Day 22 – Amazon Pays Respect to Shiva and Heads Home

Our last day in Mumbai began with a one-hour boat ride to Elephanta island, the home of a Hindu shrine dedicated to Shiva, the destroyer and god of fertility (apparently, he was, or is, well endowed). The shrine (which is only considered a temple on one day of the year), is carved out of solid rock as a large cave containing several sculptures also carved into the rock. Unfortunately, much of the sculpted figures had been damaged by those who are not of the faith (Portuguese) who discovered the caves.

Following our trip back to the mainland, we parted company with Tombi (the guide), and set off for the hotel to check out. During this trip we heard rumblings regarding our flight home. Apparently our plane had been delayed in leaving Toronto (weather) and Trinetra were concerned that Air Canada wouldn’t accept our check in 4 hours prior to our scheduled departure if that departure had been shifted by a further 4 hours. We decided to keep to our original plan of arriving at the airport at 8:30 pm and awaiting our flight in the airport lounge.

The hotel had graciously agreed to a delayed checkout at 4:pm and allowed us to stay in the club lounge until our car arrived at 7:30. The advantage of this was that it gave us a quiet place to relax, access to a nibbles buffet and an open bar (6:00 -8:00).

When we got to the airport, we were informed that Air Canada had no record of our reservation. After an agonizing 90 minutes of waiting, they concluded that we had missed our flight the day before (notwithstanding my documentation of our flight which I presented). Eventually they found us seats on the flight and issued us boarding passes. Apparently, they had sent us a revised notice of flight change last November, not bothering to make it clear the change lopped 24 hours off our vacation. It turns out that our flight had lots of empty seats on it, so the rationale for the change remains a mystery that AC have yet to explain.

We boarded our flight just shy of 4 hours late and set off for Toronto. Our problems with our luggage in Toronto are best left for another time. We are home now and almost back on a MT schedule.