Our arrival time was scheduled for 00:30 and I had arranged through the hotel for a driver to collect us outside of customs for a ride to the hotel in an air conditioned Audi A8. Having him not be there would have just sucked because believe it or not, the Mumbai airport is busy at that time of night and we would have to fight for a cab (maybe air conditioned, maybe not). Fortunately for us he was there, what a relief!
Arriving in the middle of the night in any place is disorienting. But arriving in Mumbai is possibly the most strange. There seem to be no rules of the road, no lanes, no stoplights, nothing that resembles order. All manner of transportation is on the road. Cars drift left and right and swerve wildly. Tuk-tuks (little two person, three-wheeled “vehicles”) that travel at about 30km/h compete for the same space as our Audi traveling at 140km/h. Absolutely frightening. However we did arrive safely.
The Oberoi was one of the hotels targeted during the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. As a result security is high. You enter the hotel through metal detectors and your bags are x-rayed before being brought to your room. But in the middle of all this craziness, the front desk found time to (OMG, really?) recognize my birthday.
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| That’s us looking bedraggled with Rohit and a young lady who’s name I didn’t catch |
I had mentioned to them months ago when I made the reservation that it was a birthday trip in the hopes of scoring an upgrade. It worked! What also worked was having a birthday picture taking ceremony in the lobby of the hotel at two in the morning. It was really, really sweet just totally unexpected and wholly unnecessary.
The room we received is lovely, with an expansive view of Marine Drive — also known as the Queen’s Necklace.
We have a one bedroom suite with a separate living and dining room. Really nice room!
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| Our living room at The Oberoi |
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| The dining room |
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| Bedroom |
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| Bathroom in our suite |
Our suite comes with a butler named Gaurav. He lives down the hall. He introduced himself to us and presented us with a couple of refreshing hot towels. He showed us the button in our room that we could press to summon him should we need anything.
Yes, it’s all true.
