We are in Mumbai, and it couldn’t have gone more smoothly!

I usually stress out about traveling. All the millions of details and timelines and unknowns get my mind going, and I can’t shut it up. But this time, I made a conscious effort to not stress. And so I didn’t think about our bikes or the various things that could get damaged or lost. I didn’t worry about missing our connection. And I didn’t worry about there being some unknown problem with our visa. Those things crossed my mind, but I quickly switched gears and thought about something else.

So I enjoyed the flight and was completely unsurprised when everything went perfectly. Even better than planned, in fact.

We twiddled our thumbs in the room in Athens for a while before deciding that it would be better to twiddle our thumbs at the airport, where at least we could get check-in and security over with and relax with a book and a beer.

We asked our hotel to call a van taxi for us, and they looked concerned and said you have to book those far in advance. But he made a quick call, and there was one free in 20 minutes! A bit pricey at 55€ but the other option was two taxis for 70€.

The driver was great and even took our photo!

We still had an hour before we could check in, so I wandered around and changed our Euros to Rupees (one less thing to worry about in India at 4am when we arrived). And I found a pharmacy, and low and behold, they had two boxes of Malarone! Now we each have a 24 day supply, which should be plenty for when we go through areas where malaria is prevalent (just the jungle areas).

The check in lady asked where our return ticket was, as the check-in system was telling her we needed proof of onward travel to go to India. I told her we have a 10-year visa with 180 days allowed per trip, and we couldn’t possibly know the exact date we’d be leaving yet, and she seemed fine with that, and then asked if we’d like to be upgraded to a exit row. Sure!

We found a place in Istanbul for one final su börek, which we’d both been craving since leaving Turkey, and then boarded our connection to Mumbai.

Not an exit row this time, but no one else next to us, so we stretched out in 3 seats. I was able to sleep for a few hours, but Steve was awake all night.

Everything at the Mumbai airport went super smoothly! We expected much more trouble. The line at immigration was only about 10 minutes, and he didn’t ask us any questions except the address of our hotel. Our bike boxes were ready 10 minutes after we arrived and looked mostly undamaged, and Mumbai has free trolley carts so it was easy to move them. Just outside customs was the “pre-paid taxi” desk, where we asked for a large van taxi and they said no problem. 1700 Rupees ($26) to the Fort area. A porter appeared and took our cart and showed us how to get to the taxi line; we tipped him 100R after. Traffic was really light, probably because of the Diwali holiday. It’s going to take a while to get used to all the honking though!

We showed up at our hotel around 7am and sheepishly asked if a room might be available. Without missing a beat, the super friendly staff showed us to a room bigger than what we’d reserved (but without windows) and said we could use it for two days, maybe longer, and then go back to our reserved room (which wasn’t ready until the afternoon).

A perfect excuse to catch up on sleep and shower, so we napped until noon.

We had lunch at a nearby Keralan restaurant (Taste of Kerala) that was listed in Lonely Planet and had our first veg thali, probably the first of many! The other Indians were eating with their hands, but our waiter somehow knew we’d like silverware and brought us some. It was really tasty! I’m going to love the food here, though it’s taking a while to get used to the spice…

We asked our hotelier about a SIM card and he said don’t go to the Vodafone shop, follow me, I know a guy! Okay, sounds sketchy, but I’d read that the cell phone shops are notoriously inefficient and unhelpful and more expensive, so we follewed him to a small street stall, and the vendor said he could get us a 3 month SIM from Airtel with 1GB 4G data per day for 1200R. That’s like $6/mo for what would cost you $100/mon in the US.

The catch is the paperwork. We had to have two passport photos each, copies of our passport, Indian visa, letter from the hotel where we are staying, proof of our home address, and then we had to sign a form in triplicate in 3 places. One of the signatures had to be written halfway over our passport photo. Phew! We brought a handful of passport photos with us, knowing we’d need them for visas, so we offered just one, not wanting to waste them, and he said he could make do with that.

15 minutes later (and now there was a queue of 4 others waiting for his services), we had our SIM card. But it’s not over. Activation is normally 24 hours, but since it’s a holiday, it won’t activate until Monday night at 8pm. At that time, we have to call a number and confirm our passport number, address, and a bunch of other info. But we have to pay now. At least we know where he works.

We did some of the touristy things and walked around a bit and then came back to nap and put the bikes together.

And that’s where we are at. It’s a really interesting city! Not as busy or dirty as I thought, though it’s not clean by US or European standards, but it’s a holiday, so let’s see how things change in a few days. Some areas are jam packed with people, but we walked by the water on Marine Drive and it was quite peaceful. Lots of vendors along the street selling everything on the ground and tables, which I love because I have a few hard to find things I’d like to buy. If you ask one vendor, they’ll gladly run around to their friends to help you look.