Bombay the Hard Way

An email from Yotam, after arriving home:

From: Yotam
To: Chaim, Alex
Date: Feb 16 (6 days ago)


OK, I made it home. Lots of Americans on the plane ride home --- where were they the whole time? OK, none were the backpacking type, so that explains that.

I didn't tell my bank I would be in India --- I don't think I have ever told them when I travel --- so they blocked my card right after I bought my flight home apparently. The day I left, I couldn't take 1000 rupees from the ATM. When I got back to New York, I couldn't buy a metrocard, so I stood outside in the 25 degree (farenheit!) weather and made the phone calls to unblock my card. That explains that.

I didn't use the 1000 rupees I got from Chaim just before I left. I took the bus from Munnar all the way to ... somewhere they told me to get off, since I told them I was going to the airport, which is a little ways north of Cochin. The bus depot where I was dropped off was 5 km from the airport. There, a very nice man from Bombay put me on the right bus and sat and chatted until it was time for his bus to leave. Had I been staying, he would have invited me to his vacation bungalow near Cochin. Another bus took me the last little bit to the airport for 7.5 rupees. I got two .25 rupee coins for change! Total trip cost from Munnar to the Cochin airport: less than 100 rupees. That explains that.

(The airport was nice enough. Some family I smiled at came to shake hands with me, from the grandchildren to all the surviving grandparents. I was offered a phone number so I could see them again next time I was in Kerala. Go Airways took a while to process me and give me a *printout* which let me enter the airport and go to the actual ticketing counter and get an actual ticket. Also, their flight left pretty late --- it was late arriving from Mumbai. There is 1 very expensive restaurant there with a free buffet if you have a platinum mastercard. I don't. There is no internet cafe in the airport. There is a sign, but the inside shows a gutted room. I think there is free wifi, however. Once you cross through security into the gate area there are plush-looking chairs and a kiosk selling samosas and other pastries at not-too-exorbitant prices. The "drinkable water" looked like it was filtering the water, so I drank a couple cups of it because I was *really* thirsty and no one was selling bottled water. That may not have been a great idea --- I blame my stomach grumbliness now on that.)

I bought some vacuum packed stuff (tea and cashews) in Munnar. When I got off the plane in New York, I noticed that the plastic was super- hugging the contents. Difference in air pressure. That explains that.

In fact, I still have the 1000 rupees. I had planned on changing it after I ate something in Bombay airport and crossed through to the gate area, but Bombay just about chewed me up and spit me out. I was pretty late at this point, because my connecting flight was late taking off and because we circled the airport in Mumbai for a while waiting to land, which gave me less than 2 hours before my NY flight was due to take off. I needed a little square of paper from the information booth at the domestic arrivals terminal to ride the free bus to the international terminal, but the lady wouldn't give it to me because I didn't have my ticket or an official-looking printout of my itinerary. I think I could have gotten it from her if I had been more insistent, and I *REALLY* should have, knowing what I know now.

It would have saved me a lot of grief. She told me to go take a taxi. Fine, I thought, I'm so close. I went to the taxi counter, for some reason they didn't want to give me a pre-paid ticket but told me it should cost about 100 rupees on the meter and to "walk outside and take the first left then the first right" to get to the taxis. I, umm, did that but the taxi area was unclear and someone came and agreed to do it for 100 rupees, even though he would repeat "OK, 100 bucks" every time I said "100 rupees." He walked me to a specific taxi from a row of lots of taxis and rickshaws with two different, bigger men sitting in front. I told them to use the meter, and they said OK but at a certain point along the way, the non-driving man said he was getting out of the car and I should pay him the money now, and his driver would continue the rest of the way. The situation started to look VERY dodgy and I refused, saying I wouldn't pay until I got there and he could be ride with us. Also, this ambiguity about the meter, 100 rupees, and 100 bucks, came up again. In the darkened car, the man was turning around to look at me and telling me to "calm down" at my insistence, so I declared that I was leaving the car and fumbled to open the door, whose knobs were foreign to me. "Calm down," he kept insisting, and finally, "OK, just get out," which I finally did. (The weird knob turns upwards to open the door.)

As soon as I exited, I was pounced on by three taxi drivers, who all agreed to use the meter. (In hindsight, I should have held an impromptu auction: who will drive me for 100 rupees? and let them fight for me at a pre-determined price.) I got in one guy's cab, he turned on the meter, but it was a smudged thing and the numbers were dim and etc etc. As we drove, he wanted to set a fixed price of 100 dollars. I told him I wasn't born yesterday, I know how much money that is, and insisted on 100 rupees. I informed him that I had just travelled for 5 hours all the way from Munnar to the Cochin airport on 100 rupees, so surely that was fair for this 2km. If you're not taking the magic free bus that goes on some magic exclusive route between domestic and international terminals, you have to go through city traffic which was really quite horrendous. So we had time to chat, but I was cagey about where I was from and the adrenaline was flowing because of the last taxi and because I was so late. In the end, he wanted to cut a deal for 500 rupees, then 300 rupees, but he insisted 100 was too little so he cleaned off the meter, which showed 165, but he claims it's a number you look up in a booklet based on if its day and night and the booklet showed that the number corresponded to 230 rupees. I gave him 200 rupees in the end. Also, I got out and walked a bit at the very end because traffic was just stopped, and the doors were in sight.

The airport was a mess. A very narrows sidewalk with people and there luggage camped out there as far as I could tell. Inside, there was a gargantuan line to get your luggage security checked. Since I didn't have any checked luggage, I skipped it and got my ticket from the delta counter. I didn't change my money yet, because I wanted to get through security and only then relax. Once through security, there were no money changers. That explains that.

(Also note that rickshaws aren't allowed into Bombay and the book says they drop you off somewhere horrible-smelling on the edge of town, but they can go between airports. My ordering: Magic bus, then pre-paid, and only then the wild coyotes that drive taxis and rickshaws to the airport to prey on tourists.)

Yotam