As I sit writing this on my 4th day in Bangkok it's occurred to me that my memory of Mumbai is already a little hazy! Nevertheless I shall try and describe it.
By the time I had cleared the terminal and caught a taxi nightfall was approaching. After dumping my stuff in the hotel I went straight out to hit the town. My first port of call was Cafe Montegars (Monty's) which I'd heard about from Riz in Hampi. In there I got talking to a Bollywood choreographer who gave me the lowdown on the cool places to go, and where I could spot the stars (not that I would recognise any of them). He told me a lot about Bollywood which meant nothing to me but it was interesting listening nonetheless.
The next day I got up (a bit bleary eyed!) and headed out for a nice big walk around some of Mumbai's most famous sites. I first went to The Gateway of India, the huge colonial archway looking out to sea to the west. It was quite interesting for approximately 2 minutes. After that I realised it isn't that old, isn't that beautiful and doesn't do anything - so I moved on. Next stop was the Oval Maidan which is an oval shaped park lined with some lovely old colonial buildings like the university and courthouse. Cricket is played there constantly every day at all different levels from a local league match down to a few kids with a bat and a tennis ball. After that I walked further down to the coast where you can find Chowpatty beach. I walked along for a bit but the time was getting on and the heat was getting a bit uncomfortable.
A nice meal and an early night left me refreshed again for the following day. I got up earlyish (well, early for me!) and got the 11am ferry over to the Elephanta Island Caves. Now, I had to be back to go to the hospital at 4pm to finish having the inoculations I started before I left. I guessed 20 minutes on the ferry, a couple of hours sightseeing then back and 20 mins to the hospital. After 1 hour 10 mins on the ferry to the island I started to suspect I might be cutting it fine!
The trip over to the island was a bit cramped but the sea breeze was nice in the heat. I was definitely glad of the chance to cool down once I arrived as there was about a mile walk to the caves, mostly uphill. To be honest it wasn't really worth it. It was ok as caves go and there were some impressive carvings on the wall but I think perhaps I've seen as many carvings, statues and pictures of Hindu gods as I need to see in one month! I'd say its a good place to go if you've got time on your hands in Mumbai, but I wouldn't make a special effort to squeeze it in.
Once I'd seen it all I headed back to the boat to wait. It wasn't leaving for another half an hour so I bought my way onto a bigger and better boat for only Rs 20 and headed back to the mainland to try and get my jabs. The hour ferry turned into 1 hour 20 mins on the way back, then the taxi took 50 mins instead of my estimated 20 so all in all I arrived over an hour late. However it wasn't a problem and I was still seen. I soon found out why as the doctor was very keen to see me. She has only quite recently started the clinic and has had hardly any patients. She gave me a consultation and when she'd finished she wanted to know how I thought she'd done and how she compared to the UK service! I was impressed with everything except maybe her bedside manner as when I pointed out the needles were a lot wider than the one's we used in the UK, she flatly said "yes, they are less painful if they're thinner". I'm still not sure if she was trying to compliment UK medical supplies or admitting to being a masochist!
After such a hectic day I felt I deserved a drink, so I headed to Leopold's which became my favourite bar in Mumbai. I settled down to watch the cricket at the bar when I noticed there was a middle-aged Canadian guy next to me trying to chat up a young English girl. I was laughing to myself at his corny lines and totally sleazy approaches when the girl saw me looking at them. She came straight over and asked if I wanted to join them. Now three's a crowd but I was absolutely certain this guy was going to get nowhere anyway so I agreed. It turned out she was desperately trying to get rid of him because, as I soon discovered too, he was a complete and utter knob.
He soon realised he'd failed and we watched him go around to about 4 or 5 other women while we finished our drinks (which didn't take very long!). We moved on to a very posh bar around the corner and had a fun night drinking in an establishment that wouldn't even have let us near the doorstep at home!
The next day was very chilled. I just loafed around Colaba, the nice part of south Mumbai where I was staying. I meant Anna again for an hour or so for a quick drink in the evening and then I headed to bed so I could get up at the ludicrous time of 5am to go and get my plane.
