Theatre crowds
Aimes was particularly excited to be staying right next to Leopold's Cafe in Colaba, allowing her to relive some of the underworld activities of Shantaram, one of the books she read. Like most other foreigners we had breakfast there each morning, however despite this and hanging around the Gate of India for a while, our undoubted star qualities went to waste as the Bollywood scouts were obviously asleep and much to aimes dissappointment we weren't invited to be extras...
Slog-fest down at the Oval Maidan
In addition to the modern lively feel, the return to a warm climate was much appreciated, it brought back many memories to be riding in a cab a night with the warm tropical air blowing through the window - tropics = good! To make things even better the people are really friendly don't feel the need to hassle you every minute of the day - even in the touristy areas.
Cricket heaven at Tendulkars - two games at once
Having some time on our hands after no one realising we were made for Bollywood, we spent some time wandering about the very English looking centre of the city taking in the many of impressively big buildings (Taj Mahal Palace, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, High Court and Bombay University). Made more enjoyable by the fact that there was actually a footpath to walk on and the roads are auto-rickshaw free! Most of the main streets are lined with stalls selling anything and everything, giant balloons, your name on a grain of rice and the ever present DVDs... though again there was a noticable lack of over the top hassling??
Englishness
We had to make a trip out to Breach Candy, which is obviously Mumbai's answer to Double Bay, to visit which was supposedly India's best hospital. Unfortunately our visit merely left us feeling a little concerned about the state of those hospitals it is better than... Though it is surrounded by some pretty fancy shops, nice cars and some very snooty people. After this we headed back to the nearby Chowpatty Beach, just in time to catch sunset (over the mud flats) with the crowds of families, lovers and sales people.
Aimes' second home
We watched a fair bit of cricket while in Mumbai (as everyone here does), as the final India - Pakistan test was being played (in Pakistan though). It turned out to be pretty exciting for the neutral spectator, although probably less palatable for the Indian spectator, as Pakistan somehow came back from 6-39 in the first innings to win by over 200 runs!!! We checked out a days play from the sports bar at Tendulkar's restuarant, although obviously not too many locals were keen on watching the slaughter as it was a bit empty... We also saw a local match on the Oval Maidan out the front of Bombay Uni, although the match was a bit of a slog-fest with everyone swinging at absolutely everything!
On the subject of cricket, India must be the only place in the world where they still show replays of obscure one-day matches (see Australia v Zimbabwe) played more than 10 years ago?
Chowpatty Beach crowds at sunset
Aimes finally got to see her much anticipated Bollywood movie - 'Rang De Basanti', which was apparently the film of the moment? To us it seemed a little strange as a typical teen movie seemed to develop into something seeming to glorifying political assasination, but then of course our Hindi wasn't all that good at that time... Nice theatre experience though, very old school, either stalls or balcony seats, half time intermission, someone to show you to your seat and even the original paper classification certificates broadcast at the begining!
Beach vendor
A minor setback was experienced heading to the train station on route to Chennai, as our taxi driver (who obviously hadn't been driving for long), managed to get the car stuck in a massive pot-hole, requiring several people to try and rock it out, causing much scraping and scratching! Farewell Mumbai - we love you ...
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