Mumbai Memories

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Well, today is my last day in India, at least for this trip. I have a taxi lined-up to take me to the airport at 9:30 PM. Hopefully, this taxi trip will not have the excitement that the one had for my trip from Agra to the train station.

Today, I spent most of the day at the bazaars. I especially liked the Chor Bazaar (Thieves Market). I walked and walked and looked and looked. I even bought a few things. These items included a cheap bag so I can repack my all my “stuff” and divide its weight among two bags for the airline.

Actually, I was thinking today was working out just as I planned when I decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant, Chopsticks, recommended by my guidebook. It showed up relatively near the bazaar so I hailed a taxi to take me there. The taxi driver didn’t recognize the address so I showed him where it showed up on the map my guidebook provided. It was near Mumbai Central RR Station. So he took me to the railroad station. As we were nearing the station, I realized the guidebook also showed this restaurant at another location too! As I reread the address, it was evident that the address in the description didn’t correspond to either location on the map. So I got the driver to leave me off at the RR station and I tried to telephone the restaurant. But their phone number was busy all three times I tried.

Finally, I decided to take the train back into town and reconsider where I eat. On the train I realized that the address in the restaurant description was really close to the downtown station RR station. So upon getting downtown, I asked and discover it was only 3 blocks from the station. So I quickly walked over there - only to discover the restaurant (the one with the constantly busy phone number) was, in fact, closed! I couldn’t believe it! Oh well, I made do and had a paper dosa masala at a nearby Indian vegetarian restaurant. The dosa was huge as I expected and it was pretty good. But it’s not something I would get very often.

So now I’m all set to come back home. My memories of India will be numerous. I have had a good time here and have found lots of different things - both good and bad. But after five weeks, it will be nice to get back home. This is the mark of a good vacation: I was glad to get to India as I have been wanting to come here for a long time, I have had a good time while I was here with the expected adventures both good and bad and finally I am glad to be coming back home.

I don’t think I will suffer from reverse culture shock on my return.

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