Sunday 23^rd of October 2005

Place: Mumbai to Murud, India
Climate: sunny and hot, about 30 ⁰C, in the morning quite chilly though
Health: Both Henk and Anit in good condition
Thought of the day: Murud, what is in Murud? (Henk); They say south of India is different than north, more relaxed and people are more friendly; let’s find it out (Anita)

Since we arrived early in Mumbai, we decided to first go to the Holiday Inn hotel which we had not booked for today, but for the 2 last nights in India. There we left our bag packs and only traveled with the smaller ones to Murud. Before that we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel.

After breakfast our trip to Murud went quite smooth. We took a taxi from the hotel to the Gate of India (the port of Mumbai).
 

There a ferry took us to the other side, south of Mumbai, which is one hour travel by this boat. From there a shuttle bus brings you to the next town called Aligat. From there you can take a bus, but we took an auto rickshaw to Murud which cost 300 rupees (6 Euro), which is quite reasonable considering it is 55 km drive.

After we arrived in Murud, we checked out the place and decided to stay at the Bamboo Nest. They offer simple huts close to the beach, reasonable clean, but with no shower. Only cold bucket water, which by the way also works fine (if you help each other a little bit ). 

The nice thing about this place is, that in front of you there are about 40 palm trees and after that is the beach and the Indian Ocean. The beach was wide, quite empty but the sand was black. This gives a bit depressing feeling and rather discourages you from taking a swim. Nevertheless, we were happy to leave dirty and noisy Mumbai behind and explore new, much less touristic Murud instead.

The rest of the day we explored the small village of Murud, which has its own character, probably because of beautiful location among palm trees at the Indian Ocean.

Monday 24^th of October 2005

Place: Mumbai, India
Climate: sunny and hot, about 30 ⁰C, in the morning quite chilly though
Health: Both Henk and Anit in good condition
Thought of the day: Pfffff, a few more days in India. Just looking forward to our next destination, Dubai (Henk); It’s very romantic here, we in a small hut hidden in the palm trees and the calming noise of the mighty Indian Ocean…(Anita)

The question is: what shall we eat for breakfast? There was no shop nor restaurant in the neighborhood so we decided to go to the village shop to get some food. On the way we bought coconuts and simply drank the coco milk through a straw. Very tasty!  

We made some shopping and decided to consume it on the beach.

The main attraction of Murud is a 12^th century fortress build in the sea not far away from the cost. To get there we took an auto rickshaw (as always after hard negotiations). 4 kilometers south of Murud there is a small place from where you can take a boat to the fortress. We bought tickets and together with 20 Indians went to explore this monument. 

After 20 minutes we arrived at the 12m high walls of the old fortress, quite good preserved from outside. From inside it was a bit untidy and overgrown though. We had only 30 minutes to visit the fortress what is not enough considering the size of this fortress.

We enjoyed the place very much, checked all mysterious corners of this ruins and returned with the boat back to the coast.

On the way back to our Bamboo Nest, we made a walk through the village. It was quite interesting to see the life of the local people. Murud is a small place, where Hindu and Muslims religions mix together and the life has a slow pace. After all these noisy and pushy cities of north, we both found some peace here.    

Tuesday 25^th of October 2005

Place: Mumbai, India
Climate: sunny and hot, about 30 ⁰C
Health: Both Henk and Anit in good condition
Thought of the day: Pfffff, last day in India. Just looking forward to our next destination, Dubai (Henk); Same, happy to leave India tomorrow (Anita)

Basically today we didn’t really want to leave our hotel. There was one thing we wanted to visit in Mumbai and this was an old British aircraft carrier placed in the Mumbai Bay, at the Gate of India. This aircraft carrier was used in 3 wars with Pakistan and was now converted into museum. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the Gate of India, we found out that the ship was not there anymore… Ok, so what now? Back to the hotel? Before that Anit visited a public toilets and got shocked again. In the first toilet a woman asked for 10 rupees although there was a big board with “Toilet 2 rupees”. When I asked why she wanted 10, she was confused and didn’t want to look into my eyes anymore. I asked her why she was lying? Why she was dishonest? Than she walked away… So did I and made my way to another public toilet. OK, second try. When I entered the toilet I saw…no toilet. You just have to piss on the floor. There is a small hole (like in a shower). I wonder what if you want to use toilet paper and to do something more than pissing…This time however, I paid only 2 rupees, good. (Anit)

On the way back we stopped at a shopping mall to look around for some brand clothes. We thought they might be cheaper in India, but we quickly found out that the prices were the same as in Europe. We came back to hotel and to finished our interesting stay in India in a nice traditional way: we ordered the traditional Indian food called Thali. Very good, a must when visiting India.