Orchid An Ecotel Hotel Mumbai (Bombay)

Last travelpod!! My flight back home leaves Mumbai in 9 hours.

Last I wrote I was still in Hampi. After I logged off, Pam and I surprised Mike to the best of our pitiful ability for his 30th bday. I used those crazy tacky balloons I bought back in Bangalore, and also sneakily purchased 5 more regular balloons from a random pharmacist store (long story, the guy who sold them had them hidden in the back of a drawer and he seemed all flustered selling them to me). while ...

... until they dropped me at the airport at about 7:30. We saw all the major sites in Delhi but one which I think I'll get to on Tuesday. I'm not sure I can list them all becuase it was a full day but I will try. Vijay Chowk and Rashtrapati Bhavan (the presidents residence and secretarial buildings), the India Gate, Lakshmi Narayan Mandir (Hindu Temple), Humayun's Tomb (a tomb the Taj Mahal was modeled after), the Red Fort, the Lotus Temple (Bahai ...

... of some colonial English king. From the gateway, we caught a creaky ferry to Elephanta island and viewed the impressive caverns and Hindu carvings inside. A roaming monkey tried to take our water away, but we brushed by it without incident. The Elephanta Island caverns are large caves carved out of the granite cliffs at the top of a 1km island not far from Mumbai. They are quite a sight to see, though perhaps not worth the IDR 250 entry fee. However ...

... The views driving round the coastal road were just incredible. Saw some of the local villages and drove into the fish market port where we saw the local women fishing by hand and thousands of super-colourful fishing boats. Plus, we saw the mass piles of fish on their way to Sainsburys! very bizarre. Evening we met up with the guys on their scooter and went to check out sunset in a remote corner of the island. Amazzzzzzzzing. Our new fact of the day was that ...

... in the monsoons or winter season. Hotels: www.hotelsinmatheran.net has a range of hotels at all budgets. Almost all Matheran hotels advertise in the classifieds at Mid-day.com Most offer packages inclusive of meals. Home stays are listed on MTDCs website maharashtratourism.gov.in Closest to Dasturi are the MTDC, Wayside Inn, Woodside and Vanashree. The latter three are about 15min walk from Dasturi ...

... a short walk along a wildflower filled ridge overlooking the huge rock massif of Chellarkovil, the flip side of the Periyar sanctuary, and the horseshoe formation of mountain ranges enclosing the vegetable growing plains of Kambam and Gudalur all the way upto Theni, with the high Palani ranges beyond. Being a clear day, the entire range of mountains beyond Thekkady were visible as far as the eye could see. In the rains, there are spectacular ...

In Mubai, Had a good trian ride,was much better than the last!!! So Mumbai is a big city and we are not too thrilled about being here so we are leaving tomorrow! The room we have is the size of a shoe box and we got royaly ripped off by a taxi driver!! We will be on another train for 9 hours to Allora, very old caves and carving (sounds much better than a big city), so we are looking forward to it. So many trains, so many.

... where it is a luxury item for these people. We also went to a India version called Big Bazzar it was bigger and a had a little of everything in it from cloth to food and electronics. Then it was off to Mc D's for lunch. Here Mc D's that they look forward to going to a a treat. Their menu is very different from our. I had a potato burger and fries that were very good. I ...

... close to five or six hours every day playing with her, which is much more than her daddy or Rupamasi or Ba. So she becomes friendly with me before she becomes friendly with anyone else. Á__ _ __ÁBefore lunch I told her to ask her daddy to bring her some books. She told me her daddy did not know which books, and I told her that I would go with her daddy to a bookstore and buy the books after lunch. So she waited and waited and waited, but her daddy ...

... Welcome to India: Exporters, Foreigners, Investors, and NonªResident Indians! Á__ _ __ÁHad I not stopped to chat, I would probably have taken less than five minutes from collecting the suitcase to leaving the airport, making the Bombay airport even less harassing than the airport in Toronto. Á__ _ __ÁAt the entrance, Rupamasi and Shona were already waiting. They had arrived only 10 minutes earlier. I was happy they decided to come so late, as I ...