Fine
& Sunny 25 to 31 deg C
Walk:
20km
My
brain didn’t want to let me sleep past 0300h, so I ended up giving up and
pottering around the room tidying up and drinking hot chocolate. Thanks to
Wendy I packed my steel travel mug and a little water boiler that you insert
into the mug to boil water for a brew. Luckily, I didn’t share a room as
I would have just had to lay in bed and wait for a respectful hour.
Bob
gave me a hoy about 0640h and after unsuccessfully trying to wake Dogan (our
Turkish mate) we set off on our walk. The air was a little bit cooler, but not
much, but the traffic was very quiet, with no one blowing their horn, which
drives us a bit battier than usual during the day. I’m sure it doesn’t improve
the traffic situation one little bit.
This
neighbourhood is very interesting with lots to explore no matter which
direction you take. This time we headed for the Floral Fountain which, on
paper, looked fairly impressive. It was ok, but without any water in it a
fountain doesn’t do much for me. What was worth the effort was a whole row of beautiful
old Colonial Gothic buildings nearby. We then continued on to St Thomas
Cathedral, which didn’t allow us to take photos inside. There were two very
officious looking guards on the front door, even at 0730h! There’s obviously
some religious tension in the air at Mumbai.
We
continued our wandering, past the old Bombay Town Hall and Telegraph Office,
both beautiful buildings in their day but now well and truly let go. The
Telegraph Office in particular could be magnificent with some TLC. The
current Stock Exchange was like Fort Knox with guns, sandbags and barriers
everywhere. You dare not raise a camera around these sights for fear of getting
shot. We ended up back at the hotel where we went straight to breakfast.
It was a little different, this morning we had scrambled eggs instead of an
omelette. Everything else was exactly the same, which was ok for Bob and me.
Finished off with a couple of cups of ginger tea. That’s not ginger tea as we
know it but black tea with milk and ginger added to it. Very tasty and
refreshing. I’ll have to give it a try when I get home, using some pounded
fresh ginger out of the garden. Having filled the gap, we went back to our
rooms to prepare for the day ahead.
By
this time Dogan was ready to rock and roll. So, we headed in the direction of
our earlier walk to show him what we had seen. Bob was hanging out for a coffee
so we called into Starbucks (normally an establishment he would not be seen
dead in, but he was desperate for an caffeine fix) and he shouted us all a
coffee/hot chocolate. My hot chocolate was delicious and filling.
We
then decided to show Dogan other sights that we had seen yesterday. In addition,
we attempted to find the memorial for the 2008 terrorist attack and actually
got to the spot Google said it was at but later realised it was further away.
One for another day. About 1300h we decided that all this walking had sharpened
our appetites. We came across a little snack bar thingy and ordered vegetarian
pizzas. They were pretty good, but we questioned our choice to eat pizza in
India.
As
the sun was really getting hot, we decided to have a break back in our aircon
rooms. About 1600h Bob and I got itchy feet again and set off towards the
esplanade. After a few km we sat on the concrete apron and watched the world go
by, along with a few hundred thousand other people. The clouds cut the sunset short,
so we took our leave and continued to wander with no particular plan. It’s the
sort of place that if you do that something fascinating will pop up.
We
found ourselves in the area of one of Mike’s (tour leader) safe eating joints. So,
we ventured in to give it a try. Saw three people from the UK who are also on
our tour. The food was authentic Indian and delicious; we’ll be back. Cost us
about AS$10 each. It was clean, fresh and well presented. We waddled home and
called it a day.
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