Ni Dieu Ni Maitre

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Arrived in the severely polluted metropolis at around 2AM. Why my return left at 11:40 at night I have no idea. Hundreds of passengers from numerous flights queued up for hours to pass through customs and finally get their visa stamped. Left the airport at 4:30 AM, got a not very nice hotel and slept.

From the hotel window.

I will say that the room was comfortable and that I ate quite well and slept well. The hotel staff was also quite helpful. But problems abounded. First was a prearranged video call to my bank, late in the evening my time, and lasting two and a half hours of video fades and my inability to type and send an email on my new phone, but everything worked out in the end.

Mumbai sidewalk. They are often blocked completely, causing everyone to walk in the horn honking traffic, which seems endless. Crossing the street means dodging between the hurtling vehicles as well.

Spending hours attempting to buy an airline ticket to Goa, the stumbling block was my new phone number that was deemed incorrect. Several tuk-tuk rides across the metropolis to an Airtel phone facility determined that the correct phone sequence would be the airlines ‘+91′ the country code for India, followed by my ’91 91’ then the actual cell number. Or in some instances only one additional 91 guessed at by trial and error.

Walking in the traffic.

And the final stumbling block? No airline would accept a Visa card as payment! Nor would any bus line. Days are passing here with no action and a lot of frustration. Fortunately, I had gotten a lot of rupees at the airport on arrival, and finally with the help of the hotel staff, we contacted a travel agent who would accept the cash and get the ticket for me. Naturally enough, another late night flight, again arriving in the dark. One good thing in Mumbai. Lunch at a nice restaurant every day and several times enjoying Kaju Masala (kaju=cashews).