Mumbai

This was our first stop for the tour of the South of India.
We were both excited to be out on our first trip, and Mumbai was the perfect way to start.  The first thing you notice is the amount of people around, all going about their daily routines.  Food stalls, tea stalls and old fashioned taxi's littered the streets, we were enveloped in a whirlwind of noise and colour.

 As our last seven weeks of Indian life had depicted we stay sober and meat free, our first plan of action was to remedy this, with caution and moderation of course.  So we headed to the centre of town for a drink at Leopolds Cafe (as mentioned in the book Shantaram) followed by kebabs on the street (literally), just outside a church.



The next day we went to the 'Gateway of India'  and booked a boat ride to the Elephanta Island, which took 1 hour. 
When we got there it was very hot so we stocked up on water and crisps before heading up the steps to see the caves.  The caves were fantastic to see, and all within them were carvings of the gods, depicting stories and myths.  There were also more rooms carved into the rocks making spaces for prayer and worship.  All the caves were set within a hillside covered in thick forest inhabited by cute little monkeys.

Once we finished here we took a walk back down to the jetty to return to the Gateway of India, on the way we decided it was time for a snack, so Dimple opened our crisps.  Before we knew it this little monkey ran behind her and jumped up grabbing the packet of crisps and running to join his friend in a tree who was happily drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola.  Our opinion of these monkeys is no longer cute, they are quite vicious!

The following day we went to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Mumbai Museum (formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India).  There was a wartime exhibition outside, with real-life rockets and torpedos, inside were fascinating exhibitions of Indian Miniature Modern Art and Westwood China.

In the afternoon we took a 2.3 kilometre walk along Marine drive up to Chowpatti Beach, where we enjoyed some local food on the beach and a unique sunset with the Mumbai skyline on the horizon.

We had a flight to catch at 3am so we went back to the hotel and waited for our transfer to the airport.