and onto our final stop - Dubai

We left Mumbai early evening and arrived into Dubai at midnight.

Rob, an Irish business colleague and friend of Dads who lives in Dubai, came to pick us up - so nice of him. Bit scarlet that we kept him waiting over an hour - Mals luggage was literally the last one to appear on the conveyer belt. Why, oh Why does that always happen ? It's the same with traffic lights. You're in a hurry and they're always red. You've all the time in the world and you get there in no time.
Rant over.

Rob's black Land Rover impressed me. In fact, I was in jeep heaven. Remember, we were used to cars Indian style -i.e. bits n pieces thrown together that tended to look like a motorised clapped out bike with shorn seats in the back.

We were staying in Brian's appartment on The Palm and holy hit, we were like chunky kids in a sweet shop.
The appartment was LUSH. Massive. Spacious and once again, CLEAN! I was so happy, I did a little dance around the kitchen when Rob left. I knew we were gonna have fun in this town.

I really liked Dubai.

Yes it IS fake in so many ways. i.e. everything is man made and everyone seems to have the best of the best in houses, cars, clothes....but So WHAT? Each to their own!

The folks had generously left a restaurant voucher in the apartment as did two of our friends as wedding gifts. It meant we were sorted for meals out for 3 nights! We ate at Gordon Ramsays, the uberposh michellin star which was an experience to say the least! Our second night out we ate at a divine Steakhouse where we devoured the most tender steak known to man. After 4 whole weeks in India, our mouths literally couldnt believe all this tender, delicious food.....mmmmmm. The piece de Resistance came on our final day when we booked lunch at the Burj Al Arab. I must say, I was sceptical at first. 7 star blah blah. I stand corrected. We have never had a lunch like it.

We opted for the Asian Buffet Fusion Lunch and over 3 hours, we sat, we drank, we ate the freshest, most varied food of our Dubaian lives!! It was divine. Naturally we did what all normal people do when visiting such a spectacular building. We tried to sneak into all the places you couldnt go and have a nose! We found ourselves on the 18th floor in a lift that overlooked the ocean  - awesome! We were like 5 year olds going up and down, up and down, 5 or 6 times squealing with delight as we looked out at the stunning green sea. I'd highly recommend it!  Once you get over the pompousness of having to stop at the main gates of the Burj, give your name, security check your booking and wave you on, it's a fantastic experience! Do it once in your life. Brilliant.

We went to the nearby Mall of the Emirates a couple of times to do some Dubai shopping and at one stage tried our hand at skiing in the indoor ski slope - mental when you leave 29 degrees outside to go into minus 4! Great fun though and so nice to come out into the warmth again.

And so the rest of our days was spent relaxing by the pool. swimming, a little gyming (stunning gym on the grounds, couldnt say no) and eating gorgeous food. We LOVED it.

So this is it! We are finally coming home. How can I sum up the experience?

Once in a lifetime. thats for sure. No regrets,  thats also for sure. I saw everything I wanted to see, I did everything I wanted to do, ate some divine (and some, not so divine) food and had the best fun, craic, banter with people from all around the world. All of this with my best friend, my brand new hubbie Mal.

We are just so lucky to have done this adventure together and will have the memories that'll last a lifetime.

See you soon on this blog, I think I'll keep going and have an occasional chat/rant/tale here.

Over and out for now - calling all last passengers to London Heathrow.....

Sue xxx and Mal x

Mumbai

Hello peeps!

I have been meaning to 'finish' off our travel tales for oooooh about 4 weeks now. But as you can imagine, the excitment of home comforts, familiar faces, the craic, a full fridge and carpet under our bronzed toes simply took over.

So I'm sitting down today to write a little before I lest forget.

I will also be continuing on my blog as I've a few things I'd like to get off my chest - that sounds a little aggressive, on the contrary, I have a few observations about people and life that jumped out at me on our trip. More to follow on that.

Now where was I? Ah yes, we left Goa to travel up to Mumbai to celebrate the New Year...

What Can I say about Mumbai? Well, we kinda liked it.

For starters, it wasnt Delhi!

Secondly, we had both read 'Shantaram', this amazing book about life in Bombay (or Mumbai as its now called). It was such a fantastic read, full of vibrant detail about this city and we were only dying to see it for ourselves.

