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Whitneys on Tour
We arrived here late at night on the 16th March after an overnight stopover in Bangkok. We weren't as organised as we should have been for here and couldn't get a hotel close to the city centre as all were booked due to the cricket. We ended up at a hotel quite close to the airport which wasn't in a very nice area and involved an unpleasant walk, a horrendous queue for a ticket then a 50 minute not very luxurious train ride just to get into town. However, this we had to do on our first day but at least we secured some top of the range tickets for the India v England test mtach which naturally Stuart was really looking forward too.
Fortunately after much phoning around we secured a hotel in the popular Colaba area of town the day the match started and we got a taxi into town which took around an hour. On this journey we saw the true horror of Mumbai. We saw horrendous slum area after horrendous slum area, worse than anything we saw in South America and we saw some grim places there.
Colaba, itself just south of he city centre was hardly salubrious but it's popular with travellers and we felt safe enough there even if restaurants were weren't exactly at a premium. We started as we mean to go on in India food wise and are going vegetarian for a few weeks as that sure beats getting ill. Mumbai has also revealed itself as the most padestrian unfriendly place we have ever seen as crossing the road is a near death experience. In addition the sound of beeping horns drives you crazy and getting a taxi is also white knuckle stuff in their tiny 1950's battered cars.
However, our time in Mumbai despite all this was terrific and if you followed the cricket you will know why, a top drawer performance by England against all the odds to win handsomly and draw the series. Our top of the range seats cost a princely fifty quid for the five days which included lunch and free drinks. Having said that when you see what was in the lunch it wasn't such a good deal! We sat with some of the more well to do England supporters which was good for Jo as rowdy Barmy Army behaviour isn't quite her scene. To both our surprises and pleasures Jo really enjoyed the cricket and went to all 5 days. It certainly was a good baptism for her with such an exciting game and terrific atmosphere. The Indian crowd were brilliant, cheering wildly at every run scored and going beserk if they took a wicket. They sure are a fickle bunch though as they booed their local 'hero' Tendulkar plus the captain Dravid who made a horrendous blunder in winning the toss then putting England into bat first.
The weather here was absolutely roasting, well into the 90's every day. You really feel for the cricketers playing in that heat. The day after the cricket finished we went to Elephant Island, Mumbai's main tourist attraction featuring some stunning stone carvings and we couldn't walk around more than 10 minutes without the need to get in the shade.
We departed on the 25th, by train to Kerala, near the southern tip of India.
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