Upon arriving in Thane, and after several failed attempts to find a reasonable hotel, I stumbled across a grubby looking place that I'd walked by earlier and turned my nose up at. It was dark by the time I passed the place for the second time and somewhat desperate for a place to lay my head, I trudged in and asked if they had anything going. They did, and I tried to hide my relief while eagerly handing over my Matsercard. It turned out to be a very comfortable and not outrageously priced gem. A rare comfortable bed, staff that were desperate to please, hot water for showering with western loo, plus, four doors up from a place with a restaurant with rooftop bar. I was so pleased with my find, I stayed an extra night having explored all the nice things that Thane had to offer (a Starbucks and the big pond from my previously posted pic). As content as I'd been on my journey so far, I resolved to spend the additional evening sampling the exquisite (and by 'exquisite' I mean 'edible') delights of the elevated alcoporium. The early evening drifted into early night, and having drunk the two available 'light' beers that my chosen house of Bacchus had to offer by 7.30pm, I agreed to a bottle, in fact two bottles, of the 8% strong stuff. Carlsberg, in both its European, and newly enjoyed 'Indian strength' varieties has rarely been so readily glugged. I tottered back to my comfortable residence full of Danish joy, the tingle of a Chicken Bhuna still on my lips, and the promise of an early morning 300 degree ring piece, completely and utterly, lime pickled.
Tender bowels or not, the following morning, it was time to leave for another trip northwards.
I won't bang in about trains again but I did buy a 3rd class ticket today, then upgraded myself to a better class once the train had arrived as I could only fit into a 2nd class carriage. Hid under mucho luggage and managed to avoid two separate ticket checks in the process. I officially apologise to Indian Railways for bunking and the world at large for my errant moral compass. So I now find myself in Nashik, 4 hours northwest of Mumbai. Nashik is in Indian wine country, and the place I will be calling home for a bunch of days. Expect poncy wine talk in future posts!
Walked in off the street into my favourite hotel yet. Not only is it cheap, it's also worthy of the name 'hotel'. That it appears to have been cleaned at some point since construction is my clearest indicator, but the staff here are superb and worthy of mention. On discovering my Indian plug adapter was left at my previous hotel, they promptly went out and bought me a new one locally and handed it over gratis within an hour of arrival. It even looks like a hotel. Granted, it is in the middle of a field in possibly the remotest part of India I have found on my travels so far, but you can't have everything.
Finger bowl or refreshing post-meal palate cleanser? I went for finger bowl, dipped pinkies, and got nothing more than an inconclusive raised eyebrow from the waiter in return.
I didn't fancy squeezing onto that carriage, so found another.
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