We arrived into Mumbai airport and off we went to find ourselves a cab.
Picture Dublin/Cork/Shannon airport and the taxi system there i.e. you walk out, queue up, give yer man your destination and off you go. Mumbai, not so.

We walked out to a chaotic mass of 100's of locals all shouting, waving their arms like mentlers from an assylum, all beckoning us over to them. I looked over at the hubbie unsure of what to make of it all - he shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said 'come on lets give it a go!'. Bravely, we walked over to the crowd and I caught one locals eye. Not believing his luck that HE had been chosen, he jumped forward and ever so enthusiastically grabbed our bags and started walking to his 'taxi'. I use the word 'taxi' in a generous fashion.
I'm surprised the contraption could even start.

We both cracked up, hopped in and told yer man our destination. Holy moly, you'd swear we had said 'givvus your left arm mister;. The look of disgust over his left shoulder at us!

Apparently in comparitive terms, we were doing a 'swords trip from Dublin airport' i.e. less than 5 miles from the Airport. Jees, get over it gunter and get a move on!

Our disgrunted driver took off and began weaving through the traffic. Indian traffic is bananas - the bigger the city, the mentler the traffic. Mumbai was one of those cities. Nobody cares if the light is red. Everyone just pushes through - think the M50 at rush hour and 15 different exits. Cars, trucks, rickshaws all traveling in their OWN direction, hand constantly on the horn and cutting across everyone and everything that moved. Mal and I having been in this country over 4 weeks at this stage, had begun to get accustomed to the madness, or to phrase it in another way - we werent scared shitless anymore!

1 hour (no joke), and 2 quid taxi fare later we arrived at our Hotel. I did the usual 'smile at reception desk, mention we were on our honeymoon and asked for an upgrade'. Hurray, we got one! A grand size room, considering we were in Mumbai (about 3 star hotel) and lo and behold, a spotless one at that. WINNER.
I didnt care if we were in a room the size of a wardrobe, so long as it was clean. I'm too old for that...

And so we spent 3 days in Mumbai. How can I describe it?

Mumbai is enormous in size but there IS something that makes you feel ' yeah, i kinda like this place'.
Its got all the madness of India but not as intimidtaing as Delhi - it has the crowds, the dirt (wouldnt dare to go out wearing flip flops), the holes on the streets (watch your step or you could be in Mumbai general with a broken ankle) and the masses of food stalls selling spicy unidentifiable street food by the local 8 year olds.

That afternoon, we took a taxi to South Mumbai, an area called Colaba. I'm not joking, the taxi journey took 2 hours. Cost about 15 quid. Had a dead leg at the end of it.

Colaba is gritty and has got an almost a silent rhythm to it. You can walk around for hours and hours watching and listening. It's like nowhere else in India.

The uber luxurious Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is in Colaba, as is the Gateway of India. 
We visited both and were blown away (not literally)

Due to the Mumbai attacks in 2008, it was very clear for all to see the level of security around the city - this was around New Years Eve afterall and we had no problem walking through a metal detector into the Palace Hotel - a first going through one into a Hotel but hey, there's a first for eveything!

We tried to blend in at the Palace Hotel but looked so ridiculasly out of place, it was comical.
For starters, my penneys tank top didnt really resemble a Hermes item on sale at the in-house store for 3 grand. Guests sitting in the foyer looked like they were gazillionaires and flashy ones at that. Think of really posh clothes, posh luggage, posh aftershave....Need I go on? Then think of us, pikies with 50 quid in our pocket, our worn clothes from all the travelling but with content smiles on our faces!

We sat down in the restaurant and tried to order come coffee. 'Your hotel room number madam' came the reply from the uberposh Waiter. Mischeiveously for a split second,  I thought about it. Will I or wont I.....i didnt in the end! Figured there probably wasnt a room 1014 (battle of clontarf) and we'd be turfed out. Instead we did the walk of shame ourselves, out the door through the metal detectors and out onto the street for a cup of street Chai instead (5p).

