Feb 25: Flight to Mumbai

We didn't leave our gorgeous Haveli until 11am so we enjoyed the luxury of a slow breakfast complete with champagne - basking in the pretty grounds of the Haveli with its dahlia lined footpaths, decorative fountained courtyard and entrance lounge bedecked with floral murals after the style of the palace we had seen the previous day.

Arrival in Mumbai:  no views as such from the plane: too much pollution.  But it is a fantastic modern airport and WONDERFUL toilets.  The 4 of us have been rating toilets along our travels using our first pit stop as a yardstick 10 out of 10. (Which equates to a below average public toilet in Australia).  Most we encounter outside of our hotels have been in the 5 to 9 range.  We usually try to avoid anything that hints at a below 5 rating.  Mumbai airport rates at 20 out of 10!

Mumbai has 20 million people not counting most of the suburbs, so they have become experts at organizing hoards of people.  But when it comes down to 4 people it seems problematic for them.  We were met by one of our Enchanting Travels rep. Who then handed us over to a non-English speaking driver after being told by the rep that we would be having a quick city tour before checking into our hotel.  Our guide would meet us "at the laundry". Did we hear right?

Well, yes.  We were taking photos at The Laundry when she tapped us on the shoulder and introduced herself!!

The laundry has 10,000 employees who hand wash everything.  They pick up from hotels, apartment blocks, schools etc then "beat the living daylights" out of the clothes (her words) and return the huge bundles of laundry on their heads, on bicycles, tuk tuk or truck.

Note how it's all sorted by size, shape and colour.  It was gone 5pm and the laundry was still in full swing.

We were driven slowly around the city sights in heavy traffic.  What we saw was a modern busy city with a strong presence of old colonial buildings, the occasional Art Deco facade plus lots of rectangular apartment blocks with tiny balconies that looked neglected, but we were assured this was an affluent middle class area.

We drove past small parks for children, the Lawn Tennis Club and one massive field dedicated to cricket games.  So many people and pitches that some people were fielding for 2 adjacent games!

Any guide, driver, waiter, every man on the street know the names of all our cricket stars past and present!  Bit of a problem at the moment as we're slaughtering them in the first Test.  They laugh though.

By 6.30 we are at our hotel having dropped off the guide at her home along the way.  We were on our own - no travel agent to help with check in or discuss plans for the next couple of days - not good considering what was to happen over the next 2 days.

We're in a modern 5 star hotel , The Trident where food is very expensive so we took the recommendation of our guide for a good local restaurant.

And so it was, a family restaurant, and we chose the recommended mixture platter, a Thalia I think it was called.  A metal tray containing a variety of curries, pickles, chutneys with dollops of rice and fresh roti.  Problem was they kept topping up our bowls as we ate so we lost track of how much we were eating!  We were totally bloated, and all for about 500 rupees each - $10.

Next morning Julie and Terry had slight tummy upsets, after dosing up with the trusty Imodium Julie improved, but as the day progressed Terry got much worse.