When searching for cheap flights to far-flung places the rule often seems to be the more awkward the itinerary the better the price. This can sometimes result in a double whammy – a cheap flight with an interesting day in an unusual place. It does have its downsides too, as you are about to discover.

Our outward journey to India had the following Itinerary:

Journey 1 – Turkish airlines to Mumbai via Istanbul

Depart Gatwick 16:35 arrive Istanbul 23:40 (4 hr 5 mins)

Depart Istanbul 20:35 (next day) arrive Mumbai 05:15 (day after that) (6 hr 10 mins)

Journey 2 – Jet airways to Jaipur

Depart Mumbai 19:10 arrive Jaipur 20:50 (1 hr 40 mins)

A good reason (besides the price) for booking this itinerary was the excellent deal offered by Turkish airlines – if your layover is more than 6 hours and less than 24, they will throw in a free tour of the city with meals included. The only negative we could see was that we needed to first spend a night in Istanbul airport. The hotel being too dear for our budget we decided to find a comfortable bench. This we did, although compared to many airports we have slept in, Istanbul does not rank highly, mostly due to the fact that flights seem to be leaving ALL night (should you decide to sleep at an airport I recommend checking the free site sleepinginairports.net for tips and reviews of your chosen airport).

We were very organised and set up our alarms to an hour and a half before we needed to be at counter for the Touristanbul (see what they did there?), just to make sure we wouldn’t be late and miss it. We got up on time, got cleaned up and changed’ went through passport control and were at the counter 30 minutes early. We felt so pleased – for once we were marvelously organised! So imagine our shock when the nice lady at the counter told us that it was in fact 9:30 and not 8:30. We didn’t belive her, thought that perhaps she got confused, but sadly it was us who got things wrong. As we found out, last year in October Turkey decided to stop moving their clocks back and forth for winter and summer times and evidently Google and by association the Android devices did not yet catch up with this change. We signed up for the next tour, starting at 12:00, changed the time on our phones manually and throughly annoyed went to have some breakfast at a cafe in the airport.

The tour at noon didn’t seem nearly as interesting as the one starting at 9:00, as it missed out both The Blue Mosque and The Hagia Sophia, so we were a bit sad, but in the end the tour turned out better than we anticipated and we enjoyed it throughly. The tour started with a very yummy lunch, consisting of a lentil soup, a salad, grilled meat for the main and then a dessert. During lunch we met Chaitanya (also known as Alex), who after working for two years in Congo was heading home for a couple of months. It turned out he was on the same flight to Mumbai as us. After lunch we went to the Museum of the Ottoman and Islamic Arts. The fact that we only spent 20 minutes there is not in anyway reflective of the rich collection this museum houses. We would both liked to have spent more time there. Following the museum we headed to the Grand Bazaar, which did at least allow us a glimpse at the outside of Hagia Sophia nd the Blue Mosque. At the Bazaar we sampled some rather nice apple chai, pomegranate turkish delight and nutty, honey smothered baklava and did some shopping with Chaitanya. Then it was time to head back to the airport. The tour made the time seem to pass faster and it does give an opportunity to see a bit of Istanbul, so I’d definitely recommend going if you have a long layover in Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. Just make sure to check your phone displays the right time to avoid disappointment!

While a sort flight in the evening will get you to a proper bed quickly, a long flight will at least allow you a decent enough sleep on the plane. Six hours manages to give you neither. After takeoff, waiting for dinner, finishing the movie you started while waiting for dinner, you might if you are fortunate find time for about 2 hours sleep before you are awakened so you can put your seat up for landing. Such was our flight.
Although we were in Mumbai very early we had some hours of faf – repacking bags, trying to work an ATM successfully (which seem to only dispense 2000 bank notes these days, which are then very difficult to get change from – something that apparently is causing real problems for a lot of Indian people) and waiting for an Uber that never appeared. Eventually after an hours drive in a second Uber we were in the south of Mumbai, where the kind driver took us further than asked all the way to the end of Marine Drive. This was a place we chose after recommendation from Chaitanya, and it turned out to be a very good idea after two nights of terrible sleep. We strolled along, sat and admired the views and had our first encounter with the spicy street food of Mumbai in the form of a Biryani, a “Paneer Frankee” and Masala Chai, which a lovely guy just gave to us for free (the people we met in Mumbai were on the whole remarkably nice to us).

Due to our exhaustion we headed back to the airport, but decided we would use this opportunity to see one of Mumbai’s attractions, the absurdly cathedral-like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) and took a train north, changing to an auto-rickshaw a few kilometres away from the airport.

It was a struggle to keep awake at the airport. We managed a short nap on the plane, but it didn’t help much. The extremely long and spread out journey from London, the limited amount of sleep we got on the way and the change of time zones really took their toll on us. By the time we reached our hotel, we were spent, so even though it was only 9pm we went straight to sleep.

The next morning we headed to Diggi Palace for the tenth Jaipur Literature Festival, which is utterly amazing and about which we will write more soon. 🙂