Day 7: Determined to come back soon

Mumbai is getting ready for the New Year's Eve celebrations. All major hotels in the city are hosting parties. Hotels compete for attracting Bollywood celebrities on New Year's Eve. I head down early for my last breakfast at the Taj Lands End. I'm very surprised to see a few staff members of the breakfast restaurant coming over to my table to wish me a safe flight back and to say good-bye.

Today is a day of odds and ends. I still have to buy a few souvenirs and I now need a new pair of shoes because I'm not sure it's a good idea to fly back to -13 degree weather with torn shoes. (Since I have the -good or bad- habit of packing very light, torn shoes are my only option at this point...). So I head up to Linking Road (this time after 10:30, to ensure everything is open) ready for some street shopping and my last chance to bargain for some awesome prices. I end up with a pair of shoes for my flight back home, a couple of purses and a few other gifts.

After a short rest at the hotel, I'm headed out to the airport. I'm sad to leave India. At the airport, I meet a couple of Americans who have been traveling through India for a couple of weeks. They tell me about Pune and Hyderabad. I tell them about Mumbai. As we ring in the New Year at Gate 4, we all make a new year's resolution to make some changes in our lifestyles and learn "the India way". We tell each other what places in India are still in our wish lists (number 1 on mine is Udaipur; on theirs, Chennai and Mumbai) and we all make a promise to ourselves to come back. Again and soon.