Mumbai / Goa

Arrived in Mumbai on 7 Oct late at night and it took 2 hours to get to the hotel because of all the Dessara festival celebrations which went late into the night - plus I had to map read as the taxi driver didn't know the way. Mumbai is a city of 15 million!!!
 The hotel we booked online and recommended by the LP was shocking. Dry rot on one wall, flaking paint, wet smell, bird feathers on the floor and a stinky shower. It was 11.30pm so we went to bed and checked out in the morning! Accom in Mumbai is really pricey - budget starts at $AUD50. The couple of days in Mumbai were taken up with checking out some of the tourist areas - Gateway to India, Taj Hotel, Chowpatty Beach, Victoria Terminal and then the cricket on Maidan Oval on Sunday. A space the size of 10 cricket fields had about 50 games going on - all in perfect harmony even though the makeshift boundaries crossed over. Some players were in whites and others in street clothes but there was no aggro and they all seemed to co-exist. It was something to behold. We ate locally and even had a meal in Leopolds which is made famous in Shanataram the popular novel (I couldn't stnd the book!). Food was good and relatively cheap. We even ran into Nelson and Francois from Udaipur!
Sunday we caught the train to Goa - supposed to take 10 hours! We arrived 5 hours late - ah well! Our accom in Goa is excellent. Huge room, kingsize bed, balcony, swimming pool, full brekkie all for $AUD57 per night. Competition for accom is keen here so online bookings are the way to go. The normal price for this room is over $AUD100. We like it so much we ended up staying the week! Goa is ok but the beaches are average by Aussie standards. Rubbish everywhere, coarse sand and not appealing. Sorry to sound like a snob! We hired a motor scooter for 2 days and we checked out Old Goa which is full of the Portugese influence and on Friday went to Mapusa markets which was an experience especially the freshly hung goats in the 33 C heat ...mmm.
It was good fun the 2 of us on a scooter motoring around the back blocks of Goa - palm trees and rice paddies. Very relaxing except for the sometimes frenetic Indian driving!
So far we've been to most of northern and middle Goa and we'll see how much more we can do before we head to Kerala on Monday (17 Oct). Mind you the pol looks good!
After 40 odd days of no meat we finally had some Goan seafood which is served very spicy - Extra tasty and washed down with a Kingfisher beer - or 2!
Sorry about the lack of photo's. the card has a virus. I've had all the photo's so far coped onto a DVD and had it cleaned so I can keep taking photo's. As soon as I can I'll add some pic's to the blog posts I've done so far.