Onto Mumbai

The last big day of travel with a few worried faces as the upset stomachs were beginning to take their toll. We made it to the airport with minutes to spare, completely disrupted the check-in and somehow in a land where even the simplest task usually takes four times as long to achieve we made the flight.

Mumbai was hotter, nosier and a mass of people, although not quite the bedlam that many expected. The journey to the Cricket Club of India’s Braebourne Stadium was entertaining, but the ground itself, built in 1936-37 with the intention of being the Lord’s of India, was simply stunning.

While it is a functioning venue - it hosted the ICC Champions Trophy final in November – it is also very much a social hub for the great and the good of the city. It is also a throwback to a quite different era. The main pavilion is spacious and very art deco, but the sight as you emerge at the front onto the playing area is stunning. Whereas in England you would be greeted by acres of empty spaces and warning that anyone setting so much as a foot on the perfectly-manicured sods risked ritual disembowelment, at the Braebourne the outfield was alive. In front of the pavilion dozens of wicker chairs and tables are set out on the grass and waiters scuttle between tables serving tea and sandwiches. At the far end hoardes of children, immaculately attired and classically trained, play cricket, while families and powerwalkers circuit the perimeter with varying enthusiasm. A short journey on any Mumbai street makes it clear why those who value their lives and their lungs choose to walk at the Braebourne rather than anywhere else.

The check-in, however, was very Indian. To sort out ten rooms took us four hours and more paperwork than is needed to buy the average five-bedroom house. Martin managed to electrocute himself after giving Henry a lecture on using plugs, while everyone else had a quiet one with many relieved that there seemed to be an unlimited supply of loo rolls on tap. Rick Johnson, who spent weeks convincing everyone this was the place to stay, snuck off to his luxury apartment at the Oberoi.