We left Agra on Sunday and caught the 23 hour train to Mumbai. As we were unsure as to what to expect from an Indian train (with its 8 different travelling classes) and given the distance involved, we travelled 2nd Class 3-Tier AC. This basically mean't a bunk on an air conditioned carriage - although Rich really wanted to travel sleeper class in the jam packed carriages with the locals (its exactly as you're imagining).

Well things didn't start too well, the train was due to depart at 9am and getting Rich up that early was always going to be a challenge, but we got there only to be told that the train was delayed by an hour - it actually was 3 hours late in the end (pretty good by local standards apparently) and by the end of the journey was 5 hours late. The journey wasn't too bad and passed surprisingly quickly through eating, sleeping, watching DVDs on a Chinese guys laptop and chatting to a few locals. Getting a clean budget hotel in Mumbai however was another thing! - nothing available in our price range (ie cheap) and touts everywhere, we settled in the end for a room aka prison cell without a window in a fire trap ramshackle hotel but have since upgraded to a windowed room in a hostel.

First impressions of Mumbai - its very hot! 34 degrees during the day and it doesn't get much colder at night - so a bit different from Bishkek!. Its also very very colonial and because of this it has the feel of many european cities. Here they are much more westernised but it still feels like they are about 50 years behind the times - there are lots of cars here but they are 1950s Fiat types and the Royal Enfield motorbike is king here. They have a much more relaxed view towards alcohol here but much to Rich's disappointment the next 2 days are 'dry days' across the region. The food is excellent - we've eaten lots of seafood including Bombay duck, Squid and Crab (delicious), we have also visited the usual tourist hotspots Chowpati beach, Elephanta island, India Gate and Marine Drive. We can see what we suspect are the morass of call centres in the distance and have so far resisted the temptation to seek out either the LTSB one or First Alternatives!.

Our limited plans at the moment are to stay in Mumbai for another day and then to catch the train to Matheran (a quiet, relaxing and scenic hill top station about a 2 hour train journey away) before joining the throngs in Goa to spend some time lazing on a beach.