The beat of a different drum...

So we have some days off before our next round of visits to hospitals and clinics and we decide to make our way to South Mumbai and the Gateway of India. Maybe some usual tourist spots but with such a short visit this time, it seems to be the best place to go. Some shopping, and be prepared to bargain. Everyone we met told us this. And it seems to ring true. 'Set price'.. just doesn't ring true. It takes a little getting used to, but soon you find your rhythm. Just must remember not to try it when I get home.

Lunch at Leopold’s (which I can highly recommend). Indian fare, Butter chicken and Chicken Tika with naan it’s all here for the taking, and I have discovered the refreshing qualities of Kingfisher beer.

There are the usual hawkers, ‘Come to our boat to Elephant Island’, ‘This is best pashmina you will find,Sir’...it could all get a little overwhelming, until you realise that it is merely the chorus of the soundtrack that is India.

There are such a number of vendors, all clamouring fort the almighty rupee. It is the same the world round, just ten, no twenty fold in this overcrowded yet well visited destination.

There is a real heartbeat to this city. It takes  little while to hear it, but it is there.  A sometimes, in your face, thumping of a heartbeat, but none-the-less a life blood and rhythm that keeps things rolling along.

The noise of car horns suddenly becomes almost poetic.And it would almost be wrong not to have, what we would consider unnecessary honking, car horns bleating. Cars that seem to be following each other in such a random way... then suddenly, veering off into a side street that almost seems to have appeared from nowhere.  It all seems to work. The squeezing of cars. There seems to be spaces that open up where there wasn't a space before.

Righto, two days off, now bring on the next stage !