Mumbai

Early morning Saturday my train arrived punctual at Mumbai CST. The train that I would have like to take and that should have arrived two hours later was 4 hours late as I learned from the Swiss guys. So I could be quite happy.

I climbed up four floors to a little guest house near the Gateway of India (which was not easy with the backpack and my knee) and woke up the staff, but I was compensated by having a nice view over the bay.

On Saturday, I did pretty much nothing than sleeping and watching TV. Just in the early afternoon I went to meet Sakshi at the domestic airport where she had a stopover on the way to Jaipur. On the way, I found out that they built a Sealink bridge out in the sea so that u can avoid the traffic of Mumbai at the cost of 50 Rs. Sakshi and me spent some hours talking about God(s) and the world in the Golden Chariot where I got my dish of the day: Chinese Wantan soup (non spicey).

For Sunday, I had already decided to visit Elephanta Island. So I made the one hour boat ride to 10 km away island, then took the tourist train and climbed all the stairs to the caves. After being to Ajanta and Ellora, the Elephanta caves were not very impressing.

One side of the island is covered by some oil, most probably from the ship that got wrecked here just one or two weeks ago.

In the afternoon, I met Sneha from the CC at Coffee Bean and a Tea Leaf and we warmed up some old stories and talked about the whole team and who is where and doing what now. Here I had some typical experience with my order: I went for a German baked cheese cake. After some time, they told me they don't have and I should go for the chocolate cheese cake. I did. 5 Min later, it was said, they don't have it, so I asked for a blueberry muffin. They promised they would have this. Just to tell some minutes later no. In the end I got different kind of cheese cake.

In the evening, I met Pinku on Marine Drive and we went to a Pizzeria just next to the Bar "Not just Jazz by the bay" (where I enjoyed some Jazz session with Inka about 2,5 years ago). He had pizza, I pasta and later we sat at Marine Drive talking before we both called it a night.

This morning before leaving Mumbai, I went to the Foreigner's Regional Registration Office (a place I know from 5 years back when I lost my passport and had to obtain an exit visa). Today, I just waited half an hour than they told me that there is no need to register (exactly the answer I wanted to hear).