Flight day - and a Christmas Elf

We depart in torrential rain which eases off  as G drives to the airport. Meet and Greet and check in run smoothly, but security is always a hassle as all my camera equipment has to be taken out to go through the scanner, then I’m taken aside for the usual security checks deemed necessary for my medical accoutrements! It’s a good job G is available to pick up all my scanned stuff! 

Flights go smoothly, as does the transfer in Abu Dhabi with a blissful hour in the lounge. Arrival in Mumbai involves the longest walk ever to get from plane to passport control, then a long and slow queue to enter the country. Even at 2.45 am the airport is teeming with passengers.  

We pick up our luggage, purchase a pre-paid taxi to our hotel, then wait seemingly endlessly in the balmy Mumbai night while a group of men seem to be phoning drivers assuring us that it’ll only be ‘2 minutes’. 

At last our driver arrives and drives us to the sanctuary of the Taj Palace where once through security (cars are checked for explosive devices and all luggage goes through a scanner - practices dating back to when this hotel was under siege in the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai in which 164 were killed. It’s a practice familiar to us from previous visits to India. 

Once inside, it’s a sanctuary of peace. Greetings of Namaste are everywhere, and a red Tilak or bindi mark is placed on our foreheads while a garland of dried holy basil goes round our necks. 

We’re taken to a room in the heritage wing - the original hotel - though I’ve booked the newer Tower. We’re not complaining - it’s beautiful  - though all we now want to do is get some sleep ……

I’ve not taken a single photo today, so I’m posting a photo of Lili in the elf outfit I bought her received by us on the plane wifi / the wonders of technology!