Neither me or cambaro (my friend who went with me) are good planners. We booked our plan tickets for the 25th April and sat back, waiting for time to pass. Two days to our supposed departure date, another friend enquires about whether we have our visa already and panic mode sets in. We postponed our flight, cancellation fees, and four days of running around trying to get a visa. Of course the Indian embassy was surrounded by the Tamil Tigers protesters and had to shut from an extra day. So it took a little longer than normal.
Finally we landed in India on the 1st of May. We landed in India on the 1st of May at 12.30am. As soon as we got off the plane, the heat run off with the 1st layer of my facial skin, pheeeew, it was gone, and I gasped for air! IT was so humid, it was in the middle of the night, with no sun, yet it was so sticky and hot. The airport in Mumbai will give any European airport a run for its money, it is beautifully built and crafted with attention to details, it was sparkling and lights everywhere and for a moment I wondered about all the reports I read. Maybe it was so white wash conspiracy and India was really a 1st world country beyond the human dreams.
We got on a bus and it dropped us off at the main entrance to proceed through customs, of course we paid no attention to announcements earlier while still airborne about filling out the forms!! We followed the few white people we saw on the plane down into a long queue, only to reach the front and be told by a screwed face custom officer that I must go back out of the line, collect a form and fill it in and then come back. I went back and asked for a form, a really angry lady proceeded to mutter under her breath and throw angry head and hand moments in my direction after I asked for a pen. The form asked the same questions as the Visa application, but we filled it out anyway and then went back to another screwed face custom officer (They all looked so angry) He looked at us and then demanded why we were here, and for how long and what for (He did not bother reading the damn form I just filled out which had all the answers) He let us through, we put our passports away thinking we were through, but there were few more checks to go through, then waiting for our bags for 2hrs!!!
Finally we made it outside and easily located our hotel pick guy, after a while we were on a way to our hotel. The guy did not say anything, we located him because he was holding a card which had written on it something which kind of resembled my name. In the back seat was the Indian Times. I found out that the previous day was election day and the whole newspaper was covered with speculation and predictions. Also few articles on swine flue and outbreak in UK, Delhi was on high alter and many other places.
We got to our hotel, a nice place, a really nice, clean (it was expensive) powerful shower and air-condition and fan. Did I mention a TV with American channels, a kettle to make tea, two packets of crisps and a bottle of water (We needed that one!)
