4th day in Bombay, 26 Dec 2006

Since Mark and Clay were coming to Bombay for travelling, so I joined their journey. Early in the morning, we leaved our apartment at 630am because we would like to see the “Laughing Club”. It is a famous thing in India but I have no idea what is it about. We caught the slow trained therefore, it took us one hours to arrive Church Gate. By walking from Church Gate to Gateway of India, it already 830am when we arrived. Unfortunately, the Laughing Club had finish. It means that we woke up so early for nothing.

Gateway of India

But anyway, we were here. After having some traditional breakfast, we went to Elephanta Caves, known to the ancient Indians as Gharapuri (Fortress City). It super slow ferry took 1 hour to the island although it is not that far.

On the way to Elephanta Cave

We had to pay 300 ruppies for entry fee. The Caves is really amazing. Imagine a series of magnificent rock cut caves, dating from the 4th – 9th centuries AD are located here about 76 mtrs. Above the sea are accessible by a flight of steps.

After that, someone told us that the view top of the hill is amazing. So, we claimed up there. On the way, we saw few “short cut” sign. However, it doesn’t seems as a short cut. It was tiring. Finally we were there. The view is nice.

On the way we came down, we found the better way. I think this suppose to be a short cut. More unpredictably, the way we got out we realise that we can go into the cave without paying anything!!!!

Before leaving this Island, we had the best Mango Lassi (Indian yogurt drink) with 36 ruppies (RM3.60). Until now, I still miss it so much!


We took the local train to go back to Saga City. This is another awesome experience. Since we went back at 6pm, the “peak season” of the train, we successfully ran into the train. However, we went to the wrong cabin. It was too small for too many people. I did not need to hold anything because I knew I would not fall, it didn’t have enough place for you too fall down. Mark and Clay can’t really stand in here. So we decided to shift to another cabin in the next stop. That was much better.

Due to we sia insides of the train, which had some distance to the door, we could not get out from the train although we keep pushing. Therefore, we had to get out from another stop by making a lot of noise. Yeah! Finally we got out from it.

May be you would not like it. However, it was so much fun for me and I had the real India experience.

We walked from train station to intern’s house. I clearly remembered the way to back home. However, the two Australians said that the other way is nearer. So we use the way. Consequently, we totally lost. We walked into a slum. However, it was good to be lost because we found some nice food in this village. And it must be very cheap. So we decided to come back later.

One hour later, we back to this slum to get our dinner – slum food. We started in the shop near the enter. It looked delicious and it was really cheap. During the time we bought the food, suddenly I realized that there are many people around us. They came here not for buying the food but is because of us.

I guess the kids here had never had the chance to go out from this poor village. Therefore, they were so excited when they saw us. About 10 minutes later, there were about 20 kids around us. When we started talking with them, they are screaming and laughing. You can tell how happy are they. By helping by one of the kid who can speak good English, we abled to buy the food from the stall. We got a lot of delicious food. It just cost us less than one US dollar.

I am glad that we got loss. And have a nice experience.

After finishing the slum food, we had a small party in 15 floors.

I requested Vinicius teach me the “Brazil Italian Sweet” which I love it so much. It is really easy to make and it is so delicious. Although I am not able to learn how to make Indian food in India, I know how to make this sweet.

Then, Mark was playing guitar. He made a very nice song – Bombay Song.

This song will never be same… Bombay song…. Train…. Pollution… nice people… slum food… cool party… nice interns… crowded… smelly river…

At the same time, 15 floor interns were busy to wash their clothes because we were noticed that it does not have water supply in the following two days. I can’t imagine that we could take shower for the next two days under this weather. I was planning to buy the big tank of drinking water (70 Ruppies) to take shower.

It was a good ending for the day. The day was long but I felt very good.