Well what can I say? Before we even arrived.in Mumbai I had started to feel ill... The nice driver arranged by the new bengal hotel was there waiting for us at the airport. Jon got accosted by children begging as we got in the car and the drive into the city was an eye opener in so many ways. Not only was there such vivid signs of poverty, with slums and people on the street, the roads were a mass of chaos (i will never complain about uk roads and motorways again!)... People, bicycles, motorbikes(saried women riding side saddle with no helmet), lorries, taxis, auto rickshaws, dogs and the occasional bison all shared the roads travelling in all directions, those with horns using them at every opportunity!A comment Alex Frater makes in chasing the monsoon about the 'drivers horn being connected to the brake pedal' finally made sense, except in our case it appeared to be attached to the indicators, accelerator and perhaps even the radio! We arrived at our hotel (8am ish local time), friendly staff, not so 'deluxe' room and attempted to get a few hours kip but had barely unpacked and laid down when a phone call told us we were in the wrong room! We relocated to the other side of the hotel where we now had a window, none of the lights flickered and we had extra noise courtesy of the road outside but still the same muggy and damp room conditions. Eyes shut I lasted maybe an hour waking to an extremely low blood sugar, thanks in part to not being able to stomach the random breakfast a la finnair, feeling sick as a dog and frankly not wanting to do anything but go straight home on the next flight! The thought of having to sit it out a few days in the pokey musty basic room made me a bit weepy and so I duly started grumbling away to Jon who I had shaken awake from the only bit of shut eye he had managed to get all journey! We went out to the shop and got some coke (yep my first cave for several weeks, and once i'm on top form it will be off the menu again) and crisps. We sat back up in our room, whilst I tentatively nibbled on crisps and sipped at the cola I had been vigorously shaking to make flat, and planned our next move... Which leads us to our current position in one of mumbai's top hotels the oberoi on marine drive where we got a free upgrade (i believe that's called a sea view-see photo)! 5* recouperation seemed to be the only alternative to flying back, meaning that if I had to be in a hotel room for a few days at least the room wouldn't be adding to the nausea! Having freshened up the plan is to go for a stroll to chowpatty beach, the oval and shopping area and at some point checking out the gym, pool, jacuzzi (glad I decided to pack the bikini now) and probably get an ayurvedic massage! So yer backpacking maybe it aint but definitely the right prescription.
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