Our 2-week trip to India was a bit of a trip of opposites. In India we witnessed some of the lowest levels of poverty we have seen. Yet, on the way there and back we had the opportunity to fly in Business Class - the elite of elite in airline travel. In some ways it made me feel a bit guilty, but also thankful for the the privileges we have been afforded. Over the next series of posts, I'll share our experiences in the Mumbai area, Southern India and Northern India.
Travel to India on Business Class
Over the past few years we had taken advantage of some of the travel credit card promotions and banked quite a few points. We earned the introductory point bonus upon signing up for a few different cards. However, we made sure to never carry a balance, so the points basically became free. Alex had worked hard on the credit card points, so we decided to reward ourselves with a little business class travel to India. Alex spent hours researching the best flight itineraries and airlines to fly in business class and picked the flights based on those specifications. It wasn't the most direct or fastest flight itinerary to say the least. ;-)
On our first day of travel, our flights looked like this:
Air Canada – YYC – LAX
Asiana – LAX – ICN – HKG
The Asiana experience was great. We actually ended up being seated in the upper level of the Boeing 747, which is something I've always wondered what it would be like. There were basically only 10 rows and 3-4 flight attendants to service that area, so service was super fast. Of all the different flights we flew, Asiana had some of the best business class service.
After our layover in Icheon, South Korea, we continued on to Hong Kong where we had a 16-hour overnight layover. We did end up getting a hotel; however, we slept so well on the flights that we weren't as tired as we thought we might be.
Second Day of Flights
Hong Kong was a fun layover, as we had enough time to go explore a small bit of Hong Kong in the morning before having to head to the airport to continue on to Mumbai. Plus, with our internal clocks being so off, we got an early start to the exploration. We enjoyed dumplings for brunch and even rode the Midlevel Escalators. This part of Hong Kong is so steep that they they've helped out the locals even with getting them from top to bottom and back again. However, the escalators go a certain direction (up or down) based on the time of day. As we were checking them out during the morning when most people would be needing to get down to work, markets, etc. we had to walk up and then ride down.
Thai Airways – HKG - Bangkok - Bombay/Mumbai (Feb. 10-11)
After checking into our Thai Airways flight to Bangkok we enjoyed the Thai Airways Lounge in Hong Kong, where they even had Nintendo Wii games you could play. We specifically picked our itinerary for this particular leg, as we wanted to experience the Thai Airways Royal Orchid Spa in their main flight lounge in Bangkok. If you fly business class on Thai and go through Bangkok, their main base, then you get a free 30 minute massage in their spa. (Flying 1st Class gives you a 60 minute massage.) That sounded super enticing. Sometimes I enjoyed the lounge experiences more than the flight on this business class excursion. The planes were a bit older on Thai, so they didn't have some of the same amenities and features, but the massage definitely was worth it.
Day 1 & 2: Mumbai
We stayed at an airport hotel the first night and then had to take a train into Mumbai. However, it was crazy how cheap it was in India to get around. It was only 15 cents for a tuk tuk ride from the hotel to the train station and then only 8 rupees for a second class train ticket into the city. The train was a unique experience, but it did remind us of the movies with wide open doors & windows with men hanging out of them and jumping off at their stops. However, I think in most situations it's for fun or for circulation of air, as the inside wasn't overcrowded in some situations. Plus, jumping off was more for the novelty of it, as there was always enough time to get off at the stations. Keeping with the train theme, one of the first places we explored in Mumbai was the Victoria Train Station.
Markets in Mumbai
We set out to explore some of the popular sites of Mumbai, which included several markets. We hit up the bustling Crawford Market & Bhendi Market. We quickly discovered that everything has two names, including the markets and street names, which sometimes became confusing. We even saw our first Dabbawallah - a person on a bicycle who delivers cooked meals to workers. There was action every which way you looked. However, we did observe that the people in the market weren't as pushy as some of the people in the markets in China & SE Asia.
We also walked through the Char Bazaar, which is a Muslim based market; located in the supposedly Muslim ghetto. We saw several tents within the area that were full-time homes. While walking through this area we also saw lots of goats - some even wearing clothes. I'm not exactly sure the reason why we found more goats here, but I think quite a few of them might have been used for milk, as well as goat meat is permitted by Muslims as long as it is Halal. However, it seemed like almost every family had one, as there were so many.
Chowpatty Beach
In the late afternoon/evening we headed to Chowpatty Beach and enjoyed food from a vendor and had a bit of a 'beach picnic' as they had mats sitting out for people to sit on. I had the puffed rice dish that Chowpatty is known for, as well as some Kulfi - Indian ice cream.
One of the other observations we made on the first day was that taxi drivers always seemed to use the meter. In SE Asia and China we pretty much always had to specify we wanted them to use the meter for price purposes.
Gate of India & Taj Mahal Palace Hotel:
We started out our second morning visiting the Gate of India, which was built for when the King & Queen of England came to Bombay to visit. It's also located close to the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. While we were there we were approached by two men wearing holy attire wanting to do a little ritual. We initially declined them, but they said that is was just a friendly gesture, so I caved. They tied a string around our wrists and then gave us a red dot on the forehead. Then they gave us some white candy and said we should eat it, as this was all for 'good luck.' In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have eaten the candy, but luckily we weren't drugged. ;-)
Elephanta Island:
We took a boat ride to Elephanta Island, which is a historical site with cave carvings of the Hindu gods from 200-400 AD. The boat ride was 120 rupees and took about an hour. They even had a little miniature train you could take to get to the entrance from the boat for 10 rupees; although it was only a 3 minute walk. However, the entry was definitely more expensive for foreigners than Indians. We paid 250 rupees per person, whereas visitors from India only paid 10 rupees per person. This price discrepancy was consistent amongst tourist attractions in India.
While the cave carvings were really interesting, the non-cave experiences were some of the most memorable. We encountered monkeys, dogs, cows and goats on the island; and ALL were hungry for human food. Some of the monkeys would even come up to children and snatch their food from them. Then the cows and goats would chase people who had the grilled corn; however, the cows were probably the funniest as they would sneak up from behind and startle the person as well. We even saw a dog trying to steal the corn from a goat; which the goat defended himself and his corn by head-butting him back.
Old Bombay & Cricket
When we arrived back from the island we did a colonial era walking tour, which included St. Thomas Cathedral & several other Victorian era buildings. We also came across some Sunday afternoon Cricket Games, a couple games were even happening right in the middle of the streets. We watched as we enjoyed some tea from a Chai Walla (tea vendor). The cricket scene in Shivaji Park was the most entertaining. It was so packed with a variety of cricket games happening that if the ball went into another game, the other teams would just field and help keep the game going. It was such a picturesque setting for the cricket games as well with all the colonial buildings in the background.
The following day we continued our trip onto Southern India by taking a flight from Mumbai to Kochi.
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