..Probably the worst since we have been here.. Our twin beds were pushed together and sandwiched in between built in side tables..so as I didn't want to sleep with my brother I had to redecorate the whole room..The mess under the bed was a bit gross but we were only there for one night so we just put up with it.
Today we started at 0900hrs and we had a woman tour guide and she was really quite good, at least we could understand her . It was a Public holiday in town today because it's some gods birthday to it was very busy around the temples.. The city of Mumbai is fantastic, it has all these beautiful old buildings, all in need of a good clean up and repair but there was just something majestic about them.. The roads seem to be a lot more organised, and the billboards a lot larger, I think it's a very cosmopolitan city and I would have loved a lot more time to explore it, maybe another time.. we went to some hanging gardens and then a park that's been built over a water tank..we had some free time here and us girls ran back to a little market and we bought some really cheap bangles they were like only $1 each.. we were well pleased with our purchases.. The city is built over a few islands and we had to cross a huge bridge to get to our hotel & the old city. We saw the richest man in Indias house..He built a 7 story building for his family of 5 and they have around a staff of 600 hundred apparently..It sounds a bit like Indian folklore to me.. but anyway the wife stayed in a New York hotel and loved it so much they hired the same architect to design their home ..
High light of the Dady was the Dhobi Ghat ..this is nex to a Railway line and there is a settlement of slums where hey take n washing and there is washing. Everywhere, jus amazing . How they keep track of it I have no idea... Apparently everyone comes to Mumbai wanting to be a movie star inBollywood but they end up being Dhobi Wallers...washermen.
There is two kinds of people in Mumbai..the very rich and the very poor and nothing in between.
This is the first place we have come to where young couples are seen walking, sitting etc together, everywhere else it's boys hanging with boys and girls hanging with girls but not boy & girl..
After driving around a bit we ended up at Mahatma Mumbai house !! Yes it seems Mahatma has houses or rooms everywhere throughout India.. anyway it was quite a good one, outside the was a young girl hawking some little bags and she was just lovely, really bright and bubbly and happy to chat to us all even though none of us were buying, in the end we has a few bus sales for her so she was very happy ..
From there we went to the Gate of India which is by the Bay of Bombay.. also at the same spot was the TAJ Hotel which is the one that was bombed back in the 80's..It was a magnificent building..curse the Muslim terrorists. It has been fully repaired . We strolled around here for a while and all the locals were out and about because of the holiday, the lovely colours of India in all their glory, I just love it.
We walked down to a local restaurant and had a superb lunch..one of our better ones that's for sure, we were all happy campers after that.. We. Choofed off then and had some free time at a BIJAR and it was so bust we sought the comfort of an air conditioned shoe shop where I bought some sand Le's and Peter bought some socks..success .
After our shopping it was back into all the Temple traffic and off to the airport.. Mumbai airport is really impressive and it has great shops inside , today we went into the domestic terminal it wasn't quite as grand but still good, we all said goodbye to Vishel as he was heading back to Delhi to pick up his next group. Apparently they speak a different language in the South and he can't speak it.. We had over an hour to wait at the airport before our flight with Air Indigo, a new airline. The flight to Kochi was about 1 hr 45 min but we were running a bit late..We ended up getting in well after 2100hrs.. we were met by our new guide Agi and were informed it was over an hours drive to our hotel..lol So off we went, he chatted most of the way, traffic was heavy in part as people were still going into the temples to pray. We got to the hotel about 2230 or there abouts and we had to go and have dinner as they had been saving it for us..that was a chore..The high point is they eat beef down here..the low point is the hotel is Muslim owned so there's no drinking..lol Some will struggle.