Dec. 30 : Bombay

Friday, December 30 :: Bombay, India :: 0km today / 1253km total

I did the tourist thing today... a walking tour of colonial Bombay (yawn) and a boat trip out to some rock-cut caves on an island in the harbour. The caves themselves were kinda boring but the harbour was pretty fascinating... shipworks going as far as the eye could see, as well as a naval yard with battleships/destroyers and an aircraft carrier. The food has been fantastic and I've put down copious amounts of chicken tikka (barbecued, boneless chicken) and seekh kebab (mutton kebabs).

I had to search for ice today, as the guesthouse seemed hopeless on that issue - normally guesthouses have the lowdown on getting ice and are happy to do it free of charge. I walked to the market and started asking around, getting many strange looks (why does the gora want a block of ice?). Finally, just outside the fish market, I found it - a 500 pound block wrapped in multiple layers of burlap, just sitting there - I guess no one was likely to steal it. It took me quite some time to find someone to chop a piece off for me - 500 pounds of ice was more than my knee needed. Back to the guesthouse, flaunting the ice to the surprised staff, and into my room for 2 hours of knee-and-ankle-icing and HBO (thats TV, not some contrived acronym).

Now, out for a night stroll on the town, looking for a place to down a Kingfisher or two. Many bars in this area want a cover charge (are you kidding me? cover?) that costs more than my average guesthouse charge in India, so forget that nonsense. As you can tell I love Bombay and I may leave tomorrow, or not, we'll see. The next big target are the beaches of Goa, and it will be 3-4 days of silence from me as I ride down the Konkan Coast, where very few tourists venture, hence, no Internet likely to be found. I'm planning on lots of backroute shoreline riding, like I did in Southern Thailand, so progress is likely to be slow.