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Bear and Boots Excellent Adventure
Hi everyone!
Just to let you know that we are not actually in the sea as the red dot on the map states, it's just a bit crap at being put where it is told!
Heres what we got up to in Mumbai:
Thurs 29th June
Arrived quite late last night and checked into out guesthouse where they tried to charge us more than we had actually arranged! And it had bed bugs yuk!!
We had a wander to the sea and saw India Gate and then found the local cinema which was showing MI3. (We were tired and didn't fancy rushing around to see the sights!) We went for a coffee whilst we waited for the cinema. In the cafe we bumped into Chris who Helly used to go to school with, was the carziest thing ever!!! He had also bought a ticket for the cinema so we all went along together. After the show we had a laze at the hostel and then met back up with Chris and some other backpackers at Leopolds bar.
We found out the they were staying at a guesthouse 4 times cheaper than ours so we decided to move there the morning after and it was no worse than where we were before!
Whilst at Leopolds 2 scottish guys returned from being extras in a Bollywood movie, the tout asked the rest of us if we fancied goin the day after so of course we all said yes!!!
Friday 30th June
We met up again with Chris and did the lonely planet guided walk past museums, monuments the library etc.. Mumbai is very much like london but with palm trees and indians!!
We went to the Prince of Wales museum (just the grounds) and then into the National Gallery of Modern Art which was pretty cool. Somewhere along the way in the crowded streets my mobile phone and camera got pickpocket grrrrr. Was really annoyed as we have be so careful with our belongings and we didn't feel threatened in any way of Mumbai.
After a long search and asking various security guards if they'd seen them with no luck, we headed off for lunch and had traditional indian Thali, basically a bit of everything you can think of thats indian!
In the afternoon we went to see a bollywood movie called Krish which was great! The funniest thing ever!
Saturday 1st July
We all met at 8am outside Leopolds, about 30 westerners. We got a bus about 1 and a half outside of the city to the studios. The film is a typical Bollywood love story called 'Never Say Goodbye' and stars Big B and his son (both apparantly really famous?!)
We got rushed straight in to costume and all got given these really awful dresses to wear. Mine was a crimson pink long strapless thing and Hellys was a Peach Halterneck in really bad material! We then got given boufont hair dos's and scary makeup and jewellery. We were supposed to look really glam.
The set was like a ballroom/disco with chandeliers, grand piano and revolving dance floor. It was all a bit mental, not really sure what the concept was and how all us westerners fit into the plot!
We had to mince about carrying cocktail glasses and we got to walk across infront of the main stars wooo!
We were filing the last song of the film which comes out in August. It was a really long day with lots of waiting around and we probably only filmed about 20secs althogether. But we got paid 500r's and got free food so it was all good!
We arrived back quite late and went to MacDonalds for chicken Marharaja burgers tee hee!!
Sunday 2nd July
too be continued (internet time has run out!!)
This morning we went to the police station to get a police statement for claires camera. we felt quite interrogated at first but it wasnt so scary in thew end. The whole day we devoted to shopping. i bought a model tuktuk for mums collection and claires bought some lee jeans which they altered for her and everything!!! We also went into a really expensive shop where a guy showed us how to wear saris. they looked ace - really want one now!!!
We then rushed back to the hostle to sort out our luggage and got a taxi to the airport for our flight at 9pm.
Flight took 12hours - watched lots of films and couldnt sleep at all!!!!!!!! Briefly stopped in Sydney where claire bought another digital camera, then flew to new zealand - another 2 hours. we arrived in aukland at about 9.30pm. nz is about 12hours ahead of u.k.
Tuesday 4th
ok so we missed a day somewhere - not totally sure what happened there!!!
We caught a free bus trip around Aukland with a company called stray. They taught us lots about the history and took us up a volcano (no longer active - but apparently some students played a trick on april fools day by lighting a load of tyres ablaze in the crater then calling 911 to say that mt eden was errupting - the authorities almost got to the point of evacuation before they descovered the hoax - hehe!!! cheecky students) and to some monuments. Craig the guide was very ammusing - a kind of typical 'dude' type of guy and said 'its not to shabby' to everything so its now our new catch fraze!!! he pursuaded us to change our tiuckets with kiwi experience (bus pass) to the stray bus pass which is a better deal for us - they got futher into the rural new zealand. he also gave us a trip up to the bay of islands for free tomorrow yay!!!
Weds 5th
up at 6.45 to get ready for our free trip. got on the bus and they took us up to the bay of islands. but on the way we stopped to see the kauri trees - native nz trees that are huge and dying out. We also stopped at a bird sanctuary and got to stroke a kiwi - hehe - they are native bird - like fluffy dumplings on lets with long beaks - the cutest bird ever!!!! Also a minor bird that could talk to us - it could make a sneezing noise - very ammusing.
They bay of islands is in fact a bay with lots of islands in it - funny that!!! its where the first landing wrer (i think) and where the treaty was signed for the take over of nz by the queen. - the maoris however thought they were signing a form saying they were allowed to keep and rule their own lands and have been fighting for their rights up until very recently when nz have given back a lot of their land.
We went tyo the treaty house and to see a maori war canoe thing, then headed back to Aukland to pack and get ready for the start opf our big trip around new zealand tomorrow.
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