We had heard Bandra mentioned a few times, so decided to drive further North and have a look around. It was quite a drive and we got to go over this massive bridge, which Ash loved - he has been way more into bridges since working for Inside Out timelapsing their construction! So we were tootling down this bride, then we get to the end of it and a policeman was stood there telling us to pull over. You always wonder why a policeman wants you to stop, and how much its going to cost. He asked for Ash's license, and then asked us why we didn't stop when security at the beginning of the bridge told us to. We explained that we didn't see anyone, and no-one told us not to go on the bridge. He was basically telling us that rickshaws were't allowed on the bridge and that we should have seen signs... to be fair we hadn't seen another rickshaw in days so we did think something might be up! After he called his boss over and they let us go, we got into Bandra and whaddya know?! Rickshaws!
It was late afternoon by time we got to Bandra so we just had a little drive round and went to get some dinner. I had found a place called Candies on TripAdvisor; it was really cheap and had a good menu. We spent an hour or so there and then got back in the rickshaw, making sure to avoid the bridge this time!
Beautiful stained glass windows and hanging lanterns at Candies
Driving back to Colaba, we saw the most smashed up taxi rickshaw! It was lob-sided on its axel, and the back was so caved in that it looked as though any passengers would have to be folded over in the backseat.
How was this even on the roads?!
As we got closer to take photos, they slowed down and we could see inside the rickshaw... it was three white guys! They had done the same as us and bought a rickshaw, although there's wasn't private, it was a taxi?! We both stopped at the lights and had a laugh about our rickshaws, and also noted down one of the guy's names so that we could find him on Facebook and meet up. As the lights turned green we went our seperate ways, but agreed to see each other the next day. And sure enough, we did! But this time they were rickshaw-less. Apparently the police had been to their hostel and had towed their rickshaw away and impounded it, saying that they are illegal to have in Mumbai below Bandra! Now the stopping on the bridge made sense! It's crazy though, we hadn't been stopped anywhere else... I wonder if it was because of their yellow taxi reg plate... Anyway, it was bad news for them. The police kept hounding everyone at the hostel to tell them who the owners were, but noone would say. The guys (Ben, Connor & Josua) had only bought the thing off an Indian guy in a pub a week ago, but had crashed and rolled it so bad that they weren't fussd about claiming ownership of it and having to pay a fine.
It was really good to meet these guys, and a surprise that Ben actually lived in Nottingham too! In fact it turns out they both used to work at the same pub, and we reckon Ash got Ben's job when he left... madness! They were a really nice group, and definitely gave us a heads up about our rickshaw being in Mumbai. Luckily, our hotel had parking so it wasn't on the street... I reckon it would have been a goner otherwise!