Managed to arrive just in time to see Guruji – I knelt down and told him that it was my last day and thanked him for allowing me to come and for his teaching. He said “God Bless You” and blessed is exactly what I felt.
Surprisingly managed to get absorbed in my practice even though my departure was so imminent. Headed home with two hours to eat, pack and relax with a cup of tea before heading off to Mumbai in a taxi booked with Nicola. Almost as soon as I was through the door the phone rang and it was the taxi driver from KK travels confirming the pick up location – trouble was he didn’t have a word of English and I didn’t have a word of Marati. From previous experience I knew this was not a good scenario, so I rang KK travels who said they’d sort it.I got a call from another driver whose English was great and confirmed the pick up for 2pm.
I was not best pleased when at 1pm the door bell went and there was the original driver – I was completely unable to make myself understood that he was way too early and not who I was expecting. I rang KK to see if they could help and when I eventually got through they said ” No Mam, our drivers are not so much educated, no speak English”.
Mostly they are used to just taking people directly to the airport, so to avoid any confusion or difficulties with communication I had booked via email with the two addresses of the Yogashraya for the ropes and the hotel, complete with maps of their locations. As a further precaution I also saved route maps on my phone. Of course this did me no good whatsoever as the driver hadn’t been given the information and he couldn’t read my maps. In the end we rang the Yogashraya several times and got them to explain their location and we stopped at least twenty times to ask people for directions, it took FOREVER. Despite leaving at 2pm Nicola started to be worried about missing her 1am flight! Now for the second leg of the journey, but this was to the airport hotel, so that had to be straightforward right?
Mumbai is a BIG place, the traffic was terrible and the driver not the sharpest. Another 20 stops for directions and many sweaty hours later, we finally pulled up outside the Hotel Kohinoor Continental. Sweet air conditioned Heaven! It was so good to arrive: comfy beds, showers, kettle in room, bliss. I wished we had arrived earlier as they also have a nice outdoor swimming pool. I managed about 2 hours sleep before my 3.30am alarm to get to the airport. As the plane waited for take-off I was surprised to see how close the slums were to the runway – they came right the way to the fence not 200 yards away. My last view of India as the plane taxied down the runway at dawn, was of several slum dwellers pulling down their trousers and crouching on the bare earth. Goodbye India!
Hotel Kohinoor Continental
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