Made it to Mumbai

Hey everyone. It's 5:40PM and Marcelo and I are comfortably settled in the Orchid Hotel for the night. It was very weird coming back here because this was where we stayed on our very first night in India. Unlike last time, Marcelo and I both have equally crummy rooms. I'm just kidding, Sonia, the rooms are fine. I bought a 24-hour Internet package, so I'm all set.

I was up pretty late last night blogging and trying to pack. I didn't accomplish much except to drag everything out of the closet and throw it on the other twin bed. I woke up at about 7:30 and started the arduous task of sorting through everything and engineering a strategy to get it all in. By 9:30, I had at least folded all my clothes and corraled everything into groups (clothes, toiletries, pashminas, etc.). We went for breakfast and said some goodbyes to David Gomes, the Executive Chef, and the guy who always greets us so enthusiastically at breakfast (I'm ashamed to say I didn't get his name). David offered to pack up some fruit for us to take for the drive to Mumbai, which he delivered to us just as we were checking out.

I was back in my room by 10 and the room was an absolute mess. I remember saying to Marcelo that I really only bought cloth and I gave away the AudienceView t-shirts, so my suitcase should actually be lighter than it was on the way over. That is so not the case. I had to open the expandable section all the way and it is so full that if you stand it up on carpet, it falls over like R2-D2. I can sort of lift it, but it is definitely nowhere near the 50lbs it was on the way here. We've both gained weight.

Marcelo called at about 11:30 to make sure I was on the right track. By that time, the suitcase was closed and I did a very princessy thing of calling down to have someone bring my luggage to the lobby. I don't think I could have fit in the elevator with all my bags. On our way down, I took a picture of the phone in the hallway that has been driving me crazy. Marcelo said something about it on our comments card. We're so passive aggressive.

Checking out was a complete nightmare. There were 4 people there serving us, but we had to tell 3 of them separately that we were checking out. All three of them noted our room numbers on the same pad of paper each time. Someone had already come into our rooms to check our mini bars before we headed to the lobby, but one of the desk clerks kept calling to get more people to do the same thing. We stayed for something like 25 nights and they are worried about losing the cost of a bag of chips? Usually, they ask you if you took anything and they believe you if you say no. I actually put stuff in my mini bar (cans of pop) so they have a surplus. Very annoying. I imagine that people check out all the time? It was like training day. It took forever. The thing about the Pride Hotel is that their intentions are all good, but their execution sucks. If you are going to Pune on business, fight tooth and nail to get into Le Meridien. Again Santosh, we were fine. I'm just cranky.

Pradeep picked us up in a gi-normous SUV, which was good because my suitcase was the size of a small refrigerator. Marcelo has two suitcases now because he bought a small one to go to Goa. We had to drive to the travel agent's office to pick up printouts of our e-tickets for the flight tomorrow morning to Jaipur. The travel agent was very sweet. I think this is going to be a great trip. After that, we went to a Citibank to get some more cash and then we were off to Mumbai.

I took a Gravol, which hit me right away because my stomach was a little empty. I slept for pretty much the whole way. When I woke up, we were already in Mumbai. When we were waiting at the travel agent's in Pune, it was 12:40PM. We got to Mumbai by something crazy like 2:20. Pradeep is the greatest. We were at the hotel and checked in before 4pm. This is so much better than flying. Before Pradeep left, he let me take his picture, so you can all see him. We looked up on the Internet what a nice tip would be, so I hope that I gave him enough. We miss him already.

We were starving, so we had some sandwiches at the hotel cafe. It was strange. You could choose two of chicken, tuna, egg, or something else that I can't remember. I asked for chicken and egg and I thought I'd get some chicken salad sandwiches and some egg salad ones. It turned out to be a chicken salad and fried egg sandwich. It was good though. I'm a sucker for mayonnaise.

Well, we have to check out tomorrow morning at 3:45AM (yikes). I'm planning on going to bed at like 8PM at the latest. I'm exhausted, so it shouldn't be too hard to sleep. Our flight leaves at 5:25AM and we land in Jaipur at 7, so we'll have a full day to see everything. I'm so excited.

Well, I hope I can get Internet access at the hotel tomorrow night. I'm sure I will have so much to tell. By this time tomorrow, I will have ridden an elephant! I didn't take a whole lot of pictures today, but if you'd like to see the few I did take, click here. Goodnight everyone.