Ok so am absolutely exhausted and promise this blog will not be nearly as long as the last. Can’t figure out if it’s the screwed up sleep pattern (2 am again last night), the heat, or the fact that I spent the night drinking beer with gorgeous
French, Jake Gyllenhaal look-alike and his mates last night? (mmmm probably the latter). The absolute best thing about travelling is when you meet people who barely speak a word of English but they somehow get your sense of humour! Very cool! We ended up watching a movie in English that I didn’t understand (no change there hey?) and they were trying to explain it to me…I still didn’t get it! But never the less it was entertaining, so was very sad to see them leave this morning.

Its funny but with all my years of travelling I have never actually noticed how many odd and super unfriendly travellers there are out there…well I guess I did notice, but I was just too busy trying to figure out why the hell they didn’t like me!!!:-) Armed with my new found awareness that the world is full of miserable/ uncommunicative people I feel more prepared this time around. It also helps that I have my lovely friend Anita’s words playing through my head continuously ” Gayle what other people think of you is none of your bloody business‘. It’s a very comforting place to be and I now rather than obsessing about them I am pretty good at reminding myself that the next ‘amazing’ person (that  ‘gets’ me and my madness) is just around the corner.

Now a brief summary of yesterday. About 6 of us (Jake Gyllenhaal sadly excluded due to his excessive puking on his flight over- such a shame….) had a driver, drive us into the centre of Mumbai. Am very pleased to report that they have traffic lights there and the occasional traffic warden ticketing the bad drivers. (How they pick their victims is any ones guess? Because to me, it looks like everyone’s is driving is terrible!)
Pretty much spent the day been driven around looking at sights, the heat was excessive and makes me soooo thankful that I never came in the Summer). Our guide Daniel was a lovely man, who very kindly took us to lunch ordered all the food that he wanted and then made us pay for it…it was a plan of utter brilliance! And I appreciated him for his cunningness……but Alas a few others where clearly not amused and ended up only paying for their food and leaving us, more jovial hearted people to foot the bill. (as I said some miserable people out there!)

So that’s all I can say about my day really…..that and the fact that I seem to be a child scammer magnet. They seem to see me coming a mile off. Walked past this baby on the side of the road. Most adorable little thing ever, just sitting there looking cute. I suddenly saw her older sister who had no doubt clocked my heartbroken and yet adoring look, signal to her friend! It happened soooo fast: Within seconds she had grabbed the child up, her friend managed to whip out another adorable baby, from God knows where, and I was followed yet again, with the heart-wrenching begging and the pleading that I buy them milk. (Now thanks to my already mentioned wonderful dad who got me prepared for all of these scams…I know that they ask you to buy powdered milk and then resell it to the shop!) So I knew exactly what was going on….but I figured what the hell it won’t kill me to get them a little something. But once I was in ‘their shop‘ of choice and discovered the price of the milk AND the rice they wanted…I was looking at an easy £7 – which for a budget traveller such as myself is almost a whole days survival. Seeing as I am no doubt going to be suckered by children for the next 4 months I decided that I needed to a little bit more strict with how much I give away. So much to their disappointment, they only got the very expensive rice and I vowed to be stronger next time!

Oh and let’s not mention the present I bought for my lovely nephew, Rhyse…..massive big balloons that are about a metre long and that you blow up with a bicycle pump. (Cheap, easy to carry and if Rhys didn’t love them then I knew his dad would!!;-) I managed to get the price down from 100 rupees each to 3 for 150. Bargain I scored!!!! Until I got home only to discover that they were really just normal balloons that you can’t even blow up because they just pop. (Somehow Mr Roper ( my ex )  your words seem to haunt me: “Sweetie if it’s too good to be true then it probably is!!”

So NO more! I am not buying any more crap! You heard it here first. I’m going to be strong, vigilant and sensible!!

…and now I’m going to sleep

PS Thanks for the book Ollie…it appears that when in India, every seasoned traveller has a book about a Yogi. Was very proud to pull out Paramahansa Yogananda’s autobiography” …..haven’t got past the first paragraph yet…due to massive curiosity about EVERBODY’s business …….but dam do I look cool!!!!:-) (and by end of the trip I might actually have read it!)