Our journey from ChiangMai was to Southern India through Bangkok and Mumbai. We had allowed a couple of hours break between flights and were wondering what we might do to fill in the time. We needn't have worried. We had booked tickets right through, off the internet and intended to board planes and disembark as is the norm. But not to be.
We were not allowed to check on to the plane in Bangkok as we did not have a ticket to exit India. Somehow I think that the Indian government has an idea that everyone landing here is intending to stay! I think that more than half of the locals here are in fact trying to leave.....if there are any corner dairies left in NZ then I am sure there is a million Indians hoping to be allocated the business. It took us nye on two hours to decide and book a flight and have a credit card that would process. (What did we ever do before the internet!) We now have a flight out to Dubai with Emirates dated 25 May. JetAirways allowed us to board our flight but we were running late by take-off time and stressed a little as the plane doors closed.
4 hours later we were on the ground in Mumbai. (Maybe it was a bad start as we entered the immigration area. Usually they are quite sombre orderly affairs but for the first time we experienced a run of emotions with yelling and ranting from a passenger as he exited the area...the only English we heard was "Bangladeshi shit"!)
We thought everything would be green light again for us and it was....until we hit the immigration desk. "No Visa, no entry" said the pan faced head wobbling local. "Hang on, mate, we're friends with Ed. Hillary, you know the man, he is one of us". "No Visa, no entry"......another wobble or two. (Don't you love them?). We were under the misapprehension that as NZers we had waived Visa rights and could get a stamp at the border and in we go. Two more hours and several signatures, everything in triplicate but no one has told them about carbon paper yet.....we did meet a dot matrix printer though.
Rob was taken away to another room to pay the money. Memories came flooding back of India 33 years previous as our passports were paraded between offices and closed doors. You can do nothing but sit and wait for the process to take its' course. We were wondering if our bags would be still going around on the carousel! They were at the Jet Airways desk and we hurried to checkin for Bangaluru. We were in time but the bus had already departed for the domestic terminal. Off downstairs to patiently wait for a handwritten taxi chit...in duplicate...and into a minute taxi with our bags on the roof! Checked through the bags, through security...men one way, woman another....Rob with both boarding passes!!
We used up our two hours with nothing to spare as again we were the last ones into the plane bound for Bangalore. A bit of luck was on our side - we could hardly call it 'good management'. Our taxi pick up was perfect and drop off to our hotel at midnight ended a fairly long, frustrating, interesting day.......I think many more of them to come. Our idea of visiting Sri Lanka may now go on the back burner as we can't contemplate asking if we can re-enter India to fly out on the 25th from Mumbai.
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