Dodging the Bullet (s)
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2009
1
44
70
Trip End
Dec 27, 2009
Where I stayed
Hotel Residency
Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India
Friday, November 6, 2009
We had an early up to catch the Jet Airlines flight from Aurangabad to Mumbai. Once we entered the airport at 6:30 AM we found that our 8:30 AM plane was not at the airport yet. It was still in Mumbai. The official line was that there was some "congestion" in Mumbai International and the plane would fly up to meet us soon and we could board. We were going to be at least one hour late.
We sat in the main airport waiting area and began watching the local TV news station in Hindi.
We soon noticed that the whole waiting area was filling up with Muslims dressed in simple white robes. They each carried a simple black hand bag, and little else. Many of the women were veiled, either in all white of all black robes. It was certainly some sort of group effort. I took a few photos on the sly to record the event. Then I noticed one gentleman's bag and it had a sign on the side that told the story. He was the Haj coordinator for the Aurangabad area.
I got a local paper and it had an article on how India Airlines had provided 6 or more flights from Aurangabad directly to Jedda, Saudi Arabia for Muslim Haj Pilgrims for the Ramadan celebrations. This was apparently one of those flights. The place was packed and the lines for customs was moving very slowly for these folks, as Aurangabad is not an International Airport and the whole customs set up was a new temp set up operation. Muslims are required to make at least one trip to their holy land during their lives., I watched as many of these people prepared to fly, many I believe, for the first time. They were excited and scared at the same time. It was fun to watch them prepare for their journey
Our attention was diverted back to the television as weather shows showed the familiar Hurricane symbol. You know the one, it looks like a saw blade. Over here they call them Cyclones. The storm was moving north up the coast toward Mumbai. We watched and could not understand the Hindi. There were symbols showing the number 400 on the screen. I questioned a local as to the meaning of the number 400. "400 Kilometer winds? I queried." No he said, "Distance!" The storm was 400 KM south and west of Mumbai and heading straight toward it. I did a quick calculation. We were about 200 KM east of Mumbai and waiting for our plane to arrive. We were going to be flying toward the storm , some time from now...
I determined that the sooner we fly the better, as the storm was closing on the city. The reports on TV cited Government buildings being shut down, schools closed, and lots of shots of reporters in raincoats on the coast watching the waves and wind build. You know the routine.
After the Haji Pilgrims boarded and departed, our plane arrived and we boarded without incident one hour behind schedule. We have plenty of time, I assured Barbara, who by now was getting nervous. (Barb loves to travel, and HATES to fly.)
After take off the pilot came on the intercom and explained that there was more congestion than normal at the Mumbai Airport, due to the fact that only one of two runways was currently in use.
I opened my newspaper again and saw why. The previous evening (a Tuesday) a Kingfisher airliner tried to land on what they called the shortened runway. The surface was wet from the storms rainfall. The plane hydroplaned upon landing and skidded off the runway and into the mud. Planes need 15% more runway when it is wet as they have less friction and less traction on the surface. The newspaper reported that the runways are shortened on Tuesdays to perform work . The whole layout is two runways in the form of a giant ' X". One lane is totally disabled to to repair work to be completed in Jan. The other / of the X is fully open during the week, except for Tuesday when they work on the middle of the X , thereby shortening their only runway by 1/2! They had had three major incidents in the last three weeks (All on the Tuesdays), ALL ON THE SHORT RUNWAY..
I explained this to Barbara and reassured her that this was a Wednesday. "Not to worry!. No Problem" I explained confidently, as we began our decent to approach for landing. Then the pilot came on the intercom again.... "Apparently we have been waived off our approach, as there is another airliner reporting an emergency. We will land after he has completed his landing. " He seemed calm and comfortable with this turn in events. " Not our problem" , I said to Barbara.
We took a very long and low flight over Mumbai, the ocean, and the port area. We could see the slums, buildings, and ships in the harbor. As we again approached the shoreline the pilot once again brought us some news. The plane that had gone before us, had had a problem. It had blown a tire upon landing. The fire crews and emergency vehicles would take a while to remove the aircraft from the runway. (The only available runway!) .
