72 hours in Mumbai

After a relaxing week in Goa, Bombay/Mumbai was a thrilling change. Unfortunately the journey up there left something to be desired. All the trains were fully booked from Madgaon (train station in Goa) to Mumbai, so in a effort to save money, instead of flying we opted for a night bus. Noah did some research and found out the that road between Goa and Mumbai was in great condition, well I can tell you that if that was great condition I would hate to see poor. So not only did the road leave something to be desired, but after watching a few earlier busses depart, with gleaming windshields and lush padded seats, we were just a wee bit disappointed when our bus turned up looking like it had been built in the 70's and hadn't been cleaned since. But what doesn't kill you.....We arrived safely in Mumbai 13 hours later, without much sleep after our sleeper bus experience. If it wasn't the loud rattling from the uneven road that made it sound like the bus was falling apart, it was Noah’s fear of being lurched right off our top bunk and down to the filthy floor below as we whipped around an innumerable amount of sharp corners. I luckily had the window on my side, meaning that instead of being worried about being thrown off, I had a lovely wall of glass that I would be thrown into...I am not sure who was luckier in that situation. But we arrived in one piece and after our taxi driver who we picked up from the bus terminal got lost and then tried to charge us extra for his own mistake (we obviously didn’t fall for it) we arrived at the Residency Hotel, recommended to us by fellow travellers we met in Goa.

Located in the Fort area, just a few minutes walk from Colaba and the Taj Hotel, we opted for a club deluxe room. A nice spacious penthouse room, it was great to come home to after the hot madness of Bombay. Our first few days were spent wandering around town exploring the local food joints and markets – Mumbai was an interesting mix of the very rich and the VERY poor.
On our second night we met some Americans who were staying at our hotel and headed out to a proper Mumbai club with them. Reminiscent of some of the cool bars in Berlin, we found ourselves at a happening venue and were very interested to see the nightlife of a totally different world from the one we know. Having done the requisite drinks at Leopold’s Cafe (requisite due to Shantaram), we also checked out Dome at the intercontinental hotel on Marine Drive. After a few cocktails at London prices we decided to leave the luxurious white couches with the stunning sunset view of Chowpatty beach and head down to have dinner in a local restaurant. The next day, having obviously not completely satisfied our impulse for luxury we had tea at the Taj. A stunning hotel, every detail was perfectly executed, it was just hard to imagine that not too long ago terrorists stormed the Taj and held it hostage for almost 3 days. What a horrific experience it must have been.


Our last night in Bombay, we met up with a friend of Noah’s who had done a 3 months exchange to London’s EY office. Since they lived quite a ways out of the city, we took the a commuter train to meet up with Pratik, his wife and 3 year old son. It wasn’t even rush hour and the train and train station was pure madness, Noah did as the Indiana (and dogs do) and kept his head stuck out the door for the whole ride . After a delicious dinner that we were warned was going to be spicy (it wasn’t) we finished off the night with paan, basically a mix of herbs and nuts deemed to be good for the digestive system and traditionally given to guests after a social occasion, wrapped in a betel leaf to be eaten whole. The taste was not unlike eating a bar of soap but without the aftertaste and a crunchy nut interlude. Not an experience we will be soon repeating.
And that was Mumbai, we set off early the next morning to catch our flight to Udaipur.

And today we petted a tiger

So just a quick one here....we arrived in Delhi after an uneventful flight, went straight to our hostel to drop off our stuff then headed out to explore. We grabbed an auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk) and headed into New Delhi. Staying away from the markets due to the recent terrorist threats, we instead visited Humayun's Tomb and then decided a trip to Asia's largest zoo would be interesting. Turns out it really was.

Humayun's Tomb

Our main priority was seeing the Bengal tigers so when we got to the enclosure and saw one wandering around front and centre, we sat down on a bench to have a wee rest in the shade, while watching the magnificent creature. No sooner had we sat down but a zoo employee came over and told us there were in fact 6 tigers and they were just inside the shed behind the 'Danger do not enter' sign for their daily feeding, did we want to come in and see them? Easiest yes we have ever said....in we went. 6 massive tigers awaited us. Our friendly guide went up to one of the cages and got the tiger to come right up to the side and invited us over to 'pet it' through the worryingly widely set bars. Yes, with a bit of trepidation from me and a LOT of enthusiasm from Noah, we proceeded to pet a tiger as if it was a giant purring tabby cat. A giant Bengal tiger at the tip of our fingers. Pretty cool way to start the trip....

Our friend the tiger

10 things we won't miss about London

Since we are both more than a little sad to leave the place we have so happily called home for the last 2 years, we decided to list all the things we won’t miss when we leave this great city in hopes of easing the pain. It is probably a fruitless activity as for every one negative thing about London we come up with, there are about 100 positives, but we are going to give it a try nonetheless.

Ten things we will not miss about London:
1) Chavs.... basically everything about the tracksuit wearing, Staffordshire bull terrier walking, loud cursing, innit/is it hooded Iceland shoppers makes me cringe. Since when should we be afraid of 13 year old girls?
2) Leaving out words in sentences, I will email it to you...not, I will email it you. I’m going to the bank, not, I am going bank. For the creators of the language that I call my first, I would think that they would least want to mess with it.
3) Cost of housing. For what we paid each month for our modest flat we could be living in a castle in some parts of the world.
4) Lack of recycling. You live on an island....you will eventually run out of room.
5) Customer service, or should I say the lack thereof. I know you don’t get tipped as a bartender, but maybe that’s because you sit behind the bar slicing lemons for 15 min before asking what we want and then take 15 minutes to make a g and t, while stopping midway through to chat to your mate about last night’s conquests.
6) Pushy people on the tube...we are all in a hurry to get somewhere, a simple excuse me or thank you would be really appreciated.
7) Grocery stores closing early on Sundays. There is nothing worse than coming home after a city break on Sunday afternoon to realize you have no juice and milk but your local store has been shut since 5.
8) Good, cheap sushi. In a pinch Itsu’s duck hoisin roll will fill the hunger void, but the premade ‘sushi’ is a long stretch from being authentic. And don’t get me started on Nobu’s mediocre, yet shockingly expensive negitoro, sake, and bluefin maki.

9) Drinking. This one is on behalf of my liver. Almost every day there is a reason to drink (football, roast, sun, Tuesday etc), and while we thoroughly enjoyed it (and made the most of it), our livers will be glad for the break.
10) Being called American. Yes I know we sound similar...but for once can someone just guess Canada first?