We strolled down the street and came across Leopolds cafe, another popular sport for backpackers and tourists - it features heavily in the book 'Shantaram'. What fasciated me were the bullet holes clearly on view from the horrendous attacks back in 2008.  The story goes that the cafe was packed on afternoon when suddenly 4 men in balaclavas and guns came in and started firing shots. Over 8 people were killed including a number of innocent tourists and waiters along with many injured.  Since these attacks, there is 24/7 security on all their doors and bags are checked on entering the cafe.  I felt a little vulnerable as I sat in Leopolds drinking my beer given all that had happened one innocent day two years ago but in a kind of perverse way, I felt a bit of an adventurer too.

The following day, we set out to visit Dahlwari Slum, the largest slum in India and home of the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Its not possible to walk into the slum yourselves, you have to go with a Charity local Tour company. We made some calls and signed up for a Slum Tour and off we went.

Dalhwari is incredible. It is absolutely gi-normous - over 1.5 million people live in this slum alone.
How can I sum up the sights and sounds that I saw? The people within the Slum are so happy, especially the children. What a shame that photographs are forbidden. I met so many beautiful, happy and smiling children running around, playing with their friends and all wanted to shake my hand and touch the 'white' person.

The men are pure grafters in the Slum. They are incredibly innovative and our tour guide told us that over the last 30 years, the slum folk have worked up a 25 million rupee Recycling empire. Absoloutely nothing goes to waste and everyone has a very specific job within the recycling areas. Everything from paper to bottle tops to oil cannisters to old televisions enter the slums in trucks. The items are then either cleaned, melted down, re-modeled and shaped and then packed off to companies who buy these products to use. There about about 10 parts to each recycling process from start to finish with approx. 70% of the men from the slum working in these recycling workshops. It was just so humbling to watch them at work, sweating in the 70 degree furnace heat, banging on the hardware,  re-modeling the 10,000 items they do each day and occasionally looking up from their work at us, the passing tourists, giving us a toothless grin.

It goes without saying the poverty in Dahlwari is enormous and the dirt in the slum is at another level. I couldnt get used to seeing large rats the size of a mans fist running around over our feet and into the endless holes on the ground. It distressed me to see that over 6 people would live in a house the size of a single tiny bedroom in a western house. Children ran around shoeless, holding their younger siblings as they played on the mounds of rubbish. What absolutely amazed me about it all though, was the fact that everyone was smiling. Everyone seemed happy, content and being part of this buzzing close community. Apparently people who have 'done well' and could easily live elsewhere often return to the slum to live. They simply dont want to leave. it was an incredible experience and I'm glad, despite all the poverty, to have seen it with my own eyes.

And so, New Years Eve arrived and Mal and I, having done some local research - i.e. where to go and what do do- found a hotel nearby offering an all inclusive dinner, drinks and dancing for 20 quid each - winner!

We dressed up in our 1 dress (me) and 1 shirt (him) and off we went. It was brilliant.  We sampled little bits of food from over 8 buffets including a Sushi bar, a Salad bar, Indian delicasies (I took it easy there), an Italian counter, a Carvery whilst being topped up by beers and wine throughout.

The 'old Sue and Mal' would have just lept in and horsed into the food without thinking and would have been too stuffed to move. I like to think that after 4 months of eating food from all over the world that it wasnt such a rushed affair this time. We took our time, we nibbled on food and rather smugly werent too full at the end of it! Off we went for a boogie in the disco next door. Ah lads, the musica in Mumbai.....

Music is MASSIVE in Mumbai. Think Jai Hooooooo Music. Indians love to dance and they're great movers!  Mumbai is home of the Bollywood movie and with over 10,000 movies made each year (true), its no wonder everyone gets into it.

Turned out we were the only 'white' people in the building and the locals were loving us. We hooked up with a gang from Jet Airways - Mal was loving his new female air hostess friends (gorge) and I loved my new gay best friend, an air steward called Mohammed or Mo for short as I called him. We put our hands up in air, put our hands up in the air....Indian style and danced in the new year. Brilliant.

As we packed our bags and headed towards the Airport, our time in India had come to an end.
What a Trip. What a country.

Would I go back? No.

Did I enjoy it? Some parts yes, some parts no. Overall, I'm really glad to have experienced it. You cant really explain it other than to go and witness the craziness for yourself.

I have oh so Yes, ticked that box.

Next Stop and our very very Last One ..............DUBAI!!!