Mumbai II, Singapore, Bali and Lombok

We write this latest update whilst sitting at a beach-side hotel restaurant in Lombok, a far cry from the craziness of Mumbai where we left you last.

Our last day in Mumbai, we were able to go into the Mumbai slums, where Slumdog Millionaire was filmed, and had a private tour of the inner workings of slum life. One things we were suprised to learn was that there are a lot of white collar workers in the slums, who earn more than enough to live in their own properties but choose slum life as this is what they are used to and where they were brought up.

Being invited into various "houses" we were able to see how proud the people are who live here and despite all likelihood, the houses are absolutely spotless and you can see they are cleaned every day. All children are sent to school in their adorable school uniforms.

We were also invited into the various factories, where they make wholesale clothing - dresses, shirts, jeans - suitcases and even went to a leather tannery. Next time you use Johnson & Johnson, please be aware that the factory it was made in was probably in the Mumbai slums! On the whole, the main shock was that the slums just aren't as bad as they are played up to be in the movie. However, Sally did manage to tread on a dead rat on the street and is now so hardened to Indian life that she didn't even let out a scream!

In fact, one man was very unhappy to see us there in the slums and told us to get out... the slum dwellers were not at all happy with the movie and thought it painted slum life in a very bad light. I hope he would have realised we weren't there to make any judgement or laugh at them, but in fact just gain an understanding of the way life was for them.

What I have yet to mention is the day earlier, we had been out walking in Mumbai and inadvertently walked into another slum. Without a guide or a clue where we were going, it was a little more scary than the following day, especially when we accidently walked through the public toilet area... which was just an area of pavement by the coast!

All the while, of course, we had intermittent monsoons.

Anyway, we now had to say goodbye to India after five and a half weeks. We both totally agreed with our thoughts on India and the time we have had there. It was definitely time to leave, but we both walked away feeling that we had definitely gained something by going to India, both culturally and by learning how to be travellers... if you can travel in India you can travel pretty much anywhere!

So, thoughts on India are as follows...

1) if there is not a cow eating rubbish, you are not in India
2) if there is no room to fit someone in the car, squeeze three more in and then hang people out the window
3) there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing the same clothes 5 days in a row
4) dirty feet are an absolute given
5) you can try all you like to eat the right food and still end up with Delhi Belly from the showers
6) Indians on the whole are a hugely spiritual people, who manage to integrate their religeon into daily lives with ease
7) of the 33million Hindi gods, our favourite is Brama (the creator) followed closely by Ganesha (elephant) mostly because this is the one we can remember
8) there is no point walking down the pavement when a perfectly good road will do - and get you away from the hundreds of street hawkers
9) the true value of anything is a quarter of the price the sellers quote
10) four people can easily fit onto one motorbike, with room to spare for a baby

The next leg of our trip was a short flight to Singapore, quite the opposite of India in almost every respect. It was also our first stay in a hostel and dorm room... at the Inn-Crowd. And ironically, this was in Little India, the Indian part of Singapore. Singaporeans are mostly of either Indian, Chinese, Malay or ex-pat descent, and each culture has their own part of the city.

12 people in each mixed dorm room and 7 dorms led, finally, to a lot of other travellers for us to meet. It was very useful to hear other travellers stories about where they have been and what they have got up to - especially as everyone we met was on a reverse trip to us and were going where we have been and have been where we are going! It is also good to know that we are not the first, and certainly won't be the last to get ripped off or fall for any number of scams that locals pull on travellers!

The hostel puts on a free scooter tour of Singapore a couple of times a week so we signed up for our only full day so we could see the city properly. From 10.30am to 4.30pm we were out and about sampling the delights of Singapore, most notably a stop off a Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling cocktail each where they were created. Needless to say, our control of the scooter was significantly worse than before we had them to drink. Our tour showed us everything there was to see in a single day which was fortunate as our next flight took us out of there the very next day.

That evening, we went to Clarke Quay, the liveliest part of Singapore, where they have beautiful restaurants and interesting bars with all sorts of themes. The oddest we came across was a bar called Clinic, where the people who visit the bar sit in wheelchairs, have their drinks from a drip bag and take shots from a syringe. I am tempted to bring this idea back to London...

The evening brought an electronic kite display which was practice for the youth olympic opening later this summer.

The difficult thing to get used to after leaving India was the cleanliness... where it was perfectly acceptable, in fact expected, to throw your rubish on the floor in India (there are no bins, only piles of rubbish everywhere), in Singapore there is a huge fine for any level of littering!

So... we left Singapore with a new and hugely important purchase... the notepad that Kate bought that we are using with wifi to update this blog now! No more stuffy internet cafe's, beachside only from now on!

Pur next flight brought us to Bali, but first a two hour queue to get through immigration and buy our visas. Fortunately, we were meeting Felipe back in Bali as he was able to secure us a fabulous deal in a hotel right on the beach with a beautiful pool and stunning gardens, and all for very cheap too. Otherwise a 2am stroll around the Indonesian equivalent to Magaluf would have been on the cards.

We chose to stay in Kuta, which is well known as the party place of Bali and it was full of Australian surfers who were having their winter break from school or university, along with a good mix of travellers too. We found a lot of people who were only supposed to be passing through and ended up staying a couple of months or more. Kuta is great for surfing, partying and spending too much money so we chose only to spend 5 days there, as what we have really been in need of is a relaxing time with beautiful scenery and a chance to get over the craziness of India.

So that is what brought us here to Lombok... an hours fast boat to the next island and then a short taxi ride to the villiage of Sengiggi, an absolutely beautful stretch of beach, where we are staying in a lovely beach hut and will soon be taking advantage of a few days sunshine and hopefully, finally, getting a tan! While this is being written, Kate is having a massage and Sally is getting a henna... all in all we are very happy girls!

We are making sure to take our malaria medication, and trying hard as we can to avoid the mosquitos as there has been a huge outbreak of dengue fever amongst travellers and there is no way to prevent it!

Tomorrow we are renting scooters for 24 hours so we will be able to see Lombok in all it's beauty... two hours until sunset now...

Until next time xxx