Prit & I reached the railway station just in time to board our train to Mumbai. Having made the whirlwind trip to Tirupati, followed immediately by the all-night-long farewell party, the two of us were dead tired. I’m guessing we were both out like a light the moment our heads hit the pillows.

The rest of the journey was comfortable, and we got to Mumbai early on the morning of 21st January. VMK came to pick us up, and brought us home to his place. We had a large breakfast with his folks, after which we decided to go to the Vietnamese consulate so that I could try my luck with the visa there.

Not only did the Vietnamese make it extremely difficult for us to find their consulate, but also said that they would issue me a visa that would expire way before I even got anywhere close to Vietnam… duh! So I thought it would be best for me to stop wasting my time with these guys, and just try to get the visa at the Vietnamese embassy in New Delhi.

The rest of the day was spent just hanging around Mumbai (read as hanging on for dear life at the doors of the jam-packed local trains). In the evening, I persuaded Prit to take me to Leopold’s for a beer - just to be where Gregory David Roberts (author of the famous novel Shantaram) used to frequent once upon a time. A part of me hoped that we might even get to meet him if we got lucky. I’d heard that he still hangs out there whenever he’s in town. My old flatmate Vinay (who incidentally also happens to be the founder of Royal Mysore Walks) actually had the privilege of running into Roberts at Leopolds not too long ago. TODO: post pic of Vinay with Roberts.

Travelling in a local train in Mumbai is no walk-in-the-park  

Anyway, we were not as lucky as Vinay; and decided to head to Cafe Mondegar (aka Mondy’s) just a few blocks away. Before leaving, I did something very uncharacteristic of me - something that both embarrasses me and makes me feel quite proud of myself at the same time. Earlier, as Prit & I were sipping our beers at Leopold’s, I couldn’t help but notice a pretty young woman sitting by herself at one of the tables across from us. Just as we were leaving, I walked up to her and told her that I found her really attractive. I also told her that we were going to Mondy’s and that I would be very happy if she decided to join us there. If she decided not to, I wished her a good evening and left. No, I wasn’t drunk. I just thought of doing it, and before the rational part of my brain could stop me, I just did it. She didn’t eventually come to Mondy’s, but that was alright.

Halfway to Mondy’s, I randomly said hello to a guy on the street who was reading Shantaram. He turned out to be a nice enough chap called Daniel from Canada, who was sad that today was his last evening in India. We told him where we were headed, invited him to join us, and he agreed. I asked Prit and our new friend Daniel to go on ahead, while I went looking for Kini who was somewhere in the area. By the time I located Kini and we got to Mondy’s, Prit and Daniel were already at a table with two other women. One of them was from the UK and the other from the US. VMK joined us in a bit, and now we were a large group.

The topic soon turned to travel, and Daniel spoke about some of his bad experiences during his travels. The worst by far was when he had his right eardrum torn in a fist fight. Despite all that, he said he never hesitates to hang out with total strangers as the number of his good experiences far outnumber the bad ones.

From Mondy’s, we walked to some place where things were being cooked on carts, and tables and chairs had been laid out on the sidewalk. The awesome dinner was a perfect end to a great evening. What a pity I don’t have any pictures from that day :( It was after midnight when we bade farewell to Daniel and got back to VMK’s to crash. TODO: get name of dinner place from VMK/Kini.