Mumbai

And so it was time to leave Kamshet and carry on traveling. I’d had a great time here, learning to fly and spending time chilling out on the roof top overlooking the lake, but after three weeks here and with it being so quiet during the weekdays I was happy enough to be on my way.

My original plan had been to catch up with Phil and Merryl and celebrate Phil’s birthday. But with my paragliding course over running I now only had a few days left on my visa and Phil and Merryl were in the north of India. I didn’t really have enough time to get up north so decided instead to spend my last couple of days checking out Mumbai or Bombay or whatever you want to call it.

The traffic was terrible getting into Mumbai and it was certainly a lot hotter here than in Kamshet which was at a higher elevation. After being dropped off in Colaba – the main tourist area in Mumbai - I wandered around to find a hotel. The place recommended in the lonely planet was full so I looked at another place which was a bit shabby so carried on my search. By now a local had attached himself to me in the hope that he could take me to a hotel and get commission. He was pretty annoying and I couldn’t shake him off. Luckily I found a nice enough place and the staff there knew this guy was trying it on and told him to leave.

Having got a room, I dropped my bags, had a cool shower and with night closing went off in search food. It was still very hot and muggy. It’s the main tourist centre in Mumbai and there are loads guys hassling you. I found a nice restaurant and had some pasta – my first European food in three weeks. Afterwards I ducked into an Internet café to avoid the heat and hassle. I had a mail from Phil telling me about Mumbai; he said it’s hot, hassly and I probably wouldn’t enjoy it. That was a fairly accurate assessment.

I was due to fly from here in a couple days and didn’t really have

Elephanta Island

time to go elsewhere so decided to stick it out here and make the most of my time. I took the ferry to Elephanta Island the following morning. I met a Dutch guy on the ferry over called Martin and we explored the island together. There are a load of tombs and rock carvings on the island that were fairly interesting. There was aslo a baby monkey playing with a puppy that I found far more interesting. We got back to the mainland and Martin decided to do a city walk in the afternoon but I was tired so went back my hotel for a nice lie down. I did meet up with Martin again in the evening for a few beers. We got quite pissed and talked about Philosophy and whether god existed and other such weighty subjects. Later in evening in the same bar there was a local couple having a rather amorous snog. They tried to sneak into the toilets, presumably to get even more amorous, but another guy spotted them and was having none of it and stopped them going in. I got talking to this guy and it turns out that the girl in question was his girlfriend and the guy she was snogging was his best mate. He wasn’t very happy so I bought him a beer and commiserated with him.

I woke up the following morning with quite a hangover and that combined with a hot humid climate inspired me to spend the day in bed under the ceiling fan. The next day was my last in India. My flight was in the evening so I had time to walk round the city, see some of the colonial buildings and spent a pleasant few hours sitting in a park watching the locals play cricket.

I’ve spent two months India. My time has mainly been spent lounging around on the beaches in the south of the country and paragliding. I’ve had a wonderful time here but at same feel like I’ve hardly scratched the surface of the place. I haven’t visited any of the spiritual places in the north of the country or seen the most famous sights. I’ll surely come back here at some point to see some more of this amazing place.

But I am booked on flight to return to Lebanon. I met a girl called Nia last time I was here and have been quite taken with her. So now I am going back to Beirut to spend some more time with her...