The pilot added that the "good news" was that we had 2 hours of fuel left in the tanks so "Nothing to worry about" Nervous laughter filled the coach. The clock kept running and Cyclone Phyan kept closing.
Well, this news pretty much ripped it for Barbie. I tried to reassure her. What do you say? "Gee, the emergency vehicles are all warmed up, they are right out there and ready to go!" The ride was getting a bit bumpier as the winds from Cyclone Phyan picked up. I was still trying to calculate distance and time. We were now in the air delayed once again, now over two hours behind. I did not know the speed of the storm over the ground. Fortunately the disabled plane was removed from the runway and we were able to make our "Final Approach". As we neared the ground I could see lots of water on the runway. I think the design is an old one. There is a lot of water on the surface, and it did not appear to drain well. It looked like inches of water on the surface. The pilot came in very fast. Everyone was absolutely quiet on board. When the plane touched down, a huge spray enveloped the rear one half of the plane. It was spectacular! Barb was simultaneously thrilled and exhausted by the hours of stress.
We went to the hotel Residency by cab and found the best room of our trip.The whole town was prepping for the arrival of Phyan. People were closing their shops early and bustling home as fast as they could. We took an early dinner, and were surprised to find beef on the menu! WOW, we had beef steaks stuffed with cream cheese mushrooms and onions. We went to our hotel room with the flat screen TV and watched the storm unfold. We were lucky, and Mumbai was lucky. The storm missed the city and ran up the coast fizzling out. Unfortunately for 68 missing fisherman, the storm was very real.
The next day was clear and the air was absolutely clean. My breathing continued to improve. We walked around the old city. The architecture resembles old British buildings. I shot several pictures as we walked down to the Gate of India and the Taj Palace Hotel. We visited the hotel which was the site of the terrorist attack known here as 26/11 as it happened on the 26th on November last year. Preparations were underway for the one year anniversary of the horrific events that occurred here. About 10 terrorists from Pakistan attacked this hotel and one other, in addition attacked a Chabad House here in Mumbai, killing many, many innocent people in the process. There is now a shrine/memorial in the main lobby of the Taj Palace to those who lost their lives here during the attack which lasted for several days. One art object, the tree of life, survived unscathed on the fifth floor which was totally destroyed. The tree is now part of the memorial in the main lobby.
We spent the last part of our second day in Mumbai at the Prince of Wales Museum. It had some fine art objects and was small but worth the visit, Get the Audio guide if you go there.
Each evening we found ourselves going back to the same neighborhood restaurant, the Mocambo, for some variation of a steak dinner. (Hey, we didn't know if we would see beef again!)
The next morning we got up at 3:30 AM and left the hotel. In the street, we awoke a cab driver sleeping in his cab, and 15 minutes later we were at the Victoria Train Station in Mumbai. The travel guide says that 2 million people a day go through here. As we entered at 4 AM I believe it. There were hundreds of folks sleeping on the floor. I took a few shots as I toted by bags toward platform number 4. I got a paper and read how a train had derailed here yesterday, and there were more accidents in other places in the country. We got on our Shatabdi Express 2nd class Chair car and headed south to the south western coast of India. As we rolled along the country side became more and more tropical. Palms andf Bamboo everywhere. No lack of water here. We got off the train in Madagon, near the old colonial Portugeuese enclave of Goa. We hire a quick cab and in 40 minutres we were sitting on the beach under the palm trees in Palolem. We had managed to "thread the needle between plane and train crashes, and were now sitting comfortably on the India coast of the Arabian Sea.
Comments
Must admit that I'd be a little ripped too! "Threading between the plane and the train" episodes! Hang in there Barbie.
what a terrifying experience flying down to Mumbai. I didn't know anything about the cyclone, I don't mind flying but am always glad on landing safely. Mumbai is a strange airport, we flew in and changed to a little plane for Goa and it seemed, while very high security as you would expect, very ramshackle . Now I can see why. Scary. Tuesdays. Well I never. Palolem! What a contrast from the places you have been! Patnem,s nice too, and now you've got used to India, maybe u wd like to go to Gokarna. I loved it.