I was there for one month - mid Dec 99 to mid Jan 00
Amazing!!
Mumbai (Bombay) - once you are there for even a couple of days you'll be able to get the lay of the land and figure your way around between the train station and the area where most hostelers / travelers stay ... can't remember the name of that area of town off the top of my head - by the water, by the Gateway.
tidbit: There is an internet place across the street from the train station. Upstairs - look up, look around, there's a sign.
train station can be crazy - give yourself lots of time and be patient and go upstairs, that's where travellers need to go to get their tix.
thali - i ordered it almost everyday while i was there. mmmmmm yummy!! good everywhere and most often its' all you can eat.
goa - i went there for two weeks ... stayed on a beach in a little piece of paradise called Palolem. HIGHLY recommend staying there!!! in a hut onna beach right by a warm beautiful ocean - canNOT be beat oh my gawd i wanna go back! You are close enough to get to the party part of goa should you wish to go there, including the Anjuna market etc., but far enough away that it's a gloriously quietish beach still with ample restaurants, enough travellers, and a little market. I truly truly loved it there. There's the main beach and then there's another beach just to the ... um ... right i.e. if you're standing on the Palolem beach looking at the ocean the next beach to your right is the one I'm talking about ... fewer huts = fewer tourists and one of the best restaurants in the vicinity.
If you go to Palolem - watch out for the "pig toilet" - don't say I didn't warn ya. haha
drink milk coffee
and kingfisher and
enjoy all the tasty food you can try!!
Went to Hampi (verrrrry cool, ancient religoius temples with intricate carvings, v. peaceful, lots of travelers both Indian and foreign, french bakery with yummy chocolate croissants haha, great marketplace, definitely recommend though it's one of the more 'usual' traveller destinations say the "i-need-to-do-things-the-hard-way" type travellers), Bangalore ('most westernized' city in India they say ... cool mix of the old and the new), Mysore (awesome little market based city, my fave next to Palolem), Ooty in the mountains (kinda like India's versoin of Niagara Falls in that this is where honeymooners go, also where the coffe and the tea are grown, very cool), and Mangalore (give it a miss I say, but it was a stop for us on the way back to Mumbai)