Goa to Mumbai

Having spent two weeks living exclusively on Indian food with no stomach problems whatsoever, ironically we found that eating Western food for a day in Goa gave us both runny diarrhea - just what we don't want for a long journey home.

The ever-helpful staff at Amarya Shamiyana kindly let us use the room until it was time to leave, and they all turned out to wave us goodbye.

Madesh managed to get lost for a last time trying to get out of Ashvem beach, but we had plenty of spare time to get to the airport for our domestic flight from Goa to Mumbai. Just as well. Having overtaken countless trucks, cars, cows, auto-rickshaws, buses and whatever else for the last two weeks, Madesh was stopped by the police on his very last journey with us - for overtaking on a bridge - and fined Rs 500/-.

The GoAir plane was late arriving at Goa, delaying our departure by half an hour. I think GoAir is India's answer to Ryan Air - a cheap, no-frills airline with absolutely no legroom and the only food offered was a Pot Noodle. At a cost of course. Half way through the 50 minute flight the pilot announced that there was a problem at Mumbai Airport - they were trying to re-calibrate the landing equipment (have they tried rebooting?), so we ended up circling (along with numerous other planes) over the Mumbai skyline and the Arabian Sea for nearly 3/4 of an hour.

Finally back on the ground, the cases were ready and waiting when we reached the terminal building, and a man with the now very familiar 'Mrs Grete' sign was waiting to whisk us off to an airport hotel for a few hours rest before the next part of the journey.

We grabbed a bite to eat in the café, where the bored waiter was desperate for someone to talk to, in-between coughing up half his lungs and probably even some of his stomach lining, spitting it out loudly just around the corner in the direction of the kitchen.