To get to town from Airport by cochinjew
PREPAID TAXI SERVICE AT COCHIN AIRPORTThe flight was supposed to arrive at 0245 AM but it came in at 0345 AM. The luggage delivery and getting out of the customs area was fast enough
Yet another line. ( Indians love standing in line: on this trip, I have stood in line: once at Bombay immigration, second at the customs, third trying to get into air india area, fourth at luggage taping, fifth at the air india counter, sixth at the immigration to go into the terminal, seventh at the customs area, eighth at the security area, ninth at the departure lounge, tenth at the customs and immigration in cochin, so this was the eleventh time between arrival in India at 10 45 pm and arrival in Cochin at 03 45, in five hours in India.
The lady behind was pleasant, I wanted to go to MG Road, she prints out ( for an IT country, the computer and the printers are from another era, the kind you expect to see in an impoverished country) a receipt. 466 INR, roughly 8 Euros, to travel the 40 km to Ernakulum. I go out in the rain to the marked car. The driver does not speak English, so I say clearly the name of the hotel, and in 45 minutes through the heavy monsoon rain, we are in front of the hotel.
The English word the driver did know was, after the car stopped, without offering me an umbrella which he had in his possession, he said a favourite English Word:
TIP TIP DRIVER TIP.
I would recommend highly the Pre Paid Taxi service. The price is right, the cars are the old fashioned but charming Ambassadors without air conditioning.