The Trident Hotel

The Trident Hotel was one of the institutions attacked in the Bombay bombings of one year ago. There is no physical evidence anymore of the attack, but all of us were whispering about it, and security was present and very regular in their checks of bags and cars. Radha, who was with us on the trip until Bombay, worked for that hotel chain, and watched the action on the day of the attacks on the New Delhi branch's closed circuit TV. When the attacks occured a year ago, we talked about them during the subsequent trip planning meeting, and considered cancelling the trip or adjusting it to not go to Bombay. We would never imagined on that day that the hotel we would end up booking eight months later would be one that got attacked. I think they were offering good deals.

The hotel itself is nice looking, and is frequented by westerners, businessmen, and what must be Bollywood stars. There are sometimes weddings on the rooftop, and the guests dress fantastically for these events. Sometimes events or busy days make it difficult to catch an elevator. The morning elevator rush hour is 8:30 - to catch a ride down to the lobby you have to first ride an empty elevator up a floor or two, so that you can be the first on the car when it starts back down. Sometimes room service is a little slow too, but the front desk people were helpful and thoughtful. Jim left his camera in the lobby once, and they had it in lost and found for him, and there was a guy at the concierge who did all our early check-ins for the flights out. Their breakfast buffet is extensive as well - better than the Lalit's in Delhi. There was a little trouble checking us in the first day, because one of the floors had some painting or other work done recently and the fumes were still present, and also because they mixed up which of our group needed twins and which could use doubles. It took them two hours to get the last of us in a room. They gave us a room with one bed and a rollaway, and the next night they switched us to a regular twin bed set with a fantastic view of the bay and the Bombay skyline.