Down Time in Bombay

The Western Ghatts. The blue dot is Kodaikanal.

The drive from Kodaikanal back to Coimbatore was spectacular. I'm glad that I decided against staying up late in order to sleep in the car. The first hour and a half was through the mountains, the Western Ghatts. In size and shape, they reminded me of the Appalachians, though the vegetation was different, and you don't find any monkeys in western North Carolina. We navigated switchback after switchback, many of the hairpin variety, and came very close on more than one occasion to being clipped by the lumering busses headed in the opposite direction. One major difference that the Ghatts have from the Appalachians is that there are no foothills. When the mountains end, they end, like a volcanic island plunging into the ocean, the Ghatts plunged into the surrounding plains, which you can see across for miles.

It was close to 10pm when I checked into the Taj Lands End. I was upgraded to the club floor. Fatalistically speaking, I'm sure I'm going to pay for these upgrades somewhere down the road. Right now, I'm not complaining. A nice complementary bottle of red wine was waiting for me in my room. I can't pass up free stuff, so I broke my alcohol-free streak and uncorked it. With nothing scheduled in the morning, I decided to venture out to Olive Bar & Kitchen, a place I'd heard of on previous visits and in Mumbai's Time Out magazine. Olive is about ten minutes by taxi north of the hotel, in a high-end neighborhood called Khar.

I immediately saw that Olive is where the pretty people of Mumbai hang out. Will Smith stopped in here on his visit (when I was sick). The Indians here all seemed to have money, style, and an education abroad. There was also a scattering of foreigners. It was very crowded, and very clique-ish. There seemed little hope of me breaking into any of the groups. I saw one solo fellow at the other end of the bar, a European. He was large and looked slightly dangerous. In other words, my kind of drinking buddy. I went over and started up a conversation. Turns out Neno (his full name is unpronounceable) is Croatian from Zagreb and an instructor for a recently started budget airline, Go Air. Usually he is accompanied out by some of the younger American pilots, and of course the stewardesses, but on this occasion they all have to fly tomorrow. Just my luck. Neno is also quite the Olive regular, so all drinks are taken care of. Of course, I stay 'til close.

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I slept in the next day - until 8:30. After breakfast I hit the hotel gym for about two hours. After that is was an hour in the sun by the pool. Cleaned up, I hit the lobby lounge with my laptop to work on email and talk to any students that our local agents might send by. However, checking my email, I see that no students will be coming - there is a transportation strike. They will try to make it to the fair this weekend. I spent the rest of the evening catching up on email, reading, and posting all those pictures to the previous entries (re-check them if you have not already). No going out, though I did finish the bottle of wine before bed.

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The Times Education Boutique was very busy, but not the unrestrained bedlam that I expected after my experience last year. This year a cover charge was instituted and that kept a lot of people away, even though it only equalled $1.20 US. Still, a draining event. Two days, ten hours each. Whew!! The highlite was finally meeting a Bollywood actress in person. As soon as she approached our booths, I knew she must be famous, by both her looks, and the whispering she caused among the agent's Indian employees. Her little brother was here to look at universities. I'd mention her name, but her little bother applied. Yeah, I dished out a lot of service. Maybe she'll come and help him move in this fall.

When day two was over I barely had time to eat and pack up before having to cab it to the international airport. I was taking the overnight to Zurich and launching straight into the next leg of my trip.