Traveler’s Notes—India: Escaping the Mumbai Airport
Getting away from the airport in Mumbai is confusing and uncomfortable. The airport seems to be of an old design, and they make you run around quite a bit just to get to immigration, and then back to your baggage, and then there is a screening check through customs; none of which are streamlined, so there is some doubling back and forth trying to find your way. The passages are barely air conditioned, with large, portable air conditioners lining the hallway valiantly fighting the force of the Mumbai sun, and failing.
The exit of the airport is also a disappointment as there are no duty free shopping venues lining the hallway with colorful store displays and fresh decorations. Great for those who want to get right to the point, terrible for those interested in sightseeing and pleasure spending like a proper tourist. Instead, you get a few sorry looking stands offering taxis, tours buses, and a really poorly informed staff at the Indian Tourism Ministry station.
Getting on a taxi in and of itself is an adventure, as the slightest misstep could get you into bed with an unsavory pair of tourist predators. The government provides monitored taxi services at officially marked “Pre-Paid Taxi” counters in the airport building. On your way there, many higher priced taxi drivers and taxi scam artists will attempt to solicit you and tempt you to their rides. Don’t fall for these unless you have money to burn and really want to pay some 300 to 400 times the actual cost of your ride. The rate for pre-paid taxis are calculated and agreed upon in advance by a third party, who accepts the payment and also hands you a receipt stating the destination and total cost to pay to the driver—hang onto the receipt and show this to the driver. An authorized pre-paid taxi driver will take the receipt and use it to get clearance from the airport, then return the customer copy to you on the trip. There is no additional payment to the cab driver needed, but you can choose to offer a small tip of 10-20 Rs. The rates are only apply to black and yellow taxi cars of dubious make showing a certain antiquity: any other vehicle that claims to be “pre-paid” but which do not have the right markings is likely a tourist scam trying to get you onboard to gouge you for further services once en route. With no air conditioning, openly exposed wiring, and barely-there steering wheels, the yellow and black taxis are like a throwback to an earlier era for the intrepid traveler, but otherwise serviceable enough, though small, and probably—probably—won’t explode beneath you despite the exposed gas tank in the trunk.
As you would expect in any well-developed ecosystem, predators in Mumbai have evolved a highly complex form of camouflage and solicitation to dupe prey into believing that they are helpful and cost-effective guides that will get you where you need to go. Most will attempt to get your money by claiming to be your taxi ride, shanghai you onboard, and then ask you to pay additional money for their services once you are on the road and unable to disembark.
There are a few tells that you can look for which will give these scam artists away: most tellingly, each solicitor will immediately tell you to put your pre-paid taxi receipt away as you’re boarding, because the security is looking. That’s because the security guards are there for your protection, and the scam artists are not. But amidst all of the blurred English and slurred words, it can sometimes be easy to let this one slip in the confusion. For reference, the exposed receipt is how they identify you as a tourist, and what you should do with it if you correctly identify the situation is to show it to the security guard onsite and get directed to the correct taxi service instead. If you do somehow get roped aboard a fake taxi, there may be an additional passenger/”guide” who will climb aboard who will give the scam’s identity away. Ask to get off immediately and refuse to pay anything to the driver or his bedfellow. They will show you a laminated card and point to the additional rates for traveling in Mumbai and may even tell you that the pre-paid service only covers the cost of parking where you are going, all of which is bullshit. There is barely a concept of paid parking in Mumbai as most drivers just drop you willy nilly at whichever gap in the street is most convenient. Always go with your gut feeling if you have a bad vibe about a taxi ride situation. Better to be paranoid than sorry, and in Mumbai, they really are all out to get you. (Nothing personal.)
Taxi drivers in Mumbai can be booked for a day for the rate of 1600-1700 Rs. This is for an air conditioned cab, all day, but depending on the season and driver, rates may be negotiable. I don’t want to say this is definitive, as I’ve only asked one driver for their all-day rate, but it’s a good baseline for judging how much to pay a driver, and how much they’re trying to make off of you in the process.
For more about traveling abroad, check out the full Vacation in Asia blog entry.