Tue 16 Dec Flight Home

Tue 16 Dec Flight Home
We leave Mumbai (BOM) at 0305 and arrive Frankfurt at 0720.  There we have a 3 1/2 hour layover, leaving at 1045 and arriving Atlanta at 1510.  Hopefully the layover will be sufficient for our backpacks to arrive in Atlanta with us. They are lighter now than when we left from the states on 10 Nov.  This is rather curious, since we have picked up lots of literature and a few souvenirs. Maybe we left some books in India, and packed more into the carry-on luggage. Or maybe we are carrying or wearing our heaviest clothing.
Lots of time before our flight leaves, so we find the most comfortable seats in the airport, and try to get a little shuteye.
Mumbai is +5:30 GMT and Frankfurt is +1.  That makes the elapsed flight time 8:45.  We get two meals. Carol springs for the vegetarian choice, which Lufthansa prepares surprisingly well.  (Or maybe no surprise. Lufthansa advertises heavily on Indian television and print media. The main ad features a grandson on his first airplane trip, who tells his grandfather,  "It's just like being in India!")
There is some free space on the plane. Mike finds a comfortable bulkhead aisle seat and grabs about 5 hours sleep.  Carol gets to watch a couple of movies.
3 1/2 hours is way too much time for a layover. Or perhaps not. Somehow, Carol and Mike get separated and she heads off to the wrong flight to Atlanta (Delta instead of United), departing from different terminal. Each terminal has its own security check. Two spectacularly inefficient examinations later, we are reunited.
Finally it is time to board.  Atlanta time is -5 GMT, so we face an elapsed flight time of 10:25.  Not a whole lot of sleeping, but a few winks here and there for both of us. Carol continues to be served Indian veg eats (!) ahead of all the passengers.
We land, get admitted to the US (Yea!), find our backpacks (Yea!!), leave the arrival terminal, and are forced to take an airport bus from the international side to the domestic side for ground transportation.  (Since we have cleared security, we can't take the train which runs the spine of the airport.  Stupid planning, it seems to us.)
On to the MARTA train, catch our bus, and then walk the last km (yes, .6 mi) home.  We are back to the house about 1830, after dark. It is 5 am India time. The whole trip took 31 hours from our Thane hotel to home. 
Mike weighs himself and discovers that he has lost 22 pounds - maybe one should become a vegetarian (or be absent for Thanksgiving).
It is good to be home, even though the relentless Christmas buying season hits us head on. After all, Chanukah starts tonight!  Time to unpack the Chanukah candles we bought in Thane.

Mon 15 Dec Thane Mumbai

Mon 15 Dec Thane Mumbai
We're in no great rush this clear and (relatively) cool day. This morning the kitchen had already rolled out a wider range of choices by the time we were ready to eat. Breakfast - for Carol appam and sambhar with watermelon, and milk tea.  For Mike another omelet.
We packed and checked out of our room, leaving our bags in storage.
Truth to tell, we were finally cured of tourism. Souvenirs had been bought, sights had been seen. There really was no practical way we were going to get to the top of the hill forming Sanjay Gandhi Park - so close, yet so far.  So we set out to amble around town, aimlessly at that. 
We found the market we had walked through the night before when we puzzled out our way from the end of the local bus line back to the hotel.  We were getting oriented to Thane - another couple of days and we would have figured out how to get around this large town. But could we take a train from our hotel (east) to the airport (west) when the time came to depart?
Finally, we decided to try to get to Malabar Hill to see some of the Back Bay (western) side of Mumbai and also some of the Parsi sites, including the famous Tower of Silence on Malabar Hill.
Our route would involve a rickshaw to the Thane train station, then a train to Ghatkopar, about 12 km in. 
We were starting to get the hang of getting aboard crowded Mumbai trains by now.  At Ghatkopar, we walked to the sparkling new east-west subway line. The introductory fare was 15 R each (25 c).  Security personnel were plentiful.  We ascended the escalator and rode the subway (partially an elevated line) along with thousands of other Mumbai folks who seemed to be on an adventure, trying out the new ride. This link would serve as the linchpin for the airport route.
Off at Andheri station.  Here there is a transfer to the Western train line.
The transfer involved descending to street level. Could we have negotiated all these ups-and-downs (not to mention security checks) in the dark of night, loaded with our backpacks. No way!
On the way we passed a snack and juice stand and bought a couple of delicious cane juices.  Yum.  Off inside the railway station to buy our two tickets, and we were on a train inbound to Grant Road station, about three stations north of Churchgate, the southern end of the line.
Out into the neighborhood - a very upscale area. We walked through an area of well-kept parks, bistros, and people as spiffy as their highrise homes. Cow-free. 
Always directing our path uphill, we cross a busy street, and there is Malabar Hill.  So green, so unlike the rest of Mumbai. Chattering birds, a few chattering monkeys. We walk up and up a street that ascends the hill. You can see Chowpatty Beach and the Arabian Sea below. Toward the top, we reach a guard station. After chatting up the guard, we realize that we might get a glimpse of the tower but we certainly were not going to be allowed inside, not without proof of being Parsi. We offer our passports and mention that we had visited Iran. No dice.
Anyway, we had used up a good bit of the afternoon to get our thrill on Malabar Hill, and it was time to get back to Thane.  We walked into a neighborhood so spiffy that only cars and taxis go in.  We were looking for a bus to go across to the central Thane train line.  But it slowly became clear that buses were not going anywhere in this neighborhood.  So rather than get really lost, we walked back to Grant Road, and took our transportation in the reverse direction. 
It took about 1 1/2 hours, but we were back at the Thane railway station.  It was close to 1900, and we were hungry (we'd skipped lunch), so we walked into a hopping restaurant/bar right by the station.  We were sent upstairs to the empty family section, instead of being with all the guys on the main floor.
We ordered soup, a main dish and salad, and two bottles of water. Nothing special, but much appreciated.
When we were through we found the bus back to the hotel.  This time we got off at the correct stop.  We walked the neighborhood and stopped at another cane juice vendor for our last vacation cane juice.
Back to the hotel, where the manager allowed Carol the use of a hotel room to clean up and change clothes. Since we were stalling our final departure, she was tempted to bribe the young man who opened the room to allow her to shower.
At 2200 the taxi we had ordered through the hotel arrived on time.  Thirty minutes and 500 R later (not bad for both time and cost!) we were at the airport.
All we needed to enter BOM (Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport) were paper airplane tickets.  Mike had packed the receipts somewhere, so we were stuck in limbo for 20-30 minutes at the entrance to the airport.  Finally, a fellow at the Lufthansa desk came out, borrowed our passports, went inside to the computers and printed out paper tickets, and we were IN THE AIRPORT.  It was 2300, and we were to leave in "only" 4 hours.  Bye bye, Mumbai.