Scam

Me, Luke and Marlene decide to head to Mumbai central. Looks easy enough on a map. 10km on the train, no problems. We leave the hostel and head to the train station. Walking down the side of the crazy main road. It's 30 degrees and seriously smoggy. Asking along the way locals tell us the station is "just there". Further and further. "it's just there". Eventually we find the station, and learn that the trains aren't running because of mechanical failure. We spend the next 30 minutes trying to find out what bus goes to town (it's the 84). We find the stop only to find hoards waiting. The bus comes and the hoard enters the bus, hanging off anything they can. Plan C is a tuk-tuk. After finally flagging one there is an argument between the driver and furious locals, wondering why he would take tourists over them. Pretty obvious. Now we're on the way. That is until the driver informs us that he's not allowed into the centre and his friend will take us from there in a taxi. He seemed to want us to pay him the whole amount and he would split it with his friend later. We declined, for fear of being ripped off when we get into Mumbai. He stops at the side of the road and a taxi is waiting there. From here on locals gathered around and two policemen appeared to sort out the confusion as to who was going to take these rich westerners. In the end the policeman with a metal pole ushered the tuk-tuk driver away and we boarded the taxi, agreeing on 300 rupees. This took another hour, with the driver being extremely grumpy. I'm not sure what exactly happened but they may not be friends anymore.

The trains were running on the journey back. It took 45 minutes and 8 rupees!