After a good nights sleep (wel relitively speaking - i forgot to bring and alarm clock so woke up and looked at my watch to see 11:30 - or there abouts and light streaming in throught the window so i headed for the bathroom then decided to look out the window - it was still dark - i'd not been in bed long! i was wide awak too!!! oh well went back to bed!) There was a stange door bell type sound this morning - not sure what it was but it woke me about 6 ish (time may be off as i hadn't put my watcht o the correct time i find this out tomorrow!) anyway i set off to explore and decided to geta taxi (chickeded out of the train when i got to the station!) the taxi cost 300 rupees which is about 4 pounds - i thought it was a lot but took nearly 2 hours to drive there so he deserved it! on the taxi ride some kids between the ages of about 7 - 11 came to the window sellign stuff! i bought a news paper at 3 rupees and yes it was in english! (FYO 1 pound = approx 70 rupees!) the taj mahal hotel is pretty imnpress - that where the taxi driver dropped me off - had a look at the gateway to india built in the 1800's - it was only active for about 35 years after it had been built! still a beautiful thing. Went on a boat across the Elephanta Island and dispite the name there were no elephants! there were a couple of small carved ones at the top of pillars. a young pair of indians started tallking to me on the boat ride across (they helped me t\with th epronunciation o f some of the hindi words) ate lunch with them which was quite nice! the main attraction is the carving in a cave of the trhee phases of shiva, really beautiful and peaceful - i'll pu the photos up soon i promise! the other slightly more entertaining site were some monkeys - red faces (not sure of the type) but they were really cute! there were guys puling water up from a cave - so i topped up my filtering water bottle!!!! (VERY handy indeed!) and drank away - much to the locals surprise - they were all drinking it but i dont think many others had! the boat journey back was much more fun - the waves had picked up a bit so the boat was corkscrewing along - then as is always the case we hit a wave and soaked the guys sat ont he opposite side of the boat to me! I got a bit wet too since they all moved to cleared the way for the water to hit and cool me down! next stop was Leopolds Cafe (of Shantram fame - i book i was reading before i set off) it wass really interesting seeing the place that he'd described - not quit how i'd imagd it but quite good all the same. the builing itself was covered with market stall on the outside - inside table were laid out with salt pepper and mini lime segments. there were ceiling fans circa 1930s witha similar decor to match. it was interesting watching peole more in and out mostly travelers but some locals - its ther place to be if you can afford it (25rupees for a cup of tea a lot less elsewhere!) got the train back to the hotel, sat in a predominantly female carrage - mcuh to there delight - the one that spoke eglish wereasking me about my travels and what i was doing and where i was going. people come ont o the trains and try sellilng stuff like perfume/nailvarnish/handkechives/hair bobbles... fortunatly on e of the ladies was getting off at the same stop so she told me when to get off - otherwise i would probably have missed it as all the signs were in hindi script. all in all a good day with lots more to see and do - going ot move to a closer hotel tomorrow...