How not to get to Mumbai

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Hooray!! Time to go to India! After enduring what seemed like an interminable period of incredibly boring food, it was time to go somewhere where they used spices!!

We had been looking forward to India for a variety of reasons. Apart from the food, there was the culture, the insane traffic, and of course several centuries of history and architecture to look at!! We were also steeling ourselves for the horde of beggars that we imagined descending upon us even as we left the airport...

Our lonely planet told us that June is NOT the time to go to India, as this is the really really hot season, but hey, we didn't have a choice but figured that if we could cope with the desert in Tunisia and Egypt, we could cope with anything India could throw our way!! So bring it on!

Unfortunately we had chosen a most inconvenient way to fly to Mumbai. Because we were on a round-the-world ticket, and we had to fly with airlines that are part of the one-world alliance, we had to fly Kigali to Nairobi (2hr flight), wait around for 4 hours, then fly to Johannesburg (3 hours), wait around for 12 hours, then fly to Hong Kong (about 15 hours), wait around for7 hours, then fly to Mumbai (4 hours, with a 1 hour stopover in Bangkok)!! So that was something like 2 days of travel to get to Mumbai.

The airport at Rwanda was nice and cute and dare I say efficient... except they couldn't cope with this complicated route, and we ended up spending some quality time with Air Kenya explaining it all 😊. They finally figured out how to arrange for our bags to go all the way to Mumbai without us checking them in at every single stopover!! Yay! They even managed to give us boarding passes for our next flight from Nairobi to Joburg!!

So we get to Nairobi. Found ourselves a nice cafe, and proceeded to drown our sorrows in copious quantities of coffee and soft drinks, and played cards for a solid 4 hours!! We wanted to check that our boarding passes were ok, but nobody was able to help us until a gate was announced for the flight. This happened 30 min before the flight left!! So we head off to the gate, and sure enough, Air Kenya strikes again. The good man at the counter advises us that they are not able to accept our ticket on the flight without permission from BA (for reasons far beyond my comprehension). I do my best 'Sir, we WILL be going on this flight, how we achieve this is your problem" thing, and point out that I have got a boarding pass already, to no avail. So he gets on the radio, tells the ground crew to get our bags off the plane...only to discover our bags aren't on the plane either. Great, so now we aren't going on this plane, AND our bags are probably in Zanzibar 😊

15 more tense minutes followed, with Catherine and I arguing hard that since Air Kenya had given us boarding passes, the problem was theirs, and we shouldn't have to suffer for it, and would you believe it, right at the last minute, he got permission to let us board the plane!! So we get escorted on, VIP style, and enter the plane to meet the baleful glares of the other passengers who were waiting to take off 😞

I should point out that we still didn't know where our bags are yet. But neither did Air Kenya, so hey... the nice man assured us that since Air Kenya flies to Mumbai directly from Nairobi (!!!!!!) that the bags would get there before we would. Grr.

So - we hop onto the plane, and head off to Johannesburg. Now Joburg is a large modern city, with a very swish airport!! Felt like we were back in civilisation again, or at least a technologically advanced one at any case. Unfortunately we arrived at 1am, and while we were able to go to our transit lounge, there was nobody around to talk to or even ask for help re: our bags, organising our boarding passes, etc etc!! Spent a lot of time chatting with a few of the cleaners, who were very nice.

One other nice thing about Joburg airport is they have really nice long seats which you can stretch our on - great for those 12 hour stopovers!! We were quite touched when one of the security guards came over to Catherine and offered her a jumper to use, as Catherine obviously looked very cold. She just told us to return it before the end of her shift.

So - 12 hours later,we are sick and tired of Joburg airport.We have eaten at almost every cafe, slept on every couch, browsed at every store, even the one that specialised in Beef Jerky (a whole store specialising in this - what gives?? That is serious diversification). But we finally got to get onto our next flight, which was with Cathay Pacific. Incidentally, when we checked in at Cathay Pacific, it appeared that our bags were on the flight, so at this point, we didn't know who to believe.

One long flight across the Indian ocean, and we arrive in Hong Kong. Another swish airport, with loads of shops and facilities and yummy chinese food!! You can even take a shower (for $20US unfortunately). But we spent the time playing cards (again) and slept on their very uncomfortable couches 😞 Finally got to board our Cathay Pacific flight to Mumbai - at this point we were well and truly fed up with travelling and just wanted to go home, but Mumbai would have to do!!

We arrived at Mumbai, and not only were our bags there, but they were the first off the rack. Hooray for Air Kenya! Hooray for Cathay Pacific!! Gotta expect good things...

So much for the wrong way to get to Mumbai. We'll follow up with more India stories soon.

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Comments

[LULU]

SUCKY TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HATED GOING TO AFRICA AND WILL NEVER GO BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!