...I was glad when it was over.
We ended up getting a free ride on the train into the city from the bus station, and set off to find a hotel. That night – Jo and Brock were catching a flight to Sri Lanka, and I'd be spending a few days looking around before heading off to meet Lindon and Sam.
So we had a final big night out. Here's a pic of us having pre-going out drinks:
Bobo, TTYS, and Banana Jo :-)
Thanks to Brock for the pic...
After some food and a few drinks we headed out to the airport at 3am. A lot of Asian airports don't allow people without tickets into the airport buildings, so I was surprised when I showed my driving licence and they let me in...
I'd had such an amazing time travelling with Jo and Brock...it was sad to see them go. I really hate good-byes...
Just as Jo and Brock disappeared around the security barrier I heard someone shouting and turned around to see a man walking towards me. He was clearly annoyed about something and kept shouting “where is your ticket?” It went completely quiet in the check in area and I could see people turning around to see what was going on.
When he finally reached me he demanded to see my ticket, and I explained that I'd been saying goodbye to my friends and was just leaving. This didn't seem to help matters and he kept shouting at me wanting to know how I'd got in in the first place.
Having had no sleep for three days I was feeling really wiped out and just wanted to leave...so I explained how I'd got in and that there was no problem because I was leaving, and started walking towards the exit.
Which didn't seem to make any difference as he called over the military police and told me that they were going to arrest me.
So I let him keep shouting while I tried to work out what to do next. Just as the army guys arrived I had a brainwave, and told him that I understood the problem and was happy to be arrested although I wanted to call the British Embassy first to let them know what was going on.
This seemed to throw him a bit, so I set off towards the door again hoping to show them that I really was just trying to leave. Mentioning the British Embassy seemed to do the trick as he changed his line and started to say they weren't going to arrest me but I'd have to pay a massive fine.
So I told him I wasn't going to pay a fine until I'd called the Embassy to ask for their advice.
By this time I'd reached the door and told him I was leaving which didn't seem to calm him down any as he kept shouting about paying a fine. So I walked out and no one followed me which was pretty good.
Tired – but glad to have extracted myself from the situation - I tried to find a ride into town...wish I'd just stayed at the airport...
After a lot of bartering I managed to get a not so bad price into town from a rickshaw driver and we set off just as the sky was starting to turn light.
After about twenty minutes the driver pulls over and announces that he can't actually take his rickshaw into the city and I have to pay him and get out. Given that the price he'd agreed was to go into the City there was no way I was going to pay the full price.
Which he wasn't very happy about.
Mumbai has a bit of a reputation as being unsafe in places (just like most big cities). This is where the slums from Slumdog Millionaire are – and the area the driver had dropped me was obviously not the best place to be hanging around so early in the morning.
Out of nowhere a very suspicious looking taxi pulls up and the driver offers to give me a lift...and so I started to negotiate with him on the price. But because I was stuck - and he knew it - I wasn't able to get a fair deal.
The rickshaw driver kept shouting at me about getting his money and by this point a small crowd was starting to gather. So I gave him what I thought was a fair price for the distance we'd done – although no surprise – he didn't think it was enough.
The crowd kept getting bigger, so I jumped into the taxi...but the driver wouldn't set off because the rickshaw driver kept shouting at him.
Finally I told the taxi driver that if he wanted the money we had to go now.
Thankfully he set off – but rather than going down the freeway he turns off into what looks like an even worse part of town. I must admit – I was starting to get worried at this point – and was glad I didn't have that much stuff with me.
After what seemed like an hour I finally saw something I recognized, so I paid the driver, jumped out, and walked back to the hotel to get some sleep...
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