Day three was another repeat from last year as Lizzie, Jon, Ulie and I went to Elephanta Island to see the ancient caves and temples dedicate to Shiva as well as the insane and slightly possessed monkeys. Mumbai is truly one of the most exotic places you can travel to. It’s dusty, humid, hot, dirty, smelly and just extraordinary; fish, garbage and sewage are common smells throughout the city, but there are also the spices and flowers that seem to cut through the previous mentioned. It’s the only city I can think of where you can look down a sketchy alley – sewage scattered on the ground, beggars and poverty evident at ever turn – and still see the women walking around wearing the most beautiful, colourful and vibrant saris, looking impressive no matter their class. India would be a great place to take an extended vacation, it’s inexpensive and has unlimited cultural wealth.
Dubai is certainly interesting. Ronan, Jon and I took the Hop-On Hop-Off Big Bus Tour, which lasted both days in all. It's really just a huge city. What's amazing is the mass amount of construction happening all at once; they go 24 hours a day in two twelve-hour shifts just to make deadlines. Everything is the biggest and best, or being reconstructed to become the biggest and best. Honestly, who needs an entire indoor ski slope in a mall!? It's a fun city, nevertheless, full of little treasures and a nice mix of very modern and traditional architecture. I do recomend visiting some day - every year it will just become more and more different.
