Mirador Hotel Mumbai Mumbai (Bombay)

... About 10 terrorists from Pakistan attacked this hotel and one other, in addition attacked a Chabad House here in Mumbai, killing many, many innocent people in the process. There is now a shrine/memorial in the main lobby of the Taj Palace to those who lost their lives here during the attack which lasted for several days. One art object, the tree of life, survived unscathed on the fifth floor which was totally destroyed. The tree is now part of the memorial in the main lobby ...

... This went on for quite a while, and I got fairly ****** off until the waiter confided that the lost earnings would come out of his wages unless I paid. Given the overpriced food and this poor fellow's presumably relatively meagre earnings, this tipped the argument in Leopold's favour and I felt I needed to cough up. Pesky Canadians.

Anyway, off I went for a bit of sightseeing. Starting off at the opulent Taj Hotel (where you could still see fire damage after November's attacks) and ...

... chances of the kid actually being homeless were very low. #2 the moment I went to buy him something, I knew 10 other kids would suddenly pop out of nowhere and you'd end up being harassed until you bought them all something. He was very persistent and followed us around for a while but I just turned and very firmly told him NO and to get away from me. He left. People, I lived in Brazil. I know most of the scams. We got offered ferry tickets on our way to the pier but ...

The other morning, I woke up really early and couldn't get to sleep again. I couldn't work out why because I wasn't worried or anything. Anyway, after about an hour, I suddenly sat bolt upright and realised that I'd worked my visa out incorrectly! I jumped out of bed and checked it and realised to my horror that it was due to run out in around 2 week's time. Shiiiiiiiiit! I'd just ...

... were sweating a 5th stall the whole way there... The Marriott we stayed at was a dream! It had incredible security... all cars entering are checked; in out, and under, dogs sniffed, you name it. Once you get through the gates it looks like an oasis, a surreal tropical city amongst chaos. Since we arrived at such an odd time, we met with our first Indian moonlight, my beloved constant moon... it looked particularly large, and dull warm yellow in color ...

... am NOT a morning person, and this means a 6.30am start every day (although Liz gives both me and Magda a break one day a week). It's the most horrendous struggle to get out of bed every morning, although I've got it down to a fine art. I have breakfast (fruit and yoghurt) on the train and also do my make-up on the train (much to the amusement of my fellow passengers and also my favourite Lady Boy who I give 1 rupee to each day). I ...

... to be a sort of light brown. The good nights sleep I was hoping for ends at 4 am when I wake up - with nothing else to do, I decide that it is time to do a bit of reading and watching a bit of tv. They seem to have so many tv channels over here, and more sports channels than I was expecting, and suprisingly no English music channel - maybe they dont have that at 430 am in Mumbai. As the sun started to come up I managed to head ...

... this is the region of Mount Ashtapada, on the summit of which Rishabanatha, the first Tirthankar, gained spiritual liberation. The Bonpo, the ancient pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion refers to it as the 'Nine-storey Swastika Mountain', the mystical soul of their land. It is a fact that the Gurla-Mandhata range when viewed from above appears in the form of a massive swastika. HOLY KAILASH Mount Kailash rises in the Ngari region of Western Tibet where the empty plains is ...

... wasn't working. I didn't know it at the time, but I was charged every time I (attempted) to get online. Perhaps they should have told me this before I tried, eh? Brent and I sat by the pool for most of the morning, reading and writing. We ate grilled cheese sandwiches & coke for lunch, and just lazed around. We were going to have a ping-pong tournament, but the ball was broken. We also talked to Brent's friend, Atul ...

... and conversed a while with him. Later Shashankmasa told me that this chief waiter, was basically also running this restaurant. The owners were of little importance. This establishment could not exist without him. He had been at this restaurant for atleast 30 years and knew all of his regulars. Á__ _ __ÁAt about 1.30 pm Rupamasi came finally. She had been delayed in a queue trying to pay the annual auto taxes. She had then gone to Collaba to do some ...