5 th March, 2016 - Transfer from Kerala to Mumbai

This is really a day of travel to transfer us from Kerala via a drive back to Kochi over a timeframe of some 3 hours and then a flight to Mumbai and transfer to the iconic Mumbai Oberoi Hotel. 

To date everything has worked like clock work, but we are to run into a bureaucratic shambles at the airport with a significant delay as our plane has been delayed flying out of Mumbai due to several incidents.  We hear more ,but all remains confirmed so no point in commenting. Little did we know of any coming issues or events until we are enjoying a beautiful buffet luncheon at Marriott Courtyard hotel some 2 minutes from Mumbai domestic terminal.

Our guild Peter Pappas comes to each group at lunch with a downcast look.   He visits each of us during the lunch to advise that there are delays hopefully of short duration, but he cannot advise further details.  Well this goes on for the next 90 minutes so we assume our 1.35pm flight is delayed for 1-2 hours at worst. 

The decision is made to get us all into the terminal and be positioned through security and to make the worst of a difficult situation.  So we board our coach ,reach the terminal and now find that despite our aircraft supposedly being en-route, there is now  no scheduled departure time.  Without going into detail, we eventually board at 17.30 pm but do not depart until 18.45pm and our 1 hour 45 minute flight takes 2.10 hours.  We eventually arrive in Mumai at almost 21.00pm then meet our guide Jeanette and have an hour 20 minutes to the Oberoi.

We drive passed several of the iconic Mumbai buildings and eventually reach the Oberoi at 10.25pm.  The Oberoi Mumbai hotel is everything we were promised.  It is simply beautiful and our suite is luxurious with views over the Queen's necklace better known as Marine Boulevard.  The lights at night are just beautiful.

A long frustrating day compounded by a lack of advice and Communications.  But we are in Mumai the"City of Gold"' and home to 22 million people, nearly the same population as all of Australia.  But the delay has significantly impacted our sight seeing . This will also impact tomorrow morning.