Eating the paan from Banares, opens up the locks on your brain

This is the Gateway to India (not India Gate, I was corrected- that's in Delhi). It would perhaps be more appropriate to call it the Gateway to Elephanta Island, since this is where the touts gather to sell their boat tickets.
We have also been offered saffron, hashish, anklets, embroidery, tablas, huge balloons that'd take days to blow up, anything you could possibly want or not.
Mumbai is definitely India's most modern city and everywhere the old and crumbling contrasts with the grand and new.
We had Masala Dosas for lunch yesterday to be eaten using the fingers, lots of fun.
While in the taxi, a song we know well, 'Khaike Paan Banaras Wala' came on the radio, much to our delight. Driving through Mumbai, windows down and singing along to Bollywood music is a fine thing to do.
We walked along Chowpatty beach in the hot sun. There are hardly any cows in Mumbai, so no Cowpattys here!
We have continued to have vivid and often disturbing dreams. It is hardly surprising that dreams are more intense here, since in terms of strangeness, waking life often takes their place.
Today or tomorrow we will book our train south to Cochin, where the pace of life is apparently slower. To be on the move again in India is an exciting thought.
Last night we got drunk by mistake, so a quiet day today.
Mumbai is most beautiful in the early morning, the streets are empty and the air feels fresh. We are told that this is the coldest time of year, and in summer temperatures can reach 40+
Colaba is the district that we are staying in, it is very leafy and affluent. Our guest house is run by the Salvation Army, and serves a humble breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is one of the cheapest places to stay, but still costs double what you'd pay anywhere else in India.
Out now, for an early dinner? Oooh good idea Bethan!