It was a relief to get out of Jaisalmer and back to Jodhpur where we were happy to be met at the train station by Nagenda (from the maharani guesthouse). We spent the day we had in Jodhpur mainly at the train station, which we had to visit twice. In India the system of queuing does not exist is quite the same way which it does at home and at the queue i ended up in it was more like a rugby scrum, but after a few hours of frustration we ended up with the tickets we needed to start the trip to the sun. A lot of the rest of the time seemed to be spent sitting around the guesthouse talking to people there. We were once again told about 'on the rocks' where we could go and party, this time we were invited to go with Nagendra. We had planned to leave around 8 pm but new people arrived at the hotel and people got distracted so it was about 10.30pm when we (sam, nagendra and I) piled onto a scooter to go. That was an experience in itself, i am glad it was so late as there was barley any traffic i am not sure it would have been as enjoyable otherwise! It was a really big place with all sorts of different little nooks to sit in and a dance floor with strobe lights. It is kind of like a themed bar you might get at home only better and with table service. It was a shame it shut at 11pm!
Instead of getting the train straight to Mumbai we decided to break the journey up a bit and give ourselves a taste of the beach life yet to come. This consisted of a stop in Gujarat a few hours north of Mumbai at the town of Daman. On arrival there at midnight (the train as usual ended up a few hours late!) i was not so happy to have taken this detor as the place looked pretty run down. The next day though happily it seemed a little better. The main town seems to consist mainly of restaurants, hotels and a lot of bars and wine & beer shops, which is a little unusual in India. It was one of the places in India that had previously been settled by the Portuguese and in some areas there presence is still visible. There are a couple of forts and some old churches and amidst all the dirty new concrete housing there are some portuguese style houses remaining, though mostly is a bad state of repair. It also had the first sign of the beach with the sight of Palm trees. This is mainly an Indian tourist destination which would explain why we were the only (visible at least) westerners in the whole place. The fact that this was not just another international tourist stop of was a welcome change. There was no hastle to buy or do anything, those people who we did talked to seemed genuinely interested in just talking- unlike in Rajasthan. Walking around the town one guy even bought us something, sugar cane juice from one of the roadside stalls. There was not much to see but it was worth taking a break from the tourist trail for a few days.
On getting to Mumbai, on a train we did not have a ticket for we had to get a taxi to the centre. The station we arrived at was a long way from where we wanted to be but we did get to see some of mumbai that we would not have seen otherwise. Driving past all the home made shacks on the side of the road, some very impressive with 2 floors, electricity and even a few looked to have a TV. Going past you see people living there whole lives out at the road side. Babies being bathed, young children playing within inches of the oncoming traffic, people washing clothes, cooking dinner and working in shops. I could have sworn we were only inches from hitting a couple of people but people are so desensitised to the traffic that they hardly move as cars hurtle towards them!.
Mumbai is a fantastic city, definately one of my favourite places in India. It is not only one of the biggest but it appears to be one of the cleanest and easiest to get around without getting run over! On the downside it is very expensive for everything. We spent the first couple of nights in Colaba the area where all the tourists seem to congregate. It is near the water with the India gate and the amazing Taj hotel (which hopefully one day i will get to stay in!). We spent some time wandering the streets not doing much going various places to get some food or a drink. Our hotel was 'cheap' (for mumbai!!) at Rs.450, but noisy, someone always seemed to be arguing about something and hot. We have moved to another hotel nearer the outstanding VT train station which is also noisy but not so hot that you feel you can't breath.
I will be sad to leave this amazing city again, but i will be back hopefully with more money! But we are off to Goa tommorrow to join what seems like the whole of India! I am so glad we got the tickets early though. Yesterday we went to buy tickets out of Goa and had to wait for them to call 1000 other numbers first, i never want to have to do that again!
