One man in Mumbai

After we checked the train times yesterday Sam decided to catch the train to Udaipur this morning, so he left for Bangra station just after midday. I've booked a train for New Delhi leaving tomorrow night, I'm slightly anxious about whether I'll get on it or not as I'm on the wait list - in fact, after checking today, I'm still at wait list 18. Now what I think this means after reading up on it all, is the train is overbooked, so I might not get on it unless 18 people cancel their tickets before the day. I will get a partial refund. It seems a bit crap, as all the trains I checked for the next 4-5 days were waitlisted, not sure what to do if I don't get on it. Oh well, I've got lots of time so will have to wait and see what happens. I might just try and get on anyway, though the thought of a 23 hour journey with no seat/bed isn't too appealing...

Yesterday we visited the Haji Ali Mosque, at the end of a long causeway out into the Arabian Sea. It was quite an experience - the constant stream of people heading to and from the Mosque, the causeway lined with poor people (who are fed by the Mosque), the hundreds of little market stalls selling all sorts of crap, the goats (an entire family, including a tiny kid about the size of a kitten), and even a solitary sheep wandering aimlessly up and down the causeway. The Mosque itself was falling down a bit, but the sheer amount of people made it feel like it was a real local centre of... something. I would say religion, but there were lots of Hindu and western dressed people there too, and many of the people were just hanging out on the rocks or standing in the waves around the sides of the Mosque. Plenty of Muslims were there to pray, but it seemed as if a lot of people were just there to hang out. It was quite reassuring in a city where you read about there being lots of tension between Muslim and Hindu communities to see everyone mingling and generally looking quite happy. It was also rare to see everyone being fed:the people browsing the stores for kebabs or sweets, the poor people with their food from the Mosque, even the goats had some fresh greens to chew that someone had given them.

I spent today just wandering around Mumbai. Some of the architecture here is really incredible - the High Court building is pretty staggering, the scale of buildings here is just on another level to most other countries I've visited. Also managed to find a supermarket, so I now have my own toilet roll (my current place doesn't supply it) and some probiotic yoghurts and pills which were highly recommended by Ben, a guy we met in the Sports Bar a couple of nights ago, for staving off Delhi belly. So far my stomach's been coping reasonably well - about as well as can be expected when most food you eat is spicy ;)

Think I'm going to wait till I get to Delhi before planning the next leg of my journey, as I don't know if I'll get on the train tomorrow night or not... seeing as the waitlist hasn't decreased since yesterday, it's looking a bit unlikely. I'll check again tomorrow and figure out what to do.

Peas.