DAY ONE…
Sitting in Mumbai airport. It’s a kind of transitional space between two worlds; the world we’ve come from and the world we are going to. Here it is peaceful….. trolleys and people slide by, dreamlike. Everything happening in slow motion, and in another time zone. Its surreal. We came on a night flight. Face masks mandatory, but not HOW you wear them!…. over mouth but not nose, on the chin, even as a eye mask for sleeping, or, very original, au natural, still in the bag.
Our pink bags with our bikes in, arrived, eventually . Retrieved after quite a long wait, and causing quite a lot of intrigue at security, as usual. Tim is off getting some money and a SIM card. Soon it will be time to enter the world of India; the heat, the noise, the bustle, the life.
5.45pm
We have emerged from our ‘urban pod’… a futuristic Japanese sleeping arrangement which provided welcome rest and refreshment, at Mumbai Central Railway Station. A modern take on the First Class rest rooms of old.
Nothing has gone very smoothly so far. We can’t get our bank card to work. A major problem. And we had a big problem getting our bikes from Mumbai airport to the station. No bikes on roof racks and we couldn’t fit two bikes in the rather small cars. So we had to pay for two taxis. Our taxi drivers dropped us off in front of the station which was great, but they incurred a fine for doing so, which apparently we were meant to pay. We had no money, so we couldn’t.
7.15pm
Back in the railway restaurant for the second time today. Lunch, a welcome masala dosa. Soon it will be time to start lugging our massive luggage around again to get the night train to Dwarka.
