Mumbai day 1 - 3/10/09

We found the train easily enough but finding the right carriage was a bit of a problem as for some unknown reason D1 wasn't inbetween D2 and C4 but all the way before C1, some unknown logic I'm sure. The train ride went smoothly I just sat and read my book most of the way, which was nice as I don't have many opportunities to do that at Sangam. As soon as we got to Mumbai we hopped into a cab (there aren't any rickshaws allowed in the centre of the city) and went to our hostel to drop off our bags. Poor Katsuko looked rather shocked at our room, she'd never stayed in a hostel before and I expect she is use to staying in hotels but she didn't complain and was amazed by the cost - 279R which is about 3 pounds 70 (which is cheap for Mumabi but expensive in relation to the rest of India). We went straight to the Gateway to India as we wanted to catch a boat to Elephanta Island. We found out that the ferries stop running if it starts to rain and as it looked like it was going to tip it down we decided not to risk getting stranded, so we headed to a restaurant for a bit to eat and a rethink. Me, Sara and Linnea decided to go to an art gallery whilst Kylie, Katsuko, Jane and Arielle went to the Prince of Wales museum. The art gallery was fabulous with a great range of pieces from paintings to sculptures all of which were very different as there were several artists in the exhibition. I have to admit there a few pieces I really wanted to buy but 1. I wasn't sure how I would get them home 2. I'd budgeted myself and left my debit card at Sangam so I wasn't tempted :( All the artists whose work was in the exhibition were actually there when we were looking around and some of them explained the ideas behind the painting which was really interesting. 1 of the artists took us to meet everyone as he wanted to introduce us to everyone :S it was really nice as they were all thrilled that we had spent so long looking at their work (it was a small exhibition but we had spent over an hour looking around) and they encouraged us to go Kolkata as that's where they are all from. For the rest of the day we browsed the bazaars and strolled around Colaba - we were asked a few times if we wanted to be an extra in a Bollywood movie which would have been rather amusing but it meant being out till 6am and we wanted to be on form for tomorrow. The rain that we were expecting came down with force in the evening, there were huge thunder storms which felt like they were right above us :S