Thursday, June 24, 2010

Mumbai and Goa, Goa almost Gone!


After leaving Sankat's home town we then journeyed by night train to Mumbai (formally know as Bombay).  We went to sleep just outside of Ahmanabad and woke up in Mumbai.  A nice old couple shared our compartment and asked if we could switch beds with them so I then slept on the top bunk!! 
We got off the train at CST (it has a much longer Indian name but they just abbreviated it for all of us who can't handle the long Indian names)  After reading in the LP (Lonely Planet) how it was a heritage spot and how amazing it was, we looked around and and it was really dumpy and lackluster.  We then got in a cab that was three times the amount stated in the LP (but after I made Jen sit on the side of the road with the smell of rotting dog in the air in Thailand I just maned up and got in!!)  I find out later that day it turns out we got off at about three stops early!!!!
We found a hotel just down the road from the the Gateway to India (a large stone structure very simular to other gates in Prauge and Berlin) and the Taj hotel.  We then spent the next two days seeing all of the sites of Mumbai!  We saw a  huge Ganeesh temple, where Sankat and I went separate because they didn't allow camaras. I ended up in theVIP line and got a chandlo (the third eye in the middle of my forehead,) from a temple worker standing next to Ganeesh, then went to the temple of the Goddness of Wealth (we should be very blessed in our time to come!). 
After all of our religious duties were done we went to the historical museum and saw the history of money, the university of Mumbai, and a huge place where all of Mumbai's clothes washing is done in one place.  It has over 1200 baths it was amazing to see everything was sorted by colors (I wondered how all the clothes got back to their rightful owners?).  We also made it to the real CST and it was beautiful with tons of people, it is Asia's busiest train station over 2.5 million people pass through each day!
Of course we took in a Bollywood movie to beat the heat!  (It was terrilbe political flim but Sankat did an awesome job of translating because it was all done in Hindi.)
After two days of sightseeing we took the night train to Goa.  We arrived at Alcove Resort in northern Goa, it sits above the most beautiful stretch of beach in Goa!!! (we know, we've looked at them all now!!)  We talked to the hotel manager and booked bungalows for our wedding guests, they are cute rustic cabins (they are super clean and have hot water!)
We have now spent the past few days seeing all of North Goa and met with our wedding cordinator to settle our Western Style wedding!!!
We are spending the last few days here at a nice resort relaxing before we fly out on Saturday!

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