Day 2: In Delhi & MumbaiIn the morning I ordered breakfast – an omelet wrapped around a slice of bread, a cheese sandwich, and coffee, which was brought promptly to my room. The breakfast was better than I expected – filling and free as part of the room package which was complimentary as long as the order was 150 Rupees worth of menu items or less. After eating I packed everything up and made it to the lobby before my 12 o’clock checkout time. I saw a man in the lobby brought in on a stretcher from Rockland Qutab's ambulance and placed in a room on the first floor. Judging from the accent of the man's wife I'd guess he was from Kenya originally. I had planned to take the train from the railway station to Mumbai, but I was told that the train would not be running and that I would be better off taking a plane. For 11,500 INR they booked me a 2:30 flight to Mumbai and included taxi service. I went to the ATM machine so I could pay in cash but my bank limit only allowed me to take out 10,000 INR during the day. Fortunately I was allowed to pay with my credit card.
The manager of Hotel Indira pulled up in his own car and drove me to the airport. On the way he asked me questions about what I thought of their service and what I thought about the real estate market back in the USA. He had a friend who was going to sell him her place in Flordia, which he was interested in getting, but after looking at the monthly maintenance costs he figured it wasn't worth it for something that was just going to be used as a vacation home. Arriving at the airport, he took out my bag and gave it to a paid porter that cost 150 INR to help me with check in. A guy at a touch screen took my booking information and gave me an aisle seat I requested and I was pointed to the check in counter. The lady behind the desk was quite nice looking and friendly. My bag was filled with so much stuff that I was 12 kg over the allowance, so I had to go to a separate counter and pay 3,000 INR to get my boarding pass. The security checkpoint was annoying because I had to wait in one line to put my carryon bag on the security belt and then wait in another line to get frisked by security. Once I got through that I had to go downstairs and wait in another line that was behind the outside area where airplanes were parked. From there I had to take a bus packed full of people to the IndiGo Airlines plane. Funny enough, there was an airline called SpiceJet. Were they stereotyping themselves? To get on the plane there were two large ramps, one for the front door and one for the back door. I climbed the front ramp and saw that the inside of the plane was pretty nice. The flight itself wasn’t bad. The effects of the cries from two infants were minimized by the flight attendants being so hot. They were probably the best looking women I’ve seen in India so far.
When I got to the airport I realized that I had not taken down the address of the hotel I planned to stay in so after I collected my bag from the baggage carousel I went to the Starbucks right outside the airport (and btw the Starbucks was the coolest one I’ve ever seen) for the wifi. I then realized that because I didn’t have a sim card yet, I wouldn’t receive the text message for the wifi password. Not only that, but the scratch card the employee gave me for free wifi didn’t work as an alternative. Fortunately I knew the address to Dr Parihar’s clinic, so I gave that to the prepaid taxi service and was driven the 6 miles to its front. The traffic was really insane and I began to think that maybe LA traffic wasn’t that bad. I’d really hate to learn to drive in Mumbai. After arrival in front of the clinic I told the driver that I didn’t actually need to go there now and was looking for a hotel nearby, so he took me the brief distance to The Fern Residency.
Check in was simple, which just required a passport, and for 13,000 INR I booked two nights in an executive suite just to experience what the nice hotels had to offer in Mumbai. I went back to the taxi to get my bag and gave the driver a 1,000 INR tip for being so helpful and then followed the guy from the front desk to my room on the fifth floor. I have to say I did not expect the hotel room to look as nice as it did. It contained a king size bed, large HD cable tv, two bedlamps, a desk, coffee table, comfy chair, large closet with a safe, and a bathroom with a nice shower. Once I got changed I walked outside a bit down different streets just to get a feel for the surrounding areas. The abundance of trees and humid climate really made me feel like I was walking in a city built inside a jungle. I went back inside my suite and ordered tawa mutton, baked cheesecake with berry compote, and fresh lime soda from the room service menu. Room service here was also prompt and I dug in to a meal that looked really tasty. The tawa mutton was pretty damn spicy for me even though I asked for it to be as mild as possible, though I suppose a local wouldn’t even sense the spice considering how spicy the food can get here. The cheesecake was not the best I had but still decent. I don’t think I’ll ever order lime soda again though. It was way too salty for a drink. After I was done I put one of my “Married…With Children” DVDs (I brought the whole season with me) in my laptop for entertainment. I called room service to take my plates from dinner but they took so long that I fell asleep before that, so when I woke up in the morning my plates were still there.
Day 3: Appointment with Dr PariharWoke up and took a hot shower, then went down to the lobby for breakfast. It was a decent buffet, with most things being bread and vegetable based. The only meat product they had were chicken sausages, but at least I was able to get fried eggs cooked for me by the chef. They also had good coffee, which is a must have for my mornings.
I asked the hotel receptionist where I could get my photos taken and a sim card. He gave me the directions of “go that way and you’ll find it”, pointing to the left. I went in the direction he told me, walking under a huge overpass and encountering flocks of crows, and a cow and goat kept in place with leashes. When I found the phone shop I was told that not only did I need my passport and a photo, but I also needed a visitors card from the hotel. The hotel hadn’t given me one so I left and got my photos taken ten shops away. I received 9 passport sized photos for 50 INR, a great deal, and walked back to the hotel. Considering my checkout would be tomorrow, I figured I’d just get my visitors card from the new hotel I decide to stay in.
My appointment with Dr Parihar was scheduled for June 13th at 4:00pm and although I e-mailed him to see if I could move it to today I never received a reply. I decided to call his clinic, but the lady who picked up just said ‘I can’t hear you, sir’ and hung up the phone. I decided to just show up at his clinic and ask if I could see him then. I didn’t quite remember where his clinic was and walked through streets in the area where I thought I remembered seeing his clinic. I asked several different taxis if they could take me to his address, but they all told me something in the local language in drove off. I could only assume they were saying “I can’t understand you man”. Back at the hotel I asked the front desk if they had any taxi service and they said they had packages for taxi service that I could purchase. When I showed the address they said that it’s way too close for taxi service and that I should just walk, but when I asked where exactly they said “oh it’s close, it’s over there somewhere”. So I walked back out again and stood in front of a busy main street packed with cars, wondering how the hell I was supposed to cross without getting killed. I was finally able to cross after many minutes by inserting myself in a group of people and crossing when they did – we still almost got hit. I was able to find Mangal Anand Hospital easily after I crossed that main street as I recognized some of the shops from when the taxi driver drove past them. After taking some pictures of the outside of the clinic I walked in and was directed to the second floor.
I left Dr Parihar's clinic with a good impression of him, and I wasn't put off by the look of it considering it didn't look to be in lesser shape than any of the other buildings here. Once I got back to the hotel I just lounged in my room and ordered room service. This time I ordered a chicken tikka submarine, pavlova (New Zealond Meringue baked dessert topped with whipped cream and cuts of green apple), and a drink called Black Cat, which is crushed black current, lime juice, salt and 7UP. Yet again the room service didn’t come up to take my plate after I called them, even though they told me to do so.
Photos of Days Two and Three
