India Again Part 2

Day 3 means that I am half way there. Yay! I am already missing home. 

I got to wake up a little later and still hit the gym. I had tried to travel light and not to bring too many cables, only to realise that I had forgotten to charge my watch before the trip. If it had been the last Garmin Vivoactive Element, it would have died a long time back. Let's see if this Forerunner is as long battery lasting as it claimed. 

If you realised, I haven't posted any bfast picture bcos the hotel didn't upgrade me to give me complementary bfast this time. I don't eat much and think that it isn't worth the $$, even if it is Company $$. My day 2 bfast was the Zaky's favorite bun and coffee. By day 3, it was only coffee. It is OK, going home soon. 

I arrived later than usual at the office bcos I got stuck at the building entrance. I was asked to go to the building reception, to probably change some visitor pass, which took a long time and didnt happen. I was eventually rescued by a colleague. The trick seems to be to just look confident and walk and if somebody tries to stop you, just waved them away and continue to walk confidently ahead. 

Day 3 was super hot in Mumbai. A colleague told me that it was 42 degrees outside. I cannot tell bcos I didn't at all step out of the office during the day. Lunch was ordered in. I even downloaded the Zomato food delivery app to make sure that I am self sufficient. 

It was again a busy day such that I didn't even have time to do much other than back to back meetings. It was already 7ish when I decided that I would leave for the day. The heat hit me the moment I stepped out of the office. Oooo.. Mumbai heat. 

I think it was a wrong choice to leave the office at 7ish. Maybe people generally worked late in Mumbai and 7ish is the normal knockoff time; I wasn't able to get an uber. I got one and thus left the office, only to have it canceled on me and that happened like 3x. That wasn't the worse. I was texting a Singapore colleague on some work and he was so surprised that I was managing my own transport plus taking a lousy uber. He made it sound like I was in some grave danger. Lol. 

Adding on to the misery, the mosquitoe troop smelled blood and starting attacking me. I moved to the usual uber pickup point (aka some dark place by some roadside) and it became worse I could catch glimpse of the flying pests, feeling them land on me but couldn't really see them. I was slapping myself everywhere and sometimes felt fluid, probably my, the mosquitoe or the previous victim's blood. I moved to under the lights and could see the mosquitoes feasting on me. *piak, piak, piak... stomp, stomp, stomp..* I wasn't sure if my blood is sweeter or I have more exposed skin. Probably both. The locals didn't seem at all having problems with the mosquitoes. 

I was so glad to finally get into the uber, at least away from the blood suckers. The roads were more jammed than the previous evenings. 

This was dinner. Comfort food. 

Sleep gets better with each passing night. 

Hello to Day 4, my last day and night in Mumbai before flying back. Yay! I had an early morning call at 7.30am and took to the road much later bcos the call overran. Then I was busying packing up. I was too lazy the night before. Hoho. 

I was heading to the Mumbai office, which is nearer to the airport, so that I would have an easier time getting to the airport. To give you an idea of how lok kok are the uber cars. This is the hotel car. Big, comfortable and very clean looking. 

This was my uber.

Maybe it didn't look that bad on the exterior, other than a little on the smaller side. This is the interior. 

Look at the window winder. 

My kids have never even seen this. I was reminded of my father's old pickup, when he was into hard labor many years back. Yes, the uber is not for the soft hearted and definitely not for the fussies. 

The journey was strange. I saw the local train. 

It wasn't such a clear picture but there are no doors and I can see people standing at the openings. The rail track was crossing some water body and I wondered if there were people who fell. 

Then, the uber driver had to pump gas. 

The car made a loud, weird noise when the gas was pumped. Wah lau eh. Then the uber app prompted me and asked if I needed help bcos the app sensed that the car had been stationary for an extended period of time. Thank you for adding on to my feeling of being paranoid. 

I did make it safely to the office. The traffic was bad though and for some part, the heat in the car was overbearing. I felt like I was roasted alive. I had to take a call in the car and could feel my laptop and mobile phone heating up. Heng no explosion. 

I met a different group of colleagues at the Mumbai office and enjoyed different vibes. One of them was in Singapore recently and I treated her to you tiao, which she realised was so delicious. In return, I was offered Indian snacks. 

I could tolerate the milder ones. Some of them are very spicy or spice-cy, too flavorful for my tastebuds. 

The same colleague lives near to the airport and decided to drop me off. I made it with plenty of time. My dinner. 

The wait for the flight was painful. I was tired and there wasn't much to see at the airport. I ended up crushing candy for a long time at the gate to burn time. 

I think the flight was full. For a while, the seats beside me were empty. Fat hope. The passengers were the last to board. Never mind, I was very tired and fell asleep shortly, only to wake up bcos dinner was served. The menu wasn't appetising enough for me to want to eat. I stayed awake so that I can snitch Zaky's favorite bun. Then I went back to sleep. 

I actually asked for an extra one, telling the air stewardess that my son loves the bun. She said that she has to see if there are extras after the other guests had been served. 

I actually didn't expect her to remember but after dinner was served, she came back with this!

Oh yes! She gave me half a bag of buns!

Zaky can have many, many buns for the next few days. Hoho. 

The rest of the flight was uneventful. I drifted in and out of sleep. I slept bcos I was so tired. We landed fine and my mood was so easy. Immigration was easy, baggage collection was easy, the roads were easy. Hohoho. Welcome home! My watch is still alive!

Mummy Lim