18th Jan 2012

We are safely in Mumbai at 4 am (local time ie 5 and a half hours ahead of GMT). It had been a lovely start to our holiday to call in at Emma,s and watch Geoff's grand daughters transform themselves instantly into princesses with the donning of bracelets from their Aunty Jo from her recent visit to Bangladesh, and Nanima's (maternal grandmother ie me) old necklaces and beaded Indian bags. At 23month Ray kept out of it all, playing games on Geoff's iPhone! My nieces and nephew, in the absence of Jagdish my brother and sister -in-law Manju, (in Tenerife celebrating their anniversary) provided a lovely meal and looked after us really well as we were boarding from Heathrow, near their house. There are advantages and disadvantages to living so near an airport dear brother! I was reminded of how wonderfully ying &yang mine and Geoff,s relationship is at the check in desk at Heathrow. I had packed and repacked my suitcase discarding essentials like Fairy Liquid and dettol wipes, gifts such as tank tops and woollen scarves for relatives in India (when the temperature falls below 30c)! Geoff was his usual organised conformist self, having no trouble with his 23 kg allowance for 54 days, even putting in some of my stuff in his as I attempted to push the boundaries in my usual way. His suitcase was .5 kg under, mine .5 over so all was well except when the check in clerk said:"you know don,t you that we allow 5kg over on each bag ?" Where were those tank tops? Mumbai is a lovely temperature at this time of year - in the high 20,s and really exciting and buzzing. We ,ve walked to India Gate





where I remember boarding a P&O liner to bring us to the UK in 1958. I remember wondering if it was an island: it was so huge and that nothing could harm us on that voyage of 28 days. Recent news of those poor people on the cruise ship reminds us that that is not always the case. I still miss the one and only doll I ever owned, which was thrown overboard by my naughty little brother because he wanted to see if she could swim - but at least we all arrived safely! Geoff and I went round The Mumbai Museum, which was very impressive with artefacts and paintings from thousands of years ago. The audio tapes were well done, available in about 30 languages!





We then had a lovely lunch at Leopoldo,s cafe, which you may remember was bombed . It,s as if nothing happened - it,s restored, and buzzing with the voices of visitors from all over the globe. As Geoff is a much better negotiator than me (shameful for an Indian to admit that I can,t haggle) I walked away when he started asking for the price of these huge balloons that everyone kept pestering us to buy on our way back to the hotel. After 15 minutes I walked back to where he was, to see him urgently gesturing for me to follow him as he wanted to find the man he had done a deal with. We looked everywhere, but like the Scarlet Pimpernel he had vanished. Another balloon seller had told Geoff to look at the SIZE of those balloons - yes you,ve guessed it, he'd paid what was over the odds for what turned out to be a pack of ordinary ones! THEN we had a whole pack of balloon sellers who wanted to do a deal with us to exchange the small balloons for the big one at a BEST price of course! We could only admire the enterprise of people here, either doing scams like this, or squatting on the pavement with a coal brazier roasting peanuts to sell, or bottles of cold water out of tin buckets. There seem to be less beggars around - but who needs to beg when you can dupe a foreigner!


It,s a hard life, but it,s time for us to get dressed up now to have cocktails at the Taj Mahal Hotel, another building which has recovered well after the bombing.


People here tell us that the way to beat these terrorists is to not let them win by stopping doing what you want to do in life. On that note I will finish. I have taken advantage of the fact that there is free wifi at this hotel, by prattling on, so hope you've not fallen asleep! It will be more difficult to get access as easily in the Gujarat, but we will pick up emails every few days from internet chafes so please tell us all your news: we do miss our families and friends, and love to keep in touch as we travel about. Hoping that you and your loved ones are happy and well, Love to you all, Savi and Geoff - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Mumbai