Mumbai

I love cities. I have always loved cities and as far as I can tell I will always love cities. We got an overnight bus to Mumbai and when I woke up and looked out of the window and saw buildings and people I got very excited.

I have now also acted in Bollywood. It's something you read about in the Lonely Planet, but you never really expect a random person to ask you to be an extra for a Bollywood film. However, our hotel manager (who was always lovely and very helpful) asked us as we were heading out to dinner if we would like to be in a film and so the next evening we spent the whole night filming!

We got our hair and make-up done and got given costumes. It's the first time that any effort has been put into my appearance in about 6 months and I almost wanted to apologise for the state of my hair. But it was quite nice not to look like a complete tramp for 12 hours. Plus I got high heels which also means I didn't feel short :) It's always the small things in life.

We then essentially walked around an office for more than 6 hours. The film is called Anjaana (or Anjaani) and is about the stock market crashing. So we were all dressed up as business men and women and marched around when and where the slightly stressed out lady told us to. It was quite fun as I think we all got quite melodramatic with the acting and must have looked ridiculous but, to be honest, no-one ever pays attention to the extras anyway. It was a long night though, and we got fed twice (if you're back-packing this is a big deal) with really good food (I'm not sure Indians can do bad Indian food) and we got paid! Absolutely pittance, but that's not the point. We also got back at 5 in the morning (they have to film overnight so that the office block isn't being used) and so were absolutley knackered.

We still got up and did the walking tour in the afternoon. Mumbai is a great city and the walking tour only gives you the surface impression. I think the most memorable building (it may only have been a week and a half, but a lot happens in a week and a half) was the High Court. It reminded me a little of Hogwarts, which is probably degrading it by comparing it to an imaginary castle in a children's book, but it gives the idea of how big it was. It had beautiful carvings and must be an amazing place to work, as it is still very much in use. Apparently there is a carving of a monkey playing with the scales of justice but, unfortunately, I couldn't spot it. For anyone who's read Shantaram we later ate at Leopold's. Apparently what looks like a bullet hole in the wall is a real bullet hole. This isn't verified though...

The last thing that we saw in Mumbai was the Prince of Wales Museum. This has another name but I can't remember it as it is very long and I left my journal in the room at the guest house. This is another very impressive museum and for the (completely over-inflated) foreign tourist price you get a free audio tour. I listened to this for roughly 10 minutes before wandering about as I chose and switching on the audio when I happened to see a number. The museum has a number of exhibits, including Nepal-Tibetan (which was quite nostaglic), animals, European paintings, Chinese snuff boxes and porcelain. It was a very extensive range and a very impressive one. My favourite was one of poems that accompanied the paintings. I am going to miss the art here!