Having landed safely at Mumbai airport after a reasonable 9 hour flight and with our numerous luggage in tact, we exited the airport doors to be faced with a wall of damp heat. Euh.
Within minutes we were picked up by our trusty driver Kartik and after tussling our six large bags into every nook and cranny of the car, set off 'home' in air conditioned bliss.
I was somewhat dazed and lethargic having not slept a wink on the plane but that soon changed when I was bumped into life....and then again with a loud bang. Only about 20 minutes out of the airport and we'd had a car crash! We were waiting in a line of traffic when the car in front had started and then stopped suddenly. Our driver slammed on his brakes to avoid bumping into them but unfortunately the guy behind us did not have such quick reactions. Even more unfortunately, a large armoured truck behind then bumped into him which caused him to crash into our car, removing the bumper. There was a chain reaction behind the truck when at least 5 more cars and a small truck bumped into the back of each other. Bang, bang, ...bang.......bang.
Remarkably a police man turned up within a second and ushered us and the car behind (a rather small tin can Suzuki) onto the other side of the road. By this point we had only served to worsen the tailback. The guy behind then got out of this car in order to have an altercation with our driver, trying to blame him for the crash. Noticing our imported car its British expat inhabitants, he no doubt thought he was onto a winner. Thankfully he soon backed off once Mr Jules (my husband) got out of the car and when I started taking photos of the damage (he even stopped to smooth back his hair!) Needless to say the police guy did not come back to assist, two or three cars drove off with dents but without insurance details (wonder why!) and then we eventually drove off leaving a few cars on the other side of road with their drivers scratching their heads.
WELCOME TO MUMBAI!
Within minutes we were picked up by our trusty driver Kartik and after tussling our six large bags into every nook and cranny of the car, set off 'home' in air conditioned bliss.
I was somewhat dazed and lethargic having not slept a wink on the plane but that soon changed when I was bumped into life....and then again with a loud bang. Only about 20 minutes out of the airport and we'd had a car crash! We were waiting in a line of traffic when the car in front had started and then stopped suddenly. Our driver slammed on his brakes to avoid bumping into them but unfortunately the guy behind us did not have such quick reactions. Even more unfortunately, a large armoured truck behind then bumped into him which caused him to crash into our car, removing the bumper. There was a chain reaction behind the truck when at least 5 more cars and a small truck bumped into the back of each other. Bang, bang, ...bang.......bang.
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| This guy definitely got off worse than us... |
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| The rest of the pile up behind us (ha just noticed the advertising hoarding how appropriate!) |
Remarkably a police man turned up within a second and ushered us and the car behind (a rather small tin can Suzuki) onto the other side of the road. By this point we had only served to worsen the tailback. The guy behind then got out of this car in order to have an altercation with our driver, trying to blame him for the crash. Noticing our imported car its British expat inhabitants, he no doubt thought he was onto a winner. Thankfully he soon backed off once Mr Jules (my husband) got out of the car and when I started taking photos of the damage (he even stopped to smooth back his hair!) Needless to say the police guy did not come back to assist, two or three cars drove off with dents but without insurance details (wonder why!) and then we eventually drove off leaving a few cars on the other side of road with their drivers scratching their heads.
WELCOME TO MUMBAI!
Oh you naughty thing! I knew you were off and I meant to say Bon Voyage but you slipped away without my noticing! Well, Bon Courage instead then! Txx
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I forgot to mention that no-one was hurt in the fracas! Just grumpy and a little shocked, and very inconvenienced!!
ReplyDelete