Mumbai International Airport

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I had a flight at 3:50am. I started out at midnight from Andheri Railway Station. I got in a rickshaw, the driver started the meter and took off but then turned around and told me that I will have to pay 200 Rs so I got out. I asked another rickshaw driver who said 150 Rs. I walked a bit more and the third driver said 60 Rs so I got in. he also started his meter. When we got there, the meter said 110 Rs but he took only 60 Rs. I forgot that charges at night are a bit more than during the day. Wow, I drove a hard bargain without knowing it. The airport was so small and so crammed full of people. There were no seats anywhere so I sat on the floor to eat. I found the Jazeera Airways counter all the way at the other end of the airport and the agent told me I have to scan my bags before checking in. the scanning queue was really long but very fast. After checking in, I had to go all the way back to the other end of the airport to go through immigration. There were so many people but there were many lines. After immigration, we all had to get scanned, the men and the women in different sections because they gave each person a body check. The women’s section had a screen so the men couldn’t see the women getting a body check. The line up was really really long. By the time I got to the boarding gate, it was 2:45am. This is one airport where one really has to get here 3 hours before flight time!
When I came back to Mumbai, my flight landed at 3am and I was originally planning to mill around the airport until the trains were working but thank god I didn’t because there isn’t anywhere to mill around. The airport is so small and basically when you get out from immigration, you have to get out. The only phone that existed was just outside the entrance and it was manned by a blind guy. My call was 15 Rs and when I gave him a 100 Rs bill, he took it and said he doesn’t have change (which I know is a lie) so I took it back and said I’ll get change. I didn’t manage to get change but got smaller bills, and when I went back to the blind guy, an airport staff was there so the blind guy gave me proper change. I’ve learned to always have lots of change because people always want to keep the change whenever I pay for something, even the collector on buses. So now, I always have the exact change.
To get a taxi at the airport, you have to go to the “prepaid taxi” counter, pay for your taxi, and they give you a number. Then you have to go out to where the taxis are parked and find the taxi with that number. My driver asked me for a tip and I gave him 5%. I’m not sure if I should have as I know that you are not suppose to tip auto-rickshaw drivers.

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