Last ever post: Bye bye Bombay, the last two days of India
May 23, 2010
Today I went to meet Indrakshi and Karen in Colaba, after lying in bed for half of the day! We started at Mondy’s to grab some food, I had a veggie burger and chips, I wanted to eat something familiar, as I’ve eaten so much exotic food here, it’s starting to get old!
We moved on to Colaba Causeway and I picked up some clothes for my Mum, there’s this amazing shop, which will be one of my first ports of call WHEN I come back here. WHEN. Not if. I can’t get over how much I’m going to miss it here and will definitely be back.
After wandering Colaba for a while Indrakshi, Karen and I got a cab. As we were driving down the motorway at breakneck speed the door came flying open and Indrakshi nearly fell out onto the road to her death! Shocking, and yet hilarious. Definitely one of the funniest things of the entire trip!
Me and Karen went to Babulnath to get my elephant but to my disappointment, the store was closed! The girls were not able to come with me the next day so I decided I’d trek it alone to get my basket in the morning.
I got back to the guest house to some packing and skyping. After a while I came into the lounge to use the internet. To my surprise my editor came in! I didn’t know that she lived upstairs from me! We sat talking for ages which was really cool, seeing as I had to leave in quite a rush on Friday to get out with the girls.
I was so beat I went straight to bed after skyping for a few hours and didn’t get up today until really late either. It’s so hot at the moment you can barely be bothered to do anything! Skandita and I hung out in the cool and eventually I went out for a walk round Babulnath while she did some work. I walked up to the shop to get my elephant and the store was closed again! Needless to say, I was heartbroken beyond belief. I’m sorry to tell you all but the wicker elephant will not be flying Air India or living in Falmouth with me. And I’m pretty upset about it. I failed the wicker elephant!
On the brighter side, I can barely lift the cases I just packed so it probably saved me money! I’m sitting in the guest house now waiting for my dinner, reminiscing about the amazing time I’ve had here. I don’t think it’s even sunk in that I won’t be waking up in India tomorrow. I absolutely love it here, I can’t say it enough and the girls have all told me I can stay with them if I come back. Which I will, I just know it. I have got so used to this place, to its strange rhythm, the chaos, commotion, traffic. The roads of the U.K are going to sound so quiet. I did an experiment the other day; I counted how many seconds there were between each car horn here, the most I got, and this was once, on a bridge with hardly any traffic; 21 seconds. My average was 4.5. Yes, I’ve spent a lot of time in cabs.
So this is me signing off, thanks to everyone who’s checked in and been a regular reader, it’s been fun documenting my time here for you all, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it! So, because it’s the last night, and I’m sad about it, here’s my list of why I’ll miss Mumbai, and the reasons you should come and see it for yourself.
The warm heavy air, the strong incense/spice smell everywhere you go, the colourful markets and street stalls, the uncertainty of whether when you take a cab ride, you’re going to come out of it alive, chinese Indian food, szechuan sticks, Bollywood movies on TV at all hours, late night back to back episodes of Castle, vada, sambar, imly chutney, barfi, how everything is cooked with coconut, how you literally can’t spend your money, the Elephanta caves and most of all the amazing people, without who my experience would have been a completely different one, I love you all!
