This is about my one day trip to mumbai for my visa interview and
this also my first ride in plane. Beware the post might be
lengthy I will try to be concise in future.
Little backstory:
I am one of students who was selected for student exchange program in university of luxembourg which is one month away from now. And for past few months, I had nice travel workout , mainly for visa paper works. I had to go back and forth between busiest routes(chennai-coimbatore ) weekly. After completing all the paper works , finally I had to face this visa interview in mumbai. My counter-parts to lumxembourg had completed interview a week earlier and I had a delay which is mainly due to PCC(police clearance certificate). After getting passport in tatkaal , I did a mistake in hurry by applying PCC before post police verification which lead to 2nd police verification. After daily 7 day visits to commissioner office, I finally nailed the PCC.(but 2 weeks later)...:)
Trip
I am called for interview at 2 am in belgium embassy in mumbai. I started 7 am in morning in kamaraj domestic terminal,chennai and reached by 9 at mumbai. The weather seemed very cloudy and I suspected to have heavy rain. On reaching worli by cab from airport, I had to pass time till 2 pm. I had a hot idli-sambar in an south indian restaurant. And my friends told that there is an famous Siddhivinayak temple in worli. I wanted give a try despite my language barrier. I asked few south indian people in restaurant for the location of temple. I somehow managed to get the location and its three stops away.
Stroll:
After 15 minutes stroll amidst little rain, I reached the temple. I had great view of the temple. And by 11 ,I left the temple not knowing where to go. Then after roaming the streets and found a nice street bench to sit. Then after few minutes an old man came and sat beside me. I noticed Daily Thanthi , popular tamil newspaper with him. I took a guess and asked him whether he is tamilian. And my guess was correct, he had been mumbai since 1960's and we had a little chat about mumbai weather. Within few minutes our talk was interrupted by phone call from travel agent from mumbai who is waiting for me near embassy. I shook hands with old man and rushed to embassy and he gave instructions about the interview.
Sea-link ride:
After having a nice lunch in Udipi ,famous south indian restaurant , I had my interview which lasted only 5-10 minutes. Actually I thought of having sea link ride ,which by the way I missed in the morning. Now I desperately wanted that ride. So I took a taxi and told the driver to go via sea link to the airport. My first ride in a suspension bridge was amazing eventhough sea was little rough due to monsoon. Even though speed limit was 50kmph , most of vehicles raced above 50kmph .when I checked the taxi speedometer it was around 100kmph !. After such a speedy ride , taxi moved at a snail pace in traffic after crossing sea link. Actually both routes to airport took same time for me.
Chennai Bird-eye view:
I reached airport around 3 and the flight departs only at six O'clock. So till then I browsed high speed airport Wifi in my laptop. During the return flight ,I am lucky to get window seat. The night view of chennai from 28,000ft was breathtaking. Finally awesome journey came to end by 8 O'clock. Then I reached home by 9.30 in usual chennai traffic.
Little backstory:
I am one of students who was selected for student exchange program in university of luxembourg which is one month away from now. And for past few months, I had nice travel workout , mainly for visa paper works. I had to go back and forth between busiest routes(chennai-coimbatore ) weekly. After completing all the paper works , finally I had to face this visa interview in mumbai. My counter-parts to lumxembourg had completed interview a week earlier and I had a delay which is mainly due to PCC(police clearance certificate). After getting passport in tatkaal , I did a mistake in hurry by applying PCC before post police verification which lead to 2nd police verification. After daily 7 day visits to commissioner office, I finally nailed the PCC.(but 2 weeks later)...:)
Trip
I am called for interview at 2 am in belgium embassy in mumbai. I started 7 am in morning in kamaraj domestic terminal,chennai and reached by 9 at mumbai. The weather seemed very cloudy and I suspected to have heavy rain. On reaching worli by cab from airport, I had to pass time till 2 pm. I had a hot idli-sambar in an south indian restaurant. And my friends told that there is an famous Siddhivinayak temple in worli. I wanted give a try despite my language barrier. I asked few south indian people in restaurant for the location of temple. I somehow managed to get the location and its three stops away.
Stroll:
After 15 minutes stroll amidst little rain, I reached the temple. I had great view of the temple. And by 11 ,I left the temple not knowing where to go. Then after roaming the streets and found a nice street bench to sit. Then after few minutes an old man came and sat beside me. I noticed Daily Thanthi , popular tamil newspaper with him. I took a guess and asked him whether he is tamilian. And my guess was correct, he had been mumbai since 1960's and we had a little chat about mumbai weather. Within few minutes our talk was interrupted by phone call from travel agent from mumbai who is waiting for me near embassy. I shook hands with old man and rushed to embassy and he gave instructions about the interview.
Sea-link ride:
After having a nice lunch in Udipi ,famous south indian restaurant , I had my interview which lasted only 5-10 minutes. Actually I thought of having sea link ride ,which by the way I missed in the morning. Now I desperately wanted that ride. So I took a taxi and told the driver to go via sea link to the airport. My first ride in a suspension bridge was amazing eventhough sea was little rough due to monsoon. Even though speed limit was 50kmph , most of vehicles raced above 50kmph .when I checked the taxi speedometer it was around 100kmph !. After such a speedy ride , taxi moved at a snail pace in traffic after crossing sea link. Actually both routes to airport took same time for me.
Chennai Bird-eye view:
I reached airport around 3 and the flight departs only at six O'clock. So till then I browsed high speed airport Wifi in my laptop. During the return flight ,I am lucky to get window seat. The night view of chennai from 28,000ft was breathtaking. Finally awesome journey came to end by 8 O'clock. Then I reached home by 9.30 in usual chennai traffic.
