2018 India – Mumbai
16th January 2018
When we planned our holiday neither of us wanted to spend a lot of time in big cities so we had hoped to go straight from Udaipur to Goa but as there were no direct flights we thought we might as well stop in Mumbai for a couple of nights. Sitting in the traffic for the one-hour journey to the centre of Mumbai we both regretted that decision and wished we had accepted the long wait at the airport and flown straight to Goa. However, when we arrived at the Residency Hotel Fort Hotel we had a very nice welcome and were given a free upgrade to a room in a part of the hotel that they had just built. The only drawback was that it was on the third floor with no lift but we didn’t care about that. The room was lovely and such a welcome after the last hotel so it immediately lifted our spirits. A lot of people say that a hotel room is just a place to sleep so there is no point in paying a lot for it but I disagree. When returning from a tour or long walk it is lovely to get back to a room which is clean and welcoming. We had an excellent dinner in the hotel which was about as far as we could walk we were so tired.
Nothing in India can be devoid of at least one weird thing and in that hotel, it was the room lighting. On the side of each bed was a bank of six light switches which included a master and each switch had a bright blue light so at night they looked like the Blackpool illuminations. We both had to put books in front of the switches while we slept but in the middle of the night, my book slipped and turned all the lights on. The combination of lights was endless and it took 20 minutes to work out how to turn them all off when we went to bed and another 20 minutes to turn them on again the next morning. Then there was a large bathroom mirror with a light at the top. Despite all the switches in the hotel room, not one of them turned off that light. I eventually discovered it was controlled by a motion detector. That is ok in the daytime but what about us oldies that have to get up two or three times a night for a pee? I had to buy an eye mask to put on when going to the toilet at night to avoid the bright light making me wide awake.
The next morning we went to the Crawford Market with the main purpose of buying a new suitcase and there seemed to be an endless choice of places to choose from. The first shop I went to didn’t have a big enough suitcase but the owner assured me that airlines wouldn’t accept a suitcase any bigger than the ones he stocked. That was a strange thing to say as I had used my big suitcase for the last five years without a problem. It seemed daft to buy a bag in India that was imported from Europe or the USA so I settled on a suitcase made in India which looked strong enough and felt great so hopefully it would last longer than my previous suitcases. One of the selling points was that the suitcase had a “double zip” for security which I took with a pinch of salt until he demonstrated how it worked. He took a suitcase with a standard zip and pushed a key into it. The zip opened easily giving easy access to the contents of the case.
Having decided on a suitcase, the problem was I only had Euros so needed to change them for rupees. It was a pain changing money in India because to do it officially it took half an hour while they went through all the forms, took a photocopy of my passport, checked my shoe size and confirmed what I had for breakfast. The shop owner said it was no problem and told us to follow his friend. We were led into the bustling indoor Crawford Market with tiny paths between stalls where there was barely enough room for two people to pass. He stopped at a tiny stall selling toys and the man behind it gave us the best exchange rate of all our time in India. While he was dealing with me there was a queue forming so it was obvious that the cheap toys on display were only a front for illegal currency exchange. As a bonus, I managed to get a free clockwork caterpillar thrown in with the deal.
That afternoon we took a long walk to the Gateway of India built by the British in 1924 for those settlers who missed the Marble Arch. It was where the British army passed through when returning India to its rightful owners, the rich Indians. We then had a walk around the very posh and expensive Taj Mahal Hotel and I can definitely say I preferred our hotel. It was very grand but freezing cold due to the air conditioning being set so high. There was a lovely open-air courtyard restaurant and coffee shop where we wanted to sit and have afternoon tea whatever the cost, but the bastards wouldn’t let us in. It was for residents only.
That night we were getting to the point that happened on every holiday where we were getting fed up with eating. We both loved curry but eating it nearly every day was getting a bit much and sometimes for breakfast too. We were both yearning for something not Indian so went to a restaurant that specialised in Sizzlers. I had been to places where sizzlers were served but not to one where that was all they served. I don’t know how they managed it but they were so hot I could hardly see Federika sitting opposite through the steam. 
Half an hour later when we had finished the meal the plate was still too hot to touch. Although we both had your basic chicken sizzlers with vegetables it had a unique taste and we both really enjoyed it. When we got back to our room we found all our clothes stank of sizzler so we had to seal them in a plastic bag ready for washing.
The next morning we were up bright and early for our drive to Mumbai airport. Driving out of town there were lots of areas that looked like slums but Federika pointed out that they were at least brick buildings and that as slums go they would be at the higher end of the market. Families were living in one-roomed buildings smaller than most of the hotel rooms we stayed at but every single one had a satellite dish on the side.
Bombay Airport was very impressive. Check-in and security were efficient and the shops were great but most striking was the long walk to the departure gate where the walls were filled with works of art. It was the kind of place they could have charged to visit if it wasn’t an airport.
2018 India
