On our second day in Mumbai, we woke up and enjoyed the wonderful breakfast at our hotel. Before heading out, we made sure we were all packed and ready to go. Having seen numerous games of Cricket the day before, we walked back over to the Oval Maidan, the local Cricket pitch. This is a large, Grade I recreational ground, situated in South Mumbai, about a ten-minute walk from our hotel. It is so named because of its oval shape and is where anyone can play Cricket. On the weekends, up to 50 games are being played with balls crossing into each other’s area.
The passion for Cricket in India cannot be under estimated. I very much enjoyed watching despite not having a clue of what the rules are. The only issue I had with taking all this in, was there were no females playing. Heading back to our hotel, we checked out of hotel and met up with our driver for the day. Heading through the traffic for The Gateway of India where we would catch a ferry to Elephanta islands.
Elephanta Island
The one hour and ten-minute ferry ride took us to the UNSECO world heritage site where we met our guide for the tour of the Island. Only residents of the Island, about 1,200 in total, can be guides. We learned a lot about the symbols, the carvings and life on Elephanta Island during our two-hour stay. Catching the ferry back our driver took us to our travel agent “India Someday”. They could not have been kinder or more helpful. They confirmed the number of details and gave us more advice and pointers for remaining 2 1/2 weeks.
We returned to our hotel, which was only about five minutes away, where we claimed our luggage, having left it after check out. Ready to head to the overnight train we went down the road and got some street food to snack on for dinner. The travel agent warned us the food selections at the train terminal were not great.
Getting to the train station
Driving the one-hour and 20 minutes from south Mumbai to North Mumbai was chaotic. Arriving safely at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, or LTT train station around 7:00 PM, we munched on our dinner sitting in the utter chaos that was the terminal. Our 8:50 PM train was announced around 8:00 PM and we went to our platform, finding the position where our car would be. The train arrived at 8:30 and we boarded, going to our two person sleeper cabin.
Our cabin and meal options.
For those who have not taken a train in India, it can be an experience. They were sleeper cars with 80 berths in them however, our sleeper car only had 24 berths. That is the difference between travelling first class and third class in India. First class also gives you air conditioning and since the overnight low in Mumbai was 28, air-conditioning was a very good investment. The train left a little bit late and after we got underway a room steward brought us our sheets. He then confirmed that we wanted dinner.
He seemed somewhat surprised that we were happy with a vegetarian meal. While we are not vegetarian, after 12 days on a cruise ship, eating beef almost every day, a vegetarian meal was a good break for our system. Our meal started off with tomato soup, which was unlike any tomato soup I had ever tasted. It was very good, however, it was very spicy, and Meg was unable to finish hers due to the heat.
We then received a tray with five dishes on it, and it was quite tasty. We ate in our cabin and after finishing, the steward came and cleaned we are plates. It was now 10:30 PM and the steward came back and said he had some breath mints and how much of a tip would we be giving him? I kind of looked at him and his friend standing next to him with his arms folded across his chest. There were signs all over do not tip staff, but curiously, his plate with breath mints on it also had some bank notes on it. I looked at him, and then he said how much you tip me? Caving into the basic extortion, I gave him 100 Rupees just so he would go away.
We then got into bed and tried to fall asleep to the trains rocking. Our coach was only two cars back from the engine and, similar to Thomas the Tank Engine, the horn sound incessantly. This naturally woke us up regularly throughout the night. We seemed to sleep best when the train stopped, which I thought was at a station, however I never looked out the window to confirm this. We were due to arrive in Goa, at the Madgaon station at 5:40 AM and we dutifully each set an alarm so we would not sleep through. This is where it got interesting…
A temporary panic attack!
Two berths down the coach from our two-person room, was a family in a four-person unit including two children. The three-year-old child had a tantrum of epic proportions after getting on the train which lasted about 30 minutes. Eventually everything was quiet. At one point I woke up during the night, when it was pitch black, and heard the child speaking. I thought to myself, “are we there? Are they getting ready to get off?” I looked at my phone and it was only 4:30 AM. Then I panicked and thought “is Goa on a different time zone?” I searched the internet and found all of India is on the same time zone, which I knew, but for some reason, at 4:30 AM, I could not remember.
Well, I was up now, so I crawled down from my upper berth, managing not to step on Meg who was fast asleep on the lower berth, and went to the loo. Returning to our berth, I thought I might as well stay up, since I’ll be getting up shortly. I did a quick search of Google maps and found we were only half way there. This was supposed to be a nine hour journey, we had been travelling for seven hours, what’s up with that? I have now learned Indian trains do not seem to run with the same efficiency as Japanese trains. I turned off my alarm and tried to find Meg’s phone to silence hers, but woke her up doing so.
Traveling along India’s train routes
I texted our driver to say we would be late. He replied back immediately, saying he was following the trains and would meet us there when we got there. Just before 9 AM we arrived at Madgaon station in Goa, over 3 hours late. Our driver was waiting for us. We then did the 40-minute drive to our hotel through lush forests and fields.
Arriving at our resort at 10 o’clock in the morning, we weren’t able to check in. Depositing our luggage with the concierge, we went and had a late breakfast, changed into our bathing suits and went swimming in the Arabian sea. We then walked around the town, scouting out places to eat et al.
Goa is beautiful
Our first impressions of Goa were very similar to beach resorts in Mexico, but without the vendors on the beach. Of course, there were vendors in the town, which is basically one road in this part of South Goa. The north part of Goa is a bit livelier, translation, party town. Goa’s south is more family orientated. The beach is amazing: about 2 ½ km long of fine sand and between 50 – 100 meters from the buildings to the ocean, depending on the tide. Being only 15 degrees north of the equator, the sun and heat are relentless and the days are 11 hours long at the winter solstice.
We are now on day four of our four-day beach phase of our India trip and absolutely loving it. This has allowed us to catch up on outstanding chores, including updating the web site and Instagram pages. We are working on visas for the next phase of our trip and getting ready for our 4:30 AM departure from our resort to the airport
Thanks for reading.
Feel free to ask any questions or suggestions in the comments section.
