Wifi friendly balconies in the desert

The skies are blue again after most of a week of Krikkit-esque white beige hues blending sand with sky with buildings and creating some sort of atmospheric quirk that has left me with a temple-to-temple brain ache all week. I was beginning to think that I was being slowly prepped for an aneurism, with little men digging away at the synapses behind my eyeballs and near my ear drums. Since we will be in Mumbai come 3am this forthcoming morning, I figure an aneurism would not be most beneficial to the situation.

However, the brand new blue skies and bright sunlight are slowly salvaging my sanity, and am now able to sip on my horrific milky nescafe (o, how I miss my coffee maker! my espresso whoosher!) as I wait for all parts of my body to wake up and perk up enough to venture out for some form of walk. I had planned to venture out to yoga, but the 10am class meant I had to be out the door by 9am for the long, scary, depressing walk through sandy lots and mindless drivers and honking horns and absentee sidewalks. I couldn't even bear contemplating that thought and so decided I'd do a few sun salutations at home and go scout out a latte in a cafe later instead. I am terribly undisciplined. Somebody must spank me, or at the least give me a stern talking-to.

The trip looms near, and I have finally managed to convince Shazbat that I really really really don't want to hear more about how dirty, noisy, crowded, maddening, tummy-bugging, impossible, wobble-headed, overwhelming India will be and how I will undoubtedly be floored by the lunacy of it all. And maybe I will. My latent autism may well just kick in and I'll curl up into a little ball somewhere in the arrivals hall and refuse to uncurl until placed safely into a cave pansyon in Cappadocia. Or, whatever it was that carried me through Egypt, Ghana, Bulgaria, Romania, South Africa, etc, will carry me through the teeming humid masses of Hindustan. I'm not that easily daunted, in spite of my meek, mild, shy, introverted exterior. I just don't want to be told in advance everything I will feel. I will decide that later for myself. He said that he was just doing it so that we can be prepared for any situation, like Boy Scouts. I was never a Boy Scout. I wasn't even a Girl Guide. I barely prepare for my lessons, let alone trips. I went to Bulgaria with just a printout of the cyrillic alphabet, the name of a pansyon written in non-cyrillic letters, and a vague idea of where I was heading (er, Sofia, Plovdiv). I went to Ghana knowing that I was heading to Accra, and little more. In South Africa, Pieter and I just drove. And drove. And it's all worked out fine so far. If I dwell on all possibilities and what must be done if they happen, my brain will just stew in them and I will spend the whole trip in a tizzy. I am the Anti Boy Scout, apparently.

So.

I did plan some things, though: I booked us a room at the Railway Hotel in the Fort area of Mumbai, which is just on top of the neighbourhood we had originally wanted. I couldn't reach any of the listed hotels there, except the ones who told me they were very full or very expensive. Thus did I solve my first bout of Indian Challenge. If you can't get exactly what you want, find something else that could also be pleasing- this hotel is an easy block from the railway station where we must go after arriving to book our train to Aurangabad. And they serve free tea and coffee in the rooms in the mornings, upon waking. I like that aspect.

We will be in Mumbai for about four nights before we head out to Aurangabad and the caves. A few days roaming around the caves. Apparently they have Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temple carvings spread throughout the many many caves, like an ADHD Goreme Open Air Museum. And then either heading back to Mumbai to catch a train to catch a plane to Goa, or bypassing plane and Mumbai train altogether and catching a train from near Aurangabad directly to Goa.
And most of a week either being lazy in Goa or not being lazy in Goa. It could go either way. We are considering a few days in a yoga-doing place, but have yet to decide.

Here's hoping my sanity is as sturdy and intact as I think it is.