We Could Live at the Taj Forever

Pizza for Lunch 

Office Room in our Suite at the Taj

Living Room

Glassed in Toilet 

Appetizer Chips

Chicken Tikka Marinated in Pickles 

Vegetable Biryani and Naan

Kulfi not Coffee

We decided to spend our last day in Udaipur at the hotel. It was such a nice environment and the weather was the best yet. I had an exceptionally fine massage, Cathy read by poolside.

For lunch we ate Pizza of all things (the chef had spent time in Italy). It was quite good and the outdoor setting overlooking the lake and palace were magnificent. We finally finished packing and set out for the airport. It was sad to leave our driver Vijay. He has been with us the entire trip and we think of him as family. We hope to see him again.

The flight was delayed 45 minutes, which by Indian Airlines counts as an on-time departure. The short flight of an hour and 15 minutes or so was made enjoyable for they were playing Shah Rukh Khan’s latest movie: Chennai Express. A comic adventure that he excels in making. It was fun. We then arrived in Mumbai: known as Maximum City. It is hot, vibrant and striving. It goes 24 hours a day non-stop.

While waiting at the luggage carousel we experienced a typical Indian drama. Everyone is packed around the carousel awaiting their luggage. It is quite jammed. All of a sudden a women starts screaming at the man next to her. Her husband joins in at the top of his lungs. Then the man she is screaming at screams back at her. A couple of his buddies add to the screaming. We think at anytime guns are going to break out. I am looking for things to hide behind. I notice none of the other people around us are re-acting at all. The screaming continues, reverberating thru the hall. I look around and see some cops, expecting them to break things up. They watch bemusedly. The screaming continues, the luggage arrives, and they two hostile camps depart. Hindi has probably the richest collection of swear words in the world. Apparently there is an added dimension of loudness that emphasizes you antagonism. The duration of the yelling adds yet another layer of complexity. I guess they blow off steam that way and don’t come to blows. Since it is non-violent I wonder if Gandhi would approve. I have no idea what the issue was, perhaps the man touched the woman by mistake or not, no matter. It was all over.

The drive to the Colaba area of Mumbai wher the Taj is located was incredibly slow. The weather in Mumbai is hot, it is a national holiday: Republic Day (which meant depressingly no alcohol can be served) and there is giant Festival going on in Worli along the beach, an area of Mumbai we have to drive thru. All of Mumbai appears to be at the festival. We finally arrive at the Taj about 9:30. We are expecting to be slightly disappointed in our room, because last January we had such a spectacular suite.

They took us to our suite and it was fabulous. There was a welcoming bottle of wine for us – apparently the Taj does serve alcohol – yea!), giant living room, separate office room, huge bedroom and amazing bathroom, with something we have never seen before: a completely glassed inclosed toilet and bidet. Is it a statement on Indian food? The wondrous part of the suite is that it is on the corner of the top floor of the historic palace wing with views in all directions of the harbor. Plus and this blew our minds it has two outdoor private balconies. I didn’t even know that Taj had outdoor balconies. We have been here many times and I had never noticed them.

Our butler for the suite brought us wine to relax before we ate. We finally went down at 10:30 for dinner at Masala Kraft, the hotels Indian Restaurant. After starters we had Chicken Tikka where the the chicken was marinated in Indian Pickles before being placed in the Tandoori. We shared a vegetable biryani and a bottle of wine.