Day 2 - 20th Jan - Mumbai

so I'll start with last night and move on into our Sunday chowpatty beach was brilliant, lots of music and l these hand powered rides...including a small ferris wheel...looked quite life threatening so stayed away from that. what would OSH think?? so had a bite here, was told to try bhel puri which apparently must be what ALL the tourists do cos they kept on yelling it at us. damn lonely planets. Anyways it was worth the touting and the suspect cleanliness of the outside table cos it was FAB. its all this crunchy stuff with onions and fried stuff. Google it ok? then mished to the festival which was PANTS. so we left that in a hurry and found a eaterie and had some Thali...which is kinda a Indian version of tapas...bits of this and that. well good. so this morning we were heading out in one of Mumbai's classic cabs (think...1950's, stick shift...with black light inside and tinted windows...and constant use of the horn) and got a txt that my opa passed away on Friday. so well fucking life's a right bitch sometimes. Thank Christ that massive sunglasses are in. Just all so weird and surreal to be in that total madness...talk about making you feel a damn long way from ANY home! at the train station den found a place of familiarity amongst the chaos... mickey d's and being the good boyfriend who knows me well...brought me some fries. Also, as a side note, we DID try to get a hamburger...yeah they don't eat cows in India..mc donalds is ALLL chicken, baby. so that was my morning...i've had better. just like to say am not one of those awful tourists who only go to mc donalds and KFC...perspective please! (oo i might be a bit grumpy..) apparently you have to be some sort of genius to work out the train system but ended up going to a different train station to the "tourist office" where a very nice, if somewhat abrupt woman helped us book our tickets. she was most concerned that we might have to upgrade (ooo thats my favourite word!!!) to first class since there were no shoddy sleeper seats or second class seats. it costs us about ?4 more and the total for 1 day train and 1 overnight train...?16 each. Hell i'm going first class everywhere!!! so got some lunch and headed out to Dharavi...which in the nicest terms is the slum. so bit of an eye opener. didn't smell as much as i thought despite the gutter clearly (and i mean CLEARLY) doubling as the neighborhood toilet. discovered how celebrities feel so people accosted us EVERYWHERE but they were so nice and friendly. the kids were the best, just big smiles and lots of giggles and thy love it when you take their photo. watched a game of something that is like pool...but with checkers..don't know the name, got offered food and drink and suff. awesome people. only issue was for me (not for den at all) was the guys (ALL the guys young and old!) have eyes for Christmas. clearly their mother never taught them it was rude to stare. and i had covered up pretty good. no hotpants for arn. pervy boys.still bit weird to come back and tho our room is NOT flash at ALL (a nice hovel would be my choice of words) but to have a bed and hot shower and tv, it did feel quite luxurious. and makes you feel very grateful. have never ever seen poverty like that and never seen such low standards of living...it really was like it was out of tv. and so many people all so crammed! and i guess they are the lucky ones, they have a place to call home ...the worst off are the people who just sleep on the sidewalk. hundred and hundreds of people just have blankets on the footpath, unreal. some have lil shacks set but a drive through the outskirts of Mumbai at night is a very very humbling thing. well...got a bit serious there. gonna eat some crisps now.