Monday, January 17, 2005

Mumbai - 2nd January 2005 (Day 1)

Well, I’ve arrived OK at Bentley’s Hotel in Mumbai. The bike & its box weighed in at 28.8kg at Melb Airport but thankfully they didn’t charge excess baggage, which is apparently $30 per kilo. It’s hard to think of what I might have left behind, as most of my ‘excess’ items e.g. laptop, books, etc., were in my carry-on luggage anyway.

Surprised to meet an old school chum, Dr Rob Moodie on the flight – he was off to Mumbai for 3 days for some medical conference/workshop. I went upstairs to Business Class & chatted with him for some while. It certainly was flash compared to economy class – heaps of room. A long and tedious drive from the airport – scheduled arrival was at 4.15pm, but we arrived at least an hour after this and got to Bentley’s at about 7.30pm. I was very glad I opted to be collected from the airport rather than to try and cycle to where I was staying – the traffic was hell – apparently some festival was in progress.

Actually, it’s a Bentley’s offshoot – Bentley’s guesthouse - I’m at, and I seem to be the only other tourist here. While there are other tourists in town, and in the restaurants I’ve been in, I’ve spoken to no one yet – hard to not feel a bit lonely & a little shell-shocked with Mumbai, even though I’ve been to India before. Mind you, it’s not that much noisier than the busy road I live on in Melbourne.

No comments: