Mumbai

Crowded streets, polluted skies and oppressive heat were what we expected from Mumbai, we were pleasantly surprised by the wide tree lined streets under the blue skies and the cool breeze from the sea. We spent our days exploring the city on foot, eating lots of food and drink from the streets and visiting galleries and museums. We spent a lovely evening wandering along Chowpatty beach and Marine drive eating Bhel Puri and channa masala and another having a drink in the infamous Leopolds.
On our final morning we took a tour of the Dhavi slum - the biggest in Asia - it was a fascinating experience and instead of the pity we expected to feel we were filled with admiration for the people who lived enterprise and happiness, the tour was certainly one of the highlights of India!!
Our last night was spent at 'Blue Frog' it's one if the happening joints in Mumbai for some music and dancing, Tiramasu and very expensive G&T!!
Mumbai continuously confounded our expectations and we loved it.

Captain Caveman

We visited Ellora and Ajanta, the sites of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples. Now we have seen many temples on our trip, but all of them to date have been built, these ones were literally carved out of the mountain!! They are all incredibly impressive and include carvings and paintings dating back to 200BC.

We took guides at both sites who regalled us with the stories of the sculptures and and the paintings on the wall - including those of six tusked elephants and monkey kings! It was well worth the visit, even in the scorching heat! (43 degrees!)

Panjim and Old Goa

We've spent a couple of days in these towns, the Portuguese influence is very strong, the streets are wide and clean and the houses are named with tile plaques. There are old English style food sellers on the streets and cashew nuts everywhere. There are hundreds of churches here, all shapes and sizes and we've even visited the wax museum where the piece de resistance was a model of the last supper - it wasn't quite madame Tussuad's but we enjoyed the air con!!

Lights, camera, action!!

We've spent most of our time here in Goa horizontal on the beach, occasionally we move for food, shade or ice-cream and our biggest decisions consist of what book to read next and what items to choose from the menu - it's fabulous. That was until yesterday when the bright lights of Bollywood were put in front of us!! we were asked to be extras in a film called Golmaal 3 (apparently 1 and 2 did very well). It's largely set on the beach so we spent the day mingling with apparently 'very famous' actors that were dressed as an Indian version of Starsky and Hutch with huge sunglasses and fake mustaches. We simply had to walk in the background carrying different inflatables, we also got to watch the filming of the stunt man doing jumps on the jet skis. We were well fed and even paid for the day's work so tonight we are heading out to eat lobster with our feet in the sand!! What a life xx

Bourne to be wild........

We are back on the beach, and Vicky is trying to emulate her all time hero (second only to me) by running along the very same beach that Jason Bourne did (just before his girlfriend got shot in the head). After dragging Vicky away from stoking the sand where his feet may have touched we hired a scooter for a day and roared our way up the coast watching everything fly past in a blur as we raced along at braekneck speeds of up to 40km/hr!!

We stopped at a few different beaches and drove through some beautiful little fishing villages, only having to turn around once when we got to the end of a road and there was nowhere else to go apart from the sea.

So, after all that excitement we returned to the beach for some more relaxing. I'd better head back now, I'm sure it's not healthy for Vicky to be licking the sand!

Hampi

Arriving in Hampi was like entering a film set for Jurassic Park or The Hobbit. It's a ruined city covered with sandstone temples and huge boulders. A river runs through it that provides lush greenery and you can cross on a wicker coracle boat which is fun. There is a very relaxed feel about the place especially as the season is coming to an end which suits us just fine! Walking among the scenery is spectacular and one day we hired bikes and enjoyed the breeze that came from speeding down the hills, at one point Glen almost ran over a 2.5 meter cobra but luckily his quick reflexes meant we got away unharmed.

Go Go Gokarna

Time seems to have escaped from us in beautiful Gokarna, the days have passed and what have we done? Eaten, the food here has been fabulous and we have enjoyed countless dosa's, Ice-creams and several superb ways to enjoy cauliflower. We've relaxed on the beaches and walked the coast line, losing the trail for jungle like path only twice. We've watched the local cricketers and the huge numbers of people making pilgrimage here to see the temples. We are staying at a lovely little place amonst the spice and herb plantations. It is clean and has a generaton for the fan so we stay cool when the power cuts out. The lady and her son that own it are kind and friendly and we have a little veranda where we can spend the odd evening enjoying an Indian rum.