Slummin' in Mumbai

After deciding to change our route so we could see the wonders of Southern India, we caught our train from Varanasi and arrived in Mumbai 26 hours later. We had an Indian family look after us on the train, feeding us all their snacks, fruit, and even buying us chai!...their little kid was a little brat though...After shaking our hands and saying hello to us he then turned into this annoying little sh*t hitting everyone and pinching Sarah’s arm...until his mum gave him a proper backhand around his chops!...one of those slaps where they sound awesome as she caught him just right!
Although she would then go and give him a cuddle, he’d then hit her and she’d smack him again....it went on the whole 26 hours...the kid - Manoo wasn’t understanding the difference between right and wrong...Just to top that, his dad would hit him in the face and he’d laugh!

We arrived in Mumbai the following day at 12.30pm...hardly slept as another guy was snoring all night...SO loud! It turned out the Guesthouse we planned on staying in wasn’t there anymore so we got a room just round the corner which was a box....we could hardly move in it.
When we checked in the guy offered us a chance to be in a Bollywood film as Extras and we would get paid, free food and chai! 25 foreigners were needed as the film was based on San Francisco.
We later decided we would do it for a laugh, so 8.30am the next morning, a guy comes to pick us all up and we get sat in this tent!..after meeting everyone they one by one bought a costume in for each person to wear...girls first...Sarah’s was a nice frilly number with see-through bits, however the bonus was the jewellery was built in..with a necklace attached to the top!...genius
Dom thought he had got off lightly when he just had to wear a shirt and jeans...Until he got called out and given a waiter’s costume...bow tie, waistcoat, trousers, shirt and these horrible shoes!
It all seemed very budget until they then brought in all the equipment and 2 of Bollywood’s biggest stars were in it!...the Actress Briyancia Chopra (former miss world) and the actor Zayed Khan!
As they recorded it we got told what they wanted us to do...Dom to walk on and put a plate of food on the table, and take another tables order and then walk off....Sarah to sit on the sofa opposite the actors pretending to talk to some others...after about 200000 takes of each shot we were done!

All us extras went to Leopold’s bar to celebrate with a tower of beer...a beer well earned!
Apparently the film is to be aired in America in August!
The next day we arranged with two Canadian girls (also Extras) to go to Elephanta Island to see the 3 headed Shiva carving in some caves.
We had been warned about the monkeys but they were mad...The girls had some oranges and the monkeys just growled at them until a local guy was saying “give them your orange!!”...so that hit us, the Monkeys rule this island and what they say goes! Another cave was weird as it was full of donkeys...some guy said if we go into the cave with all the donkeys then it was good luck! So....we did it!
Although one donkey wasn’t having too much luck, he seemed to be stuck on a ledge and couldn’t get down...after Sarah telling me to help it, I decided maybe he wants to be there and we left.

With our train tickets all booked for Goa tomorrow night, we went into the central area of Mumbai....it was insane!! Absolute chaos!...we lasted about half an hour until it was starting to craze us, but we still haven’t found the slums....(further up in North Mumbai)
Tomorrow we plan to travel around that area and see how the kids roll in their shanty houses and rubbish tips...should be good....

P.S - 1 more night and we’ll be laying on the beaches of Goa J