We set our alarms so we wouldn't sleep in for our guide arriving at 10.30am, our guide for the day turned up bang on time and off we set in the direction, or so we thought, of the slum from slum dog millionaire. After a short while we arrived at the Laundry which we'd actually seen the day before but he assured us that there was no way we had been shown the bits he would show us. We went further into the laundry to where some lived. On the way round we saw a woman refilling old water bottles with tap water!! I really hope they were for her own use and she wasn't going to try and sell them to some poor unsuspecting tourist. There wasn't much going on here just people going about their daily lives but our guide decided to get a shave while he was there. I think after realising that we were a bit bored, since we'd been there before, he tried to convince us to dump the car and take a local train out to the slum. We declined his offer as these are the trains where they are so overcrowded that people are hanging out the doors or sitting on the roof. I'm sure it would have been some experience but this was only our third day in India so best left for another day. We walked around the slum for a bit and he showed us where they do all the recycling, the slum generates over £700million annually for the residents through waste recycling and other small businesses. Our guide decided to take us to his sisters house, who lived in the slum,for some chai tea. Her house was lovely, all marble but very small but I suppose they don't spend a lot of time indoors like we do. We had some lovey tea, met his family and then they dressed Kay up in a burka for a laugh ( pictures to follow if Kay will let me ). On the way back to Colaba our guide asked if we wanted to go see a film that night, he said he would drive us there and back for free if we invited him along. We had wanted to see a Bollywood film while in Mumbai so we agreed. We parted ways and he advised he would pick us up at 9pm as the film started at 9.30pm. For dinner that night we went back to "bulimia" aka Budemia and had some more tasty food. True to his word, our guide collected us at 9pm and we went to see the new blockbuster Kill Dil which was actually really good if not sometimes a bit cheesy. We managed to follow the film, even though there were no subtitles, with the help of our guide. We were asked a few times while in mumbai if we'd like to be extras in a Bollywood movie, we obviously declined because it sounds like a scam if ever ive heard one but we told our guide and he said it was real but that they would treat us like "white monkeys" and have us on set all day but only be in one small scene and we'd only be paid Rs500 for it. When he dropped us back a the hotel he tried to convince us to go on a very long and very expensive tour with him to the national park which is at the very north of Mumbai and would take hours to drive to. We managed to use our 3 days of experience with mumbai's locals and stood firm and told him that we were going to elephant island the next day and so didn't have time to do his tour.
We got up early the next day as we had a lot to do and needed to check out. We first went to the "government" tourist information to book only our train tickets as we'd been looking online the night before and discussing it and booking them ourselves was turning more and more into a complete headache. For example, there were no available tickets from Goa back up to Mumbai for weeks. We paid a lot more than it would have cost us to book so if you ever plan to go to India then be sure to plan ahead and book all your trains before you leave.
After checking out of the hotel we wandered down to the Gateway to India which is where the boats leave for elephant Island. The return trip to the island cost Rs420 each and took roughly an hour each way, the breeze on the boat was a pleasant escape from the stifling heat in Mumbai. On the island there were 5 caves which had interesting carvings and statues inside them. There were also loads of monkeys! Kay got a bit close at one point and one started chasing her! We felt like C-list celebs while there, we were asked by indian tourists at least ten times if they could have their picture taken with us!? They can't see very many white people where they come from. In fact, there are not that many tourists around in Mumbai, I had expected to see more but it's mostly Indians on holiday that you see in the touristy bit. Mumbai is very expensive compared to other parts of India which might keep them away. While on the island we ate these amazing grilled corn on the cob which were drizzled with fresh lime juice and then rubbed with a salt and chilli mixture....yum!! We were back in Mumbai about dinner time and so headed to a place we'd read about in our guide book called Olympia Coffee House where we had a chicken tikka masala, a butter chicken dish, 2 chapattis and a bottle of water for the grand total of Rs 290 (£2.90), an absolute bargain and so delish!
After dinner we collected our bags from the hotel and headed up to the train station where we had to sit until 1am for our train to Goa. We met some German guys who we'd seen on the boat to elephant island. You tend to notice other white people because we stick out like a sore thumb. They had arrived in Mumbai the day after us and it was nice to exchange experiences. After boarding the train we made our way to our bunks which were in AC3 which means there will be 6 bearths in the "room". Our beds were the top and middle bunks, when we arrived it was obvious that we're weren't going to manage to lift either of the bags on to the top bunk and so we had so leave them both on the middle bunk and sleep head to toe on the top bunk. There were sheets and blankets available but we declined as we have our own sleeping bag liner which we've been using. This was a huge error as the air-con was up so high that the two of us near froze to death during the night. Next stop Goa :)
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