After three weeks at home I was starting to feel settled again... well almost. I was surprisingly nervous about leaving this time, being away for so long and a lot of the time on my own. So a few days of sad goodbyes and the inevitable "am I doing the right thing?" question. Of course it is also very exciting and I knew the answer was "probably" - that first step always is the hardest.
My flight connections were Adelaide-Sydney-Darwin-Bombay. All went smoothly, there was a slight delay on the long haul stretch buy nothing that caused any real problem.
It takes a while to switch off and look forward. I had spent much of the last three weeks discussing politics was very keen to know if the election had been called the day I left. I saw that as some kind of omen - though I don't know if it is a good one or a bad one that the PM chose the same day I was setting off to kick off his last great challenge in that role. In Darwin I wandered aimlessly around the transit lounge. They were playing a MotoGP bike race on the TV and none of the Qantas officials had heard any news. I noticed that nearly everyone in the lounge seemed to be talking on their mobile phones and I listened in to plenty of conversations (that the people didn't seem to be hiding) with no success.
It was a very comfortable trip after the Darwin domestic travellers left as the plane was only about half full. I watched a couple of movies through video on demand - too much choice really, there was documentary "The president vs John Lennon", mainly about the battle for John and Yoko to stay in the US during the Nixon presidency. It was both very sad and very inspiring.
Arriving in Mumbai all seemed to be going well - I had booked a room in advance and read up on the "getting there" details. I booked a pre-paid taxi at a counter just outside the immigration area and was lucky that 3 other people in the line behind me were going to the same place so we were able to share the cab - bringing the price down to 100 ruppees each.
We lugged our packs out to the cab that had been designated for us (we had the cab number) and were a bit surprised to find that it was full -but didn't seem to be going anywhere. We asked around but found no-one immediately who spoke any good English we just got the drift of "there is a problem, there is a problem".
We went back to the counter where there was a very big and quite angry looking group of passangers and taxi drivers clammering against the window.
Several drivers were saying "I will take you -for 800", "for 1500". The official behind the counter took our receipt and said we must pay 100 rupees more because we can only go in an air conditioned cab and he was just about to give our voucher to another driver when an angry crowd ran over and yelled at him in hindi - to stop I assume. Then it was explained to us -the cab drivers had gone on strike for some reason or other and there would be no cabs leaving the airport that night.
Despite being on strike some drivers wanted to take us but the price was rising steadily.
I decided to ring the hotel to see if they could send a cab from the city - but needed change for the phone which it seemed noone had or was prepared to give me. I finally bargained one man down to giving me 7 rupees in coins for a 10 rupee note.
We rang - and the hotel could send a taxi (for 800) but it would take an hour and a half to get there. he said he would look for a cab and I should call back in five minutes. But my coins ran out.
we accepted the offer of a driver at the gate for a lift for 800- but as we walked to his car he was attacked by the other drivers and slapped viciously around the head.
In the end a mysterious stranger whispered that we should follow him at a distance. He took us to the arrivals area of the airport where new taxi's were arriving each minute with new arrivals - then his "mate" from downstairs pulled up empty and agreed to take us to our hotel for 800 (which is twice the normal price).
The ride was itself an adventure - mumbai is a hectic busy place and the traffic even at that time of the night was crazy.
So I made it - a few hours later than expected at my hotel in Colaba and went to bed practically straight away.
