Mumbai to Trivandrum

Landing mid-morning on a sunny 1st of January 2018. The view out the window was of hillsides covered in houses and shacks and high rises all jumbled together. Twenty million people live in Mumbai now! The threads of all these lives entwined in of the most crowded cities in the world. All doing what they can to survive and to prosper.
The temp is a balmy 80' F or 28'C, but not especially humid, promising weather start to our trip.
Immigration slow and unsmiling, still as bureaucratic as ever, but with computers now, and scanners. Wondered why they scanned our bags as we left the airport. An anxious wait for our bikes at the oversize luggage dept. People very friendly and smiling......but no bikes. Then finally, three large plastic wrapped items, looking largely intact. Great.

Now how to get out of the airport? A taxi! For three blokes an array of bags and three large wrapped bikes. Cos we decided we weren't going to try reassembling the bikes, redistributing stuff and cycling in to the city after a somewhat broken night on a very crowded flight. No problem we were assured with nodding of heads, smiling and ushering us to the taxi rank where we just about squeezed into a small estate car. One bike on the roof and two wrapped around the rear passenger seats. Being New Year's Day, traffic heading in to the city was light, it wasn't until we entered downtown that the jams started and the driving is done with a unison of horns and dodgy manouevering. But there seemed to be a festive spirit as we passed various temples full of pilgrims or worshippers near the coast.