My Indian adventure had come to an end and it was time to open up the Thai leg of my world tour of Asia.
By the time I had cleared the terminal and caught a taxi nightfall was approaching. After dumping my stuff in the hotel I went straight out to hit the town. My first port of call was Cafe Montegars (Monty's) which I'd heard about from Riz in Hampi. In there I got talking to a Bollywood choreographer who gave me the lowdown on the cool places to go, and where I could spot the stars (not that I would recognise any of them). He told me a lot about Bollywood which meant nothing to me but it was interesting listening nonetheless.
The next day I got up (a bit bleary eyed!) and headed out for a nice big walk around some of Mumbai's most famous sites. I first went to The Gateway of India, the huge colonial archway looking out to sea to the west. It was quite interesting for approximately 2 minutes. After that I realised it isn't that old, isn't that beautiful and doesn't do anything - so I moved on. Next stop was the Oval Maidan which is an oval shaped park lined with some lovely old colonial buildings like the university and courthouse. Cricket is played there constantly every day at all different levels from a local league match down to a few kids with a bat and a tennis ball. After that I walked further down to the coast where you can find Chowpatty beach. I walked along for a bit but the time was getting on and the heat was getting a bit uncomfortable.
A nice meal and an early night left me refreshed again for the following day. I got up earlyish (well, early for me!) and got the 11am ferry over to the Elephanta Island Caves. Now, I had to be back to go to the hospital at 4pm to finish having the inoculations I started before I left. I guessed 20 minutes on the ferry, a couple of hours sightseeing then back and 20 mins to the hospital. After 1 hour 10 mins on the ferry to the island I started to suspect I might be cutting it fine!
The trip over to the island was a bit cramped but the sea breeze was nice in the heat. I was definitely glad of the chance to cool down once I arrived as there was about a mile walk to the caves, mostly uphill. To be honest it wasn't really worth it. It was ok as caves go and there were some impressive carvings on the wall but I think perhaps I've seen as many carvings, statues and pictures of Hindu gods as I need to see in one month! I'd say its a good place to go if you've got time on your hands in Mumbai, but I wouldn't make a special effort to squeeze it in.
Once I'd seen it all I headed back to the boat to wait. It wasn't leaving for another half an hour so I bought my way onto a bigger and better boat for only Rs 20 and headed back to the mainland to try and get my jabs. The hour ferry turned into 1 hour 20 mins on the way back, then the taxi took 50 mins instead of my estimated 20 so all in all I arrived over an hour late. However it wasn't a problem and I was still seen. I soon found out why as the doctor was very keen to see me. She has only quite recently started the clinic and has had hardly any patients. She gave me a consultation and when she'd finished she wanted to know how I thought she'd done and how she compared to the UK service! I was impressed with everything except maybe her bedside manner as when I pointed out the needles were a lot wider than the one's we used in the UK, she flatly said "yes, they are less painful if they're thinner". I'm still not sure if she was trying to compliment UK medical supplies or admitting to being a masochist!
After such a hectic day I felt I deserved a drink, so I headed to Leopold's which became my favourite bar in Mumbai. I settled down to watch the cricket at the bar when I noticed there was a middle-aged Canadian guy next to me trying to chat up a young English girl. I was laughing to myself at his corny lines and totally sleazy approaches when the girl saw me looking at them. She came straight over and asked if I wanted to join them. Now three's a crowd but I was absolutely certain this guy was going to get nowhere anyway so I agreed. It turned out she was desperately trying to get rid of him because, as I soon discovered too, he was a complete and utter knob.
He soon realised he'd failed and we watched him go around to about 4 or 5 other women while we finished our drinks (which didn't take very long!). We moved on to a very posh bar around the corner and had a fun night drinking in an establishment that wouldn't even have let us near the doorstep at home!
The next day was very chilled. I just loafed around Colaba, the nice part of south Mumbai where I was staying. I meant Anna again for an hour or so for a quick drink in the evening and then I headed to bed so I could get up at the ludicrous time of 5am to go and get my plane.
My Indian adventure had come to an end and it was time to open up the Thai leg of my world tour of Asia.
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