Day 4 30th March 2017

Day 4 30^th March 2017

I wake up at midday, my next flight is at 23.25 and will see me to Honk Kong where I’ll be spending a few days visiting family.

I’ve just realised that Mumbai is somehow 30 minutes out of sync with BST, ie 4 hours and 30 minutes ahead of London. That’s a bit strange.

It’s really hot out. I head to the gym and book in a massage to try and sort out my calves which are still giving me trouble after the weekend’s 5 miler.

I check out at 4pm and head up the restaurant for a delicious meal of chicken meat balls and lamb biryani. 

The view from the hotel is incredible. Spend a few hours just soaking up the atmosphere on marine drive and watching day turn to night over a few kingfisher ultra’s.

Before I know it it’s time to head to the airport. In one respect I’d annoyed that I didn’t get out and explore and from another point of view I needed the rest, feeling much better now than when I landed.

The hotel want to charge £60 for their car so I opt for a local metered cab.

All of the metered cabs run on CNG…

In Honk Kong they run on LPG. I figure that India probably needs to do it for economy, hong kong does it because it’s clever which by some sort of deduction means we don’t run our taxi’s on gas because we’re moderately rich and stupid.

Sharing the back of the cab with a gas tank…

Driving through Mumbai is a real eye opener, quite strange to see people living in the slums and be in a taxi passing by about to be drinking champagne at 38,000ft above them. I’m not sure there’s a great deal I can do to improve their outcomes but its’s still a random chance of birth that separates out lives which is hard to reconcile.

Taxi is 500 Rupee's (about £6) for an hour drive. I leave the chap a 100% tip as I can't believe how cheap it is.

Upon arriving at the airport the security is extremely tight, lots of guards with machine guns, and to get into the terminal you need to have a piece of paper showing a valid booking for today. The chap in front has changed his flight and the security at the actual outside door of the airport building insists that he shows him the new booking on his phone.

I check in at the desk, and go through security and immigration promptly and head to the airport lounge. It’s large with a selection of mediocre food but they do have sprite zero which is a rarity and also magic masala flavour crisps!

Get some work done for an hour or so, then head to the gate and board, by which time it's gone into day 5...