So, I know that I have been very poor in blog writing. No excuse.
We are now in Mumbai staying in the Marine Plaza Hotel, a cute boutique five star place right on Marine Drive. Our bedroom has an amazing view directly into the bay of Mumbai, where we can see the speed boats zipping around on the choppy waves against a backdrop of highrise flats and skyscrapers. This city is very mush testament to the new - up and coming India. If any of you saw India with Sanjeev Baskar made last year you will see just whatI mean. Mumbai is a city quite different from Delhi. Immediately the city feels 'younger' and there is a reason for that. Mumbai was small fishing village until colonized first by the Portugese and then the British. So the architecture certainly reflects that, most notably The Gateway of India and CST (formerly Victoria Terminus). In many ways the city feels very familiar.

The city is also distinctive by the absence of any 'tuk tuks' elsewhere in India omnipresent. Instead the place is swarming with yellow and black cabs, old Fiat Premiers, many just holding on for dear life. So that is how we get around in this city… though surprisingly many cabbies don't seem to know the roads very well and we have had to give them directions with the help of the Lonely Planet!! Weird.

Anyway, we have to leave the lovely, amazing Marine Plaza Hotel where we have been loved and cared for, clean and well fed (sob sob sob) and make for an overnight train to Goa…. It's a hard life xxx