Unexpected meetings

(Written 28 March)
So, I'm happy again. I decided that I was too bored with the south to bother travelling overland anymore, and so bought a last minute flight to Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Furthermore, I didn't want to deal with the usual hassle associated with finding accomodation at a reasonable price in a new city. Instead, I finally made use of my association with an online resource for travellers (www.hospitalityclub.org) and rang up a perfect stranger in search of accomodation. I wound up getting in touch with Chetan and his wife Manju, both successful businesspeople in the city. More to the point though, they are both incredibly kind and generous hosts. They not only provided me with a very comfortable place to stay in their home, but also set me up with a guide for the old part of the city (full of winding alleyways and the like), took me to an art gallery opening, and gave me great advice about where to go in India. It turns out that they both travel quite a bit for work, and we've made tentative plans to meet up again in Switzerland in just a few week's time.
Since I arrived here, I have been stress-free for the first time since arriving in India. Nevertheless, I am going to try to get another standby flight tomorrow, this time bound for Udaipur in the desert state of Rajastan.