Bye bye to Mumbai today, heading to our hometown of Navsari. We had arranged for Dharmesh (namesake, he manages car/drivers in Navsari) to pick us up from the hotel around 9:30am.

We were all up early, bags mostly packed then down for breakfast, this was the only time we got in at an appropriate time for breakfast! Got seated, I settled for Eggs – seemed like that was the only thing I could eat/swallow, Nita and Neha were both enjoying the indian breakfast varieties and Pooja was into her pastries and waffles – one for everything sweet.

Novotel Juhu Breakfast review: Great variety in breakfast and the eggs to order were cooked very well. Of all the hotels in this trip, this would have to be the best breakfast we have had. What I did not like is the service times to serve Tea/Coffee, this should be a rather simple process however this single routine seemed to take forever.

Back in the room, finalise our bags and called Dharmesh (our driver) to see where he was, was surprised when he said I am downstairs waiting, it was not 9 yet, he was early, apparently he arrived at 8 – why did he not call us earlier, I would have been happy to leave early.

Then it was quick checkout and loading of all our bags (there were a few) into the Toyota Innova, was impressed on how he stacked them to fit them all in.

Novotel Juhu Hotel review: Very pleasant stay, the rooms were very spacious, did not feel cramped at all! We had two interconnecting rooms, both worked out great. Beds were very comfortable, could laze around in that all afternoon.
Bathrooms and amenities were great although the shower in our room had a blocked drain – after a couple of minutes of showering, the water would spill onto the bathroom floor outside the shower.
Location of the hotel is very good in my opinion, away from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai traffic yet close to everything. Highly recommended.

Time to farewell Mumbai (for now, we were coming back in 8 days), Navsari was the next stop. The first 20 minutes were not too bad but then we hit bad traffic, it took us close to 1.5 hours to get out of Mumbai, it all seemed to be caused by the new METRO rail being built in Mumbai.

Finally we were on the open roads and then it was seeing the crazy driving on the highways, including Dharmesh’s, lots of zig zagging and sharp lane changes in the tightest spaces – not ideal seating in front and witnessing this. It was praying time, just get me and my family safely to Navsari!

Made it to Navsari around 3:30pm, total journey was just under 6 hours.

Felt good to be in our home, it was 6 years ago, we were here the first ones to stay in this house!
Sanjay the builder had already organised for two maids to clean the house and take down the coverings. There was some organising to be done, Nita got on with her side – sorting out the kitchen, I sorted out the luggage and the rooms – had to get curtains up, cupboards unlocked, gas turned on …. the list was quite long, but we did manage to knock off most by the afternoon.

The TV man came by and reactivated the CABLE TV, TV was on!

Then it was tea time.

Neha and Pooja were not feeling too well, around 6pm, I took them to the Doc, was supposed to take them to Sanjay Bodellia but ended up going to the Bodellia hospital, take note, they are both different. Anyways they both were given medication to assist with their high temperature.

Back at home, now to get some grocery shopping done, me and Nita ducked out around the corner to get the basics, rice, dhal, Ghee, etc. Everything is so close by here. Back at home, Nita commenced cooking, it was to be Khichdi for the first night.

We were all quite tired by the end of it, time to hit the bed. Only problem with this place were the mosquitos and the night long buzzing around the ears when you sleep!!