Come to think about it, it was really dangerous and ballsy of what I did.
Three in the morning, my mom and I were in a plane from Colombo to Mumbai and it just arrived in Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. You can call me adventurous or stupid, but I had decided not to book an accommodation before arrival. Our plan was to find a good spot in the airport, stay through the night and search for a place to stay in downtown Mumbai only the next morning. So we wandered around searching for a nice corner where we could just lie down and sleep. From my experience, all the nice facilities of airport are in the departure hall, and so departure hall was our obvious choice.
But then I realized, there was no way to go there from the arrival hall from inside the airport. We went outside and the rain started pouring, and there were tonnes of tonnes of local Indians outside who I was not sure what were they doing there. Probably waiting for the arriving people or waiting for their planes. Anyway, we found a staircase, took it and went up to the entrance of the departure hall.
First thing I noticed : tight security. Many soldiers with rifles at the entrance. We acted casual and tried to get in. Apparently, one needed to show his flight ticket to get in. Being the only outsiders at that moment, we were not that difficult to be spotted and immediately we were stopped. I tried hard to explain the situation, even beg them, but they refused regardless. We then went back to the arrival hall, not as many soldiers but the same, they just won't let us in!
I panicked. It was four something in the morning, there was still a few hours before dawn. We had no way to get inside and I didn't want to stay outside the airport either, considering the rain and the crowd. Plus we already had had a long day transitting in KLIA and Colombo airport, we were exhausted. The only option left was to head to a nearby hotel. Hilton signboard was within sight, but I didn't feel like spending so much within just the first few hours into our trip while we still had a few weeks to go with our limited budget. Luckily, I had a backup plan. I had copied down a few cheaper hotels' names and addresses situated downtown Mumbai beforehand. So, we hopped into a taxi, heading to downtown.
As soon as we hit the road, the rain was tamed down quite a bit, from downpour to drizzling. As expected, the road infrastructure was quite poor. Not very well lit, lacking of lane markings and uneven paved surface making the taxi ride quite bumpy sometimes. But the lacking of streetlights was my major concern as darkness makes everything scarier. It is a common sense not to get around in dark places at night, and now I had to go against my common sense. Our safety could be in jeopardy anytime. Our alertness was in all time high.
I saw Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station and I knew that we had arrived in the very centre of Mumbai. In our taxi, we headed to the first hotel on my list. Leaving my mom and our bags in the taxi while I get down to ask. Full! Then we headed for the second one. Full! The third one : Full too! The fourth? Door closed and no one replied the door! My list ran out! What should I do?!
Then we went back to the third one to ask for any other hotels nearby. The receptionist showed me a not so good looking hotel not far away. I rang the bell and kept praying : please answer the door and please be a vacant room. A few minutes later, I heard some sound and then someone in sarong with a sleepy face came to the door. And guess what, there still was a room left! It cost 1700 rupees, but I simply didn't care anymore. I paid the taxi driver and we moved into our room. Too much alertness and it became paranoia, I even used our backpacks to block the door after I locked our room, just to make sure that we were really safe. We were so tired that we fell asleep as soon as we lay down on bed.
That was a long long night...
First thing I noticed : tight security. Many soldiers with rifles at the entrance. We acted casual and tried to get in. Apparently, one needed to show his flight ticket to get in. Being the only outsiders at that moment, we were not that difficult to be spotted and immediately we were stopped. I tried hard to explain the situation, even beg them, but they refused regardless. We then went back to the arrival hall, not as many soldiers but the same, they just won't let us in!
I panicked. It was four something in the morning, there was still a few hours before dawn. We had no way to get inside and I didn't want to stay outside the airport either, considering the rain and the crowd. Plus we already had had a long day transitting in KLIA and Colombo airport, we were exhausted. The only option left was to head to a nearby hotel. Hilton signboard was within sight, but I didn't feel like spending so much within just the first few hours into our trip while we still had a few weeks to go with our limited budget. Luckily, I had a backup plan. I had copied down a few cheaper hotels' names and addresses situated downtown Mumbai beforehand. So, we hopped into a taxi, heading to downtown.
As soon as we hit the road, the rain was tamed down quite a bit, from downpour to drizzling. As expected, the road infrastructure was quite poor. Not very well lit, lacking of lane markings and uneven paved surface making the taxi ride quite bumpy sometimes. But the lacking of streetlights was my major concern as darkness makes everything scarier. It is a common sense not to get around in dark places at night, and now I had to go against my common sense. Our safety could be in jeopardy anytime. Our alertness was in all time high.
I saw Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station and I knew that we had arrived in the very centre of Mumbai. In our taxi, we headed to the first hotel on my list. Leaving my mom and our bags in the taxi while I get down to ask. Full! Then we headed for the second one. Full! The third one : Full too! The fourth? Door closed and no one replied the door! My list ran out! What should I do?!
Then we went back to the third one to ask for any other hotels nearby. The receptionist showed me a not so good looking hotel not far away. I rang the bell and kept praying : please answer the door and please be a vacant room. A few minutes later, I heard some sound and then someone in sarong with a sleepy face came to the door. And guess what, there still was a room left! It cost 1700 rupees, but I simply didn't care anymore. I paid the taxi driver and we moved into our room. Too much alertness and it became paranoia, I even used our backpacks to block the door after I locked our room, just to make sure that we were really safe. We were so tired that we fell asleep as soon as we lay down on bed.
That was a long long night...
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