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Moving up to Mumbai
Entry 25 of 200 | show all | print this entry |
Days 31 - 32 - Benaulim
They say you'll experience some truly awful journeys while travelling and I've heard some stories that make me gag! Normally they involve bus travel (but undeterred, as I write, I'm sat on a 'luxury' sleeper coach on the 14hr journey to Mumbai (formerly Bombay). We left it too late to get tickets for our preferred (and the recommended) mode of transport in India - the train. Put off by the expense of flying we looked at buses for the first time. Pictures were shown to us of full-size coaches containing only about 12 fully reclining seats. What I'm currently sat on nearly reaches a 45-degree angle and sleep is looking like an unlikely prospect! To be fair, apart from not being like the pictures, the coach itself is fine. The main reason for this being what will become a memorable journey is the drivers' (there are 3 of them) taste in music - something that can only be described as an attempted fusion between Eurovision and Bangra!
Other annoying factors include the fact we had to get off the bus for 40 minutes in the shit-hole that is Panjim - if there are nicer aspects to the city then I apologise for making such a rash and uninformed judgment but somehow I doubt it. The reason we stopped was so the bus could pick up more passengers; the reason we had to get off - apparently so the mosquitoes couldn't get on. I bet the mosquitoes couldn't believe their luck when 30 odd people just alighted a bus and stood underneath a streetlight for 40 minutes! Such was their happiness all 2768 of them followed us all back onto the bus as soon as the doors re-opened. To Paulo Travels (the coach company). I raise my complimentary litre bottle of tap water and say, "Here's to getting eaten alive!"
Another problem (I'm nearly finished moaning) rests with the lady in front who, given her horrendous B.O., must have lost her sense of smell years ago. To be honest the journey shouldn't be too bad (and I'm sure we'll have worse) but the 'vomiting bags' they've just given out don't inspire confidence!
Back to our last days in Goa, Which I'm embarrassed to say have been uneventful again - they're really isn't much to say about beach days! Prabha has endeared himself further to us (phoning about 8 hotels in Mumbai to book us a room at Indian rather than tourist rate) and we went out on a boat to try and find some dolphins.
Small boats being near the bottom of Kirsty's list of preferred modes of transport, it was an easier trip for me. We saw plenty and I never previously realised that they jump out of the water for fun. Unfortunately 'wild' dolphins don't possess the same grace as their 'trained' relations and their re-entry to the water resembled more an overweight 14 year old bombing of the top board at the local swimming pool than an Olympic springboard diver!
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