The Continuing Saga…
Our Indian experience began with a BANG! We arrived at the airport on Saturday at 3:00 PM ready for our second attempt at the 5:35 PM flight from Nairobi to Mumbai. Things seemed to go quite smoothly and unremarkably, which was a good thing. We had met a couple that had also been bumped from the flight the night before. Charlie was born in India, and Jasu was born in Kenya but is full-blooded Indian. We enjoyed their company both days.
Like I said in my previous two blogs, I was able to even work on my blog in the airplane, so everything seemed to be going very well. We arrived in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India about 2:10 AM on Sunday morning. That’s where the next bit of excitement began. There was something wrong with the baggage carousel and all the bags took forever to get off. I made a comment to Diane that I wasn’t worried that our bags hadn’t come yet because there were a lot of other people around, too, waiting for bags. Eventually, Diane and I each had one of our large bags, but the crowd had thinned to only a couple of people when Kenya Airways said that was all the baggage. TWO of our bags had not made it with our flight!
By the time we dealt with all the paperwork, etc., it was after 4:00 AM. Kenya Airways said our bags would be there at 2:10 AM on Monday, and sent us on our way. Our taxi driver was supposed to pick us up at 2:10. We didn’t know his name, the name of his company, the address and phone number for the hotel we were to stay at, didn’t have a phone that worked, and couldn’t log onto the internet. All we knew was the name of the hotel – Kihnoor Hotel. We were completely frustrated and tired! Security in the airport was very strict, and if you crossed through a door that lead to this one area where the taxi drivers picked people up, you couldn’t go back in. We tried to explain what had happened with our bags and that we doubted that our taxi driver would still be there after waiting for over 2 hours. We just wanted to check to be sure. They finally agreed to let Diane stay inside the door with all of our luggage while I went around the circle to see if anyone had our names posted. They didn’t.
I went back through the door to figure out how to get a hold of Praveen, our travel agent in New Delhi, India to get some contact information for the hotel. I couldn’t get the airport’s WiFi to work, and eventually a guy behind the Foreign $ Exchange counter offered to call Praveen for me. We then called the hotel to send the taxi driver again. When he got there, we couldn’t figure out where he was parked, so eventually, the guy with the cell phone had to literally leave his counter to guide us out to the taxi. Thank goodness for his help!!!
We finally got to our hotel at 5:30 AM. We only had 1 ½ hrs. of sleep because we had to leave the hotel at 8:00 AM to catch another flight out of Mumbai to Cochin around 10:00. We got on the flight without any problems and arrived safely in Cochin where our long-term taxi driver was waiting for us. What an experience HE was!!! He could hardly speak any English, he literally honked at almost every single car he passed – even when the road had two lanes in one direction, we were in one lane, and the other cars were in the other lane, he was weaving in and out of traffic, and he used his left foot for braking, so his driving was very jerky. After the 45 minutes drive to the Bolgatty Island Palace Hotel, we were tense and total wrecks! Not only that, but he kept trying to take us to see Ft. Cochin rather than just checking into our hotel. We arrived at the hotel at 2:45, and he was determined that he would come back at 3:30 to pick us up again. Somehow, we managed to make him understand that we were tired, we’d lost our luggage, had missed a flight, and all we wanted to do was go to our hotel for some downtime. He eventually understood and said he would pick us up at 8:30 AM the next morning (Monday) to head to Munnar, about a 4 hour drive.
One of the first things we did at the hotel was to hand wash everything we could. I had no clothes at all in my bag, and Diane had mostly only clothes in hers. Between the two of us, we were like one complete person. Luckily, I had put in one extra blouse and underwear in my carry-on, so I at least had something I could change into while I washed. By the time we got settled in and finished washing, we discovered that the hotel’s restaurant was closed and wouldn’t be open until 7:00 PM. We hardly had time to eat anything for breakfast because sleep was more important, we flew through lunch, and now we’d have to wait another 2 hours to eat dinner.
Bogatty Island Palace Hotel
Clothes drying on the railing of our porch at the hotel
We ended up having a full body massage, watching a Kathakali dancer (the traditional cultural art of Kerala), got a sandwich, walked around the hotel grounds, and got our wash done. We were relaxed and ready for the next day. That was so much better than what our taxi driver was trying to make us do. We can still see Ft. Cochin when we return to Cochin on Friday. I also emailed Praveen to see if there was any way we could get another driver for the remainder of our trip.
Monday morning, we found out that our luggage hadn’t made it to Mumbai. That was a blow since from here on, we will only be in one place for 1-2 days, and our luggage might just be one step behind us all the way. Praveen went to bat for us to see what he could do. He also got us a new driver, Jose, who is awesome! He speaks English quite well and is a very good driver. Our prayers were answered at least in one department.
We left the hotel at 11:00 AM because we were waiting to hear about our luggage. We drove 4 hours to Munnar and stopped at the spice plantation for a tour, and at a restaurant for lunch. It was a beautiful drive, and we drove through several little towns through the mountains. We arrived at Tea County Hotel early evening, got settled in, and had some dinner. We had a nice day.
We had hoped that the luggage would arrive last night or early this morning, but not so! We decided to give all our laundry to the hotel, and Diane let me wear some of her clothes today. We left for the day with Jose. We went to a wildlife sanctuary called Eravikulam National Park. The only animals we saw were mountain sheep, but the ride was spectacular through all the tea plantations up high into the mountains. We met a really cute Indian couple on their tenth anniversary there. They actually have been living in Seattle for 6 years and just recently moved back here. We spent time with them and later kept running into them wherever we went.
A mountain sheep.
Next, we headed to the tea museum, Matuapetty Dam (built after at flood of 1924), and the elephant ride. We rode an Indian elephant, which was really fun. Then, we headed back to our hotel. Again, the restaurant for this hotel was closed, but we were able to get a sandwich. While waiting for the elephant ride, we got a call from our hotel stating that they had received our bags! We rejoiced! We haven’t seen our bags since 4:00 AM when we checked them into Cape Town on Friday morning. It’s now Tuesday night – that’s almost FIVE WHOLE DAYS!
Matuapetty Dam
Women cutting tea - tea plantations grow everywhere.
My battery died, so we didn't get us on the elephants, but this is what it looked like.
All in all, I would say that India is very similar to Kenya’s rural parts. Mumbai was very dirty and congested – from what we saw leaving the airport. We totally missed the Mumbai part of our trip, so there might have been something better than what we saw. We seem to be almost the only white people around. Where we are now is gorgeous, but there is a constant haze that is common this time of year apparently. It’s been most interesting to see how Indians live, their bathrooms (which are even more interesting than in Kenya, if you can believe that!), and to try some of their foods. People honk a lot at each other, but it’s more about saying that they are passing or something like that, or as a warning. It’s not done in anger at someone like at home.
Things are looking up now. Tomorrow we head off to Thekkady for the next part of our Indian trip. Let’s hope it is only fun and very uneventful. Well, I’m finally caught up on my blog for now. Hopefully, I’ll have internet access in all the rest of our hotels until we fly to Chennai (formerly Madres).
Hope to have you visit my blog again soon,
Kadi
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