The Phone

After breakfast we headed to the train station.  We purchased our tickets, got on the train and we were on our way to Thane on the fast train.  

Then panic set in!  Christine couldn't find her shiny, new, phone.  A quick call to our last accommodation and they confirmed they had it.  So, we got off the train, purchased another ticket and got on the next train going back. 


Unfortunately, we had now hit commuting time and the train was packed.  We stood jammed in amongst people for the whole journey back.  Getting on and off the train looked scary due to the volume of people, so we braced ourselves.  Luckily a helpful man told us where best to stand in order to get off the train at our stop.  

Having safely detrained, we collected the phone and went back to the station.  Luckily in India your ticket is valid for an hour so we could use the same ticket again, although we could have purchased another one as the fare each way was only 10p each!!  As we were now heading in the opposite direction, away from Mumbai, the train was not busy and we had a comfortable seat.

We arrived in Thane and saw a sign for ice-cream so we thought we would have a treat.  Unfortunately the machine was not working.  However we noticed the 'Mumbai Burger Combo' for the grand sum of 69p for a vegetable burger and a coke .... so we had one of those instead!


We decided to walk to the lake we had read a about where you could hire boats, imaging a lovely tranquil setting.  However, this lake was right by the side of the main dual carriageway, so not a pleasant place to sit. We continued on to the river with a view to walking along the riverside to our accommodation.  Unfortunately not only was there a huge wall along the bank, when we peered over it also seemed to be used as the local rubbish tip.   As we were still early for our accommodation we saw on our map a 'joggers park' so thought that might be a nice place to sit and shelter from the midday heat .... But it was closed!

On our last trip to southern India we had been impressed by how much it had been cleaned up compared to our visit many years ago. This area is not doing quite as well!

We sat in a bus stop as there wasn't many other places to sit! The local school children streamed past on their way home whilst we ate flap jacks and drank chai. Once refuelled we went to meet our hosts mum. We made our way toward several high rise buildings and eventually found the correct one - after asking several times!


We signed in at security and made our way to the 34th floor! The view from the balcony was spectacular! Mum took us on a garden tour, we ate toasted sandwiches and checked out the Olympic sized pool and recreation areas. We drank tea together and chatted until our friends returned from work.

We chatted some more over a magnificent feast of local food. We also took the car to buy special paan, coated in sweet chocolate. They were amazing, though slightly odd as we don't often eat chocolate leaves!


More talking saw midnight pass... And next it was time for bed.

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