As I write this entry I am sitting in a hotel room near Mumbai airport trying not to let the crazy traffic noise from the roads outside to get to me!! I have just experienced a big drama with almost not being able to get on my plane to Tel Aviv via Zurich as planned which almost put me to tears but which THANKFULLY has now been resolved.
It all started when I arrived in Mumbai Domestic Airport at 2:30pm after having flown from Goa. For some reason I was so tired that I decided that I wouldn't leave the airport as I wasnt up for the craziness of Mumbai, and I would just go to International and chill there until I needed to check in for my international flight at about 11pm.
So I get my luggage and stand in the line waiting for the transfer coach to take me from Domestic to International. So I wait and wait and then finally the coach comes but there is security checking e tickets. So I try to explain that there has been a last minute change with my ticket and my travel agent still needs to send me it but can I still go to International and just print it out there? So of course they don't understand what I'm talking about, they just continued to say, "maam, where is your ticket? You need to print ticket". So they wouldn't let me on the coach without the ticket and sent me away.
So already I'm annoyed cause I waited in this line without knowing that they wouldn't let me on the coach without the e ticket!!
So I wonder off and find an airline desk and tell them my dilemma and they advise me to pay for a taxi to the international airport and there I can print my e ticket out.
So off I go and stand in another que outside in the above 30 degree heat in the sun waiting for my turn to get a taxi. So finally I get a taxi and we spend about 20 mins going through crazy noisy traffic and beggars coming up to my window until we get to International.
THEN, on arrival, I notice that there are security guards checking people's e tickets before allowing them into the airport!!!!!!!!! So I realise that once again I cannot even get to the internet inside the terminal without having a ticket to show them first!!!!! So some touts are of course right there offering to "assist" me. They tell me they will drive me to an internet cafe so I can print out my ticket and then drive me back to the airport (for a PRICE). So ok, off we go, on the route going back to Domestic, only when I check my email I find that my travel agent hasn't sent me my e ticket like she said she would!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I know that it is now definately after office hours (10pm in Sydney) so there's no way I'm going to be able to contact her.
So I look up the details for SWISS airways thinking they will be able to send my ticket, but when I call them they say I have no ticket because my travel agent hasn't re-issued it!! And there is no way they can re-issue the ticket - my travel agent needs to!! So basically they confirm that without my travel agent re-issuing the ticket there is no way I can fly tonight!!
Meanwhile, all this time I have the 2 Indian touts leaning over me watching everything and they are continuously asking me questions and asking if I am printing out my ticket!!!!!! So I tell them I don't have a ticket cause there's been a stuff up and the Indian guy tells me to come to his friend who will organise me a ticket - no worries!! And I keep trying to tell him that I have already paid for my ticket!!
So I email my travel agent and let her know that as she has not sent me my e ticket I will not be able to fly the planned flights and I asked her what she suggests I do. By this stage, I agree to go with the touts to go to their friend's hotel as I figure I will now be spending the night in Mumbai.
So we go off to the hotel and I check in and then I notice on my phone that I have a missed call from an Indian number. Now oridinarily I ignore these as I get them all the time from Vodaphone or advertising people. This time though I decide to call it back just in case and guess what? It's Swiss Airways! So I tell the woman who answers that I have receieved a missed call from this number and she automatically says that they didn't call me. THEN I hear in the background someone yelling and the guy I was talking to earlier gets on the phone! And guess what?? He tells me that in the meantime between us talking and now, my travel agent has re issued my ticket and I can fly as planned!!!!!!!!!! So he emails me my ticket and when I go online at reception to receive the ticket I notice that my travel agent has emailed me back saying that they have been having computer problems but my e ticket should be re-issued soon!!
So basically I now have my ticket - THANK G-D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After allllllllllllllll the drama!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it's just crazy that you cannot even enter the airport without a ticket!! All this time I had been assuming that I would go there and just print it out in the terminal! And the airline desk didn't advise me properly about that either. And my travel agent could have at least emailed me to let me know she was still working on getting me my e ticket even though it was after hours so I didn't have to stress and could have planned a bit better what I was doing!!
So hopefully thats the last of my dramas...for my last night in India!! Crazy... I'm happy to have a bit of a break from all the hassling. I noticed that during the times when I met up with other people I actually got a break from being hassled because by chance or something else the other people always got hassled and I was left alone so I was free to observe!! But when I've been on my own there has been no one else to hassle except me so it's just hassle hassle hassle all the time with no relief!!! I think in all I've had a good just over 5 week experience in India and am happy to leave now.
xxx Orna
