Fine
and sunny 25 to 32deg C (real feel 39)
Hard
to believe that we’re coming to the end of our tour already, it has certainly
gone quickly. Up before 0500h again, doing my normal routine. A nice walk along
the beach before the sun became burning hot was completed just before sitting
down to a simple but nice breakfast. Today there were three of us (Bob, Dogan
& I) and a pleasant younger German couple from Berlin.
Back
to the room to do the normal sorting and packing, made a little tricky by the
fact that our domestic flight this afternoon has a baggage allowance of 15kg
while the SA flight tomorrow is 40kg. Not that I’ve ever been close to that on
any of my travels, even with a bike in a box. I think my luggage weighs about
14kg, but not sure, so I should be okay. It was all fine, only 11kg.
It
wasn’t long before it was morning teatime, so Bob and I headed to our now
favourite coffee shop for a brew and bite to eat. We’ve noticed that coffee has
not taken off here like many other countries, the locals preferring to drink
chai or tea from their traditional style roadside shop. Also, that would cost
them the equivalent to $1 or less, compared to $5 for a coffee from a western
style coffee shop. A piece of cake cost us $5 each this morning.
As
we had to vacate our rooms before 1200h we walked back, had a shower, changed
and moved our luggage to the foyer. We started the waiting game for the trip
back home. Three hours here, three hours at the airport in Goa and then
overnight at an airport hotel in Mumbai before another three hours waiting for
the flight to Singapore. That’s what happens when you live down under!
The
taxi to the airport turned up on time and we made it to the airport in just
over an hour. Check in took a while but not too bad, and they had humans doing
the work, not a machine anywhere. The security check was thorough, and it
wasn’t long before we were sitting in the departure lounge eating a veg Thalis.
It was good too, funny how we haven’t got sick of eating curries.
Just
when we thought that things were going along nicely, Bob received a
notification on his phone that the flight had been delayed by 35 minutes. In
the end the flight was one hour late for departure and arrival in Mumbai so not
a problem because we didn’t have anything else to do anyway. Luggage collection
was a real ‘Indian experience’ with people pushing and shoving to get to the
bags. I got mine in no time, but Bob had to wait ages for his. In the meantime,
the scrum was pretty harrowing. We lived to tell the tale and set off to the
international transfer bus. I’m glad we changed the overnight hotel to an
airport one as the traffic was horrendous. At the International Terminal it
took us a while to find the hotel because it was underground. The Niranta Hotel
is on the landslide of terminal 2, where we fly out of tomorrow. One thing is
for sure we won’t get robbed tonight, the security to get into the hotel was as
tight as a drum. Lovely room too, you wouldn’t know that you were at an
airport, it’s dead quiet. The first of three legs down two to go.
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