I think this will be my final entry unless something amazing or terrible happens. I was up at 4am yesterday to get my taxi to the airport. The airport was 100km away from Palolem and took around 2 hours to get to, despite it being early morning and not much traffic. I had my bag searched at the airport again. I don't really know what they are looking for. I think they might be doing it as payback for all the "randomly selected" brown people that get searched at Australian airports.
The flight was only about 40 minutes in the air. By car it is 14 hours. The lady next to me was very disappointed that she couldn't use my seat for her bag. She played a song on her phone the entire trip. It wasn't very loud, but it was the same song the entire way. It seems very common that people just play stuff out loud on their phones, or talk to people on speaker. Not just in India, everywhere.
Flying into Mumbai I could see the slums on the ground. I thought they'd be a couple of big areas in the outskirts, but they are basically rammed in wherever their is space. They look a little bit aesthetically pleasing from the air. The way all these individual huts are slotted together without a single gap.
The other thing I noticed was the smog. Worse than China I think. Mum made a good point, that it is a bit ridiculous putting all the effort into green initiatives in Australia when India and China are pumping out pollution on a scale that is repulsive. But seeing the pollution here, I'd argue that it should be something to be avoided at all costs, not just because of climate change, but because it is a shit environment to live in.
I left the airport and started walking to the hotel, which was 950 metres away. Traffic was wild. The footpath was closed in one section, and the taxis had crammed right up against the kerb, leaving nowhere to walk, so I walked right down the middle of the 2 lanes.
A man in a tuk tuk asked where I was going. I could see the hotel about 500m away so I pointed. He gave me directions, then offered to take me for 100 rupees. I jumped in and so began the wildest tuk tuk ride I've ever been on! Traffic was horrendous, but he was cutting through it like a knife through butter. There was honestly millimetres in some of the manoeuvres he was pulling up. A truck was absolutely, definitely going to crush us and he found a gap and got out of there. We skidded to a stop mm from the cars in front, ripped a u turn in front of the cars coming the other way and jumped over the speed bump in the hotel car park. The whole time he was chatting about that big swim in the river festival that is on at the moment (400 million people!). When we arrived I paid him double.
The hotel was nice enough. I realise now that 5 stars mean that everything is really expensive. They charged me the equivalent of $9 for a coffee, so none of them got a tip for the rest of my stay, despite their incessant lingering. I went out to the pool for a bit, which was actually cold, then ordered room service, which was also very expensive. I fell into a peaceful slumber for about 20 minutes then the room service bloke woke me to get his tray back. I tried to go back to sleep but my sleep apnea went into overdrive. As soon as I'd fall asleep I'd stop breathing and jerk awake. It took me ages to get to sleep, then I woke up a bit after midnight so I watched the soccer. After that, I was going to get some sleep but someone from work started messaging me so I ended up having a shower and getting ready.
I walked to the airport. I went past some slums and some cute little puppies got up and tried to attack me. The some bigger dogs came out but weren't too aggressive. I saw an enormous rat go into the concrete. When I was nearly at the airport three tuk tuks tried to pick me up. The first left when I said I was right, the second wanted 20 rupees and the third guy followed me for ages, saying he'd take me for free. He said he wanted to help me, and that he trusts me. Who knows where he was going to take me. I was at the airport by this stage.
I'm now waiting for my flight. It took a while to check in, the get through security as they searched my bag again, then immigration, plus the endless boarding pass checks when you go anywhere in the airport. They ask where I'm going and if I say Sydney they tell me Singapore and if I say Singapore they tell me Sydney.
Overall I quite like India. The people have generally been very nice and helpful. To have taxi drivers repeatedly give me direction to get somewhere on foot and not really pester me is unusual. In the time I've been writing this, I went to find a toilet I didn't have to squat over. Not because I'm adverse to a squat (I am, but it isn't a deal breaker) but because I never did figure out how to use that hose without spraying shit everywhere. The toilet attendent saw me waiting for the western toilet and took me around and showed me the "family" toilet, which is actually the baby change room, that was free. He went in and cleaned it all for me. I didn't ask him to, he just did it to be helpful. The things that irritate me here are the things that irritate me everywhere, and seem to be multiplied in airports and on planes. They also have the efficiency and organisational skills of small children.
I'm surprised that nothing has gone wrong, touch wood. I have an hour and a half until my flight leaves. I change in Singapore and arrive in Sydney at 8:25am. I then have to wait all day for a flight to Port Macquarie. Then I'm D. U. N done! I could use a holiday actually.
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