Bollywood stars of the future?

Just back from the doctors. We could start our own pharmacy... Between my eye infection and Kev's entire body of bites,we have 5 sets of tablets and 3 sets of cream. Easy to see the doctor gets a cut of what we buy! It was certainly an experience though, and well worth the 7 quid we paid for the consultation and all the ridiculous amounts of medicine for pure amusement value! One more visit tomorrow to check Kev's blood pressure has gone normal and we'll be done!

After leaving Goa,we took an overnight train (1st class no less, a great experience!) to Mumbai. We arrived at crack of dawn and,after being scandalously ripped off by a taxi driver,made our way to the Salvation Army dormitories for possibly the only cheap place to stay in the city. You could see why. The girl's dormitory was fine - everyone was sleeping soundly when I got in, the bathroom was clean and the room smelt fine. Kev, however, entered the boys dormitory to see the floor full of sleeping bodies,people so fed up of bed bugs that they had abandoned the beds. Apparently the bathroom and the smell were not much better... By abandoning his mattress and sleeping on bare boards he avoided the bedbugs until our very last night, hence our trip to the doctor today.

Mumbai is an amazing city - full of contrasts,colours, smells and sounds. In Colaba, where we were staying the elegant and luxurious Taj Mahal hotel towers above streets where whole families sleep on the pavements. We spent so much time jsut walking around and taking in the feel of the city. We visited different areas, including Crawford market,where we were immediatly hijacked by a man who,every time we tried to escape, insisted on showing us his 'Porter' badge and telling us it was his job to show us around. If it wasn't for him I doubt we'd have persevered with the fish market (and walking through fish guts in our flip-flops) and certainly not the meat market, where huge carcasses sat covered in crows and the smell was like nothing I've smelt before.

We walked one day with a guy we met in our hostel, Chris, and just kept walking until we decided we'd gone far enough and should catch a bus back. Having identified the correct bus,we got on confidently and waited for somewhere we recognised. Chris saw our road and jumped off as the bus stopped. Kev jumped off behind him, misjudging the speed of the bus which was no longer stopped, and fell flat on his face ion the road. Three men,clearly convinced I was about to jump off after them (the bus was at full speed by now) held my arms in vice-like grips as I tried to explain that I didn't have a death wish and wasn't about to throw myself off.

One of my favourite places in Mumbai was Chowpatty beach. Not because it's a nice beach. Almost the opposite - the water is filthy and the beach is crowded with people. But everyone washaving the time of their lives there - families happy and smiling, going on rides which were all hand run, children excitedly paddling in the filthy water.Not a frown amongst them, and we couldn't help picturing a similar scene at home.

On out final day in Mumbai we took a tour of the largest slum in the city, and it was the very best thing we've done on our trip so far. It's hard to describe exactly why,but it was a very special experience which blew away any preconceptions we had about life in a slum. We were picked up by a guy n jeans and a t-shirt who was chatting away on his mobile. We never would have guessed that he himselfhad lived his whole life in the slums. He took us first to the 'industrial' area of the slum,which was so perfectly organised it was amazing. There was a building where people were shredding the plastic for recycling, a building for melting the plastic, and right next door, a building for making the machines for recycling the plastic. There was a building for melting down aluminium,a building for making leather goods, an area for making clay pots, an area where women sat making poppadum after poppadum and leaving them to dry in the hot sun. There was everything, and I can't help thinking it must be one of the only areas in Mumbai with little or no unemployment. We didn't see a single person begging for anything, or a single person who didn't look entirely happy. The streets of the slum were cleaner than many in the city. Sure, there was not a lot of money around, and a large percentage of what was made from any of the industries went back to a nameless owner,but the place had such a positive feeling that I wasn't surprised by the obvious disdain our guide felt for the depiction of slum life in Slumdog Millionaire and endless recent documentaries. There are government schools, schools run by NGOs, and even private schools within the slum. It was easy to see why our guide was so proud of his life and his home.

So that was Mumbai, or the best I can do in a short space. Sadly we had to turn down the offer to star (well, be extras) in a Bollywood film as we were all set to take our train out of the city. We are now in Aurangabad,to the East of Mumbai where we have spent 2 days looking at caves at Ajanta and Ellora. Both sets of caves are spectacular - carved intricately into the mountainside over hundreds of years, full of carvings and paintings that have survived the centuries. Ellora was particularly awe insiringk, not least because the caves span 3 religions on the one sight - Buddhism, Hiduisn and Jainism.

Allin all it's been a busy few days, with more excitement to come as we head tomorrow towards Udaipur.

Photos will appear eventually. They seem to take forever to upload.