Flavor explosion in Mumbai!

Best food by FAR! With no real exposure to Indian food up until now we weren't even sure what we were ordering, but the dinner last night was incredible. I have never had chicken with as much flavor and the vegetable dish was filled with spices none of us had ever tasted. Thankfully no other "explosions" have followed so I think we are adapting well Still struggling a little with this money conversion. When the bill comes for dinner and it is 1,600 Rupees I had to do some pretty quick math! (about $35 - a very expensive restaurant here, still haven't sampled some of the cheaper street fare)

Today we walked through our part of the city and found the ocean. A beach called Juhu that was wide and open and, strangely, mostly empty of people. There was one area with some people selling things, but nothing like the high pressure of Egypt. Of course we haven't seen any other "tourists" anywhere so maybe they just don't expect to see suckers like they do at the pyramids.

We did come across some pretty persistent little kids on our walk. At one point a little boy attached himself to Shawn's leg and seemed to be kissing his shoe. When he lost his grip on Shawn he flung himself around my legs and just about took me down. Baylie has a tough time with the kids, especially when they make eating motions and then hold out their hands. There are areas nearby that would be even so much more heart breaking, but we are just seeing a glimpse of it here. As were were flying in yesterday we saw the famous slums that you might expect.

After walking on the beach, we hopped in an auto-rickshaw to get back to our neighborhood. We actually did fit all three of us in the back of that tiny thing and it zipped us through traffic. As we rounded one corner at break-neck speed we discovered we were headed straight into the back end of a very large cow. Shawn actually said, "Holy cow!" Wish I had been faster with my camera.

We have had to change our plans from here somewhat. We arrived during the most major holiday time and the man at the travel office tried to explain very politely that I was out of my mind if I thought I could get train tickets for any destination in the next week. We had really planned to travel north by train, but every Indian family is on the road right now so we will be flying once again. Leaving tomorrow for Udaipur.

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