Fizzing with anticipation we couldn’t wait to hit the cobbles and explore vibrant, sexy Mumbai. It’s edgy, grubby, and easily takes the crown as India’s king of bling with it also being the beating heart of Bollywood. 

But if crows (and ravens) are a symbol of all that’s dark from the Brothers Grimm, here they all are circling and cawing outside the huge bi-fold window of our little cabin-in-the-woods (Colaba – hip, cool and very street) adding more than a touch of drama, and a sense of the mysterious and gothic, to our experience of the city so far. We’re not quite sure what’s going to happen next – the suspense is killing us!

And I think this is mainly down to the fact that after a bit of exploring last night (admittedly after slurping way too many Botanist-and-tonics in one the coolest gin traps ever, and having been up since 3am that morning) we’d been accosted by more begging and navigated our way through more crooked hoodwinking in the space of an hour than we had throughout all our time in Rajasthan’s main cities (and remote hideaways) during the two-and-a-bit-weeks prior.

But we’ve found a safe haven in the place we’re staying which is in a cute little leafy lane just off one of the main drags, really close to where all the action is (in fact a lot of the action is happening directly below our second storey window, and we’ve spent plenty of time already just perched on the sill sipping on thick black coffee sweetened with lots of sugar, street-gazing). It’s bohemian and full of artists (last night there was a jazz session in the lobby) and it’s got a dirty kind of appeal about it. I love it!

But now that we’re in the depths of despair in our mourning for Rajasthan, and knowing that we’re closing in on the epilogue to our Indian adventure, we’re side-stepping our grief with a mission to find out whether Mumbai does actually have a heart. I think there’s going to be lots more gin involved, and of course, the best tonic – plenty of shopping for trinkets and people-watching too.

Stay posted – this one promises to be a page-turner!