24 Hours to Mumbai

The taxi was early. 4.10 AM instead of 4.15, which suited me fine. I had been awake since 3.30 anyway, doing that particular calculation every traveler does: how long since I last checked the time, and is it too early to get up.

The Stockholm to Amsterdam leg was uneventful in the best possible sense. Seat 32C, last row, next to the bathrooms, which sounds like a punishment and turned out to be convenient. KLM served coffee and a sandwich. Then Amsterdam Schiphol, passport queue, a second coffee, a second India visa check at the gate. The gate agent studied my e-visa with the focused expression of someone who has seen a lot of forgeries and is prepared to find one.

Seat 58A on the 777-300 to Mumbai, next to a pleasant Indian couple. This is where KLM did proper justice to the long haul: a pasta lunch, free beer, actual service. Eight and a half hours of podcasts and a film on the laptop. The flight path took us over Afghanistan, where fighting had just broken out with Pakistan. It was dark the whole way, so there was nothing to see out the window, just our route traced across the screen, ticking steadily south-east. We landed at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at 00.40 AM local time.

The taxi came quickly. This is where the trouble started.

The driver could not find the hotel. We went around the block. We asked security guards. We went around again. Eventually it became clear that the Regency Gate Hotel had been renamed and the sign high on the building read simply “Gate.” Just Gate. No further detail. Problem identified.

Problem not solved. I made my way up three flights of stairs to the reception on the third floor, where the manager informed me that the hotel was overbooked and there was no room. He suggested I sit on the one chair in the lobby until 8 AM.

This is where the owner suggested I spend the night

I explained that this was not acceptable. After some negotiation he found me a room at another hotel nearby. A taxi covered the three kilometers for 30 cents. I was in bed by 4 AM.

Mumbai does not apologize for any of this. The city operates at its own pace and on its own terms, and arriving in the middle of the night without a guaranteed room is simply one of the things that can happen. You adapt, find a solution, and move on. By 9 AM the next morning I was back at the Regency Gate with the original room ready, nap taken, equilibrium more or less restored. The city was already fully awake and had not given the previous night a second thought.

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