I crossed all the phalanges I have and my wish came true. My visa came back 10 days after I sent it in. Even better, I applied for the 6 months entry visa and they granted my stay until Adam’s visa expires - August 28, 2015. However, each of my stay cannot exceed 180 days, which will not be a problem since I’ll come home for Christmas.
Two days later, after some speedy packing, house cleaning, and last minute errand running, I said goodbye to home and headed to Mumbai.
“Mr. Truong” - the sign read when the hotel’s cab driver greeted me at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (BOM) last night. Well, Mr. Truong was all chatty until “he” realized that the driver did not talk much at all. He did not smile, mostly just pointed me to the direction needed. I was not helping the situation when I absolutely forgot to tip him.
Tipping is such a tricky business when traveling to a new country. When should I tip? How much is appropriate? I should have read up on it before I left, but oh well. Plenty of chances to practice now that I’m gonna be here for the next 6 months or so.
The drive from BOM to the hotel was short, about 15 mintues. The streets were still very active at 9:30 p.m. Men gathered into countless small groups at all the tiny shops and shags. Many wandered nonchalantly on the streets. From what I’ve seen, Mumbai seems old and run down - many slums. The streets are narrow and somewhat dark. Most of the lights were from street vendors.
The quiet driver dropped me off at Hotel Kohinoor Continental. Dinner buffet and breakfast were complimentary. Since I just had “breakfast” on the plane, I settled for some water over dinner. My room was on the 5th floor over looking the streets below. I stayed up until four in the morning doing homework just to find out that I could not upload my assignement due to the hotel’s excruciatingly slow Internet. After a shower with some very powerful scented shampoo and bar soap, I force myself to nap for a few hours so that I can wake up in time for breakfast not feeling like a cranky zombie.