Mumbai Attact | Taj Mahal Hotel

Why Taj Mahal Hotel picked ?

The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel in Bombay is India's best-known and best-loved hotel. For any serious foreign investor, businessman or wealthy tourist visiting India's commercial capital, "The Taj", as it is universally known by the cognoscenti, is always the first choice.

With best rooms in the superior old wing costing more than £250 per night - more than 250 millions Indians can expect to earn in a year - the hotel offers a world of secluded luxury, away from the grinding poverty and infrastructural decay of Mumbai.

Legend has it that its creator, a Parsi industrialist called Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, commissioned the building after being refused entry to the now-defunct Apollo Hotel, which had a strict Europeans-only policy.

However with its colonnades of shops stuffed with the world's most expensive brands, what Bombay's rich set consider the ultimate in cosmopolitan luxury, would equally be perceived by Islamist ideologues as a symbol of Western decadence.

Over the years guests have included The Queen, the former Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser and the Beatle John Lennon, to name but a few of the notable personalities to have checked in to the magnificent old wing.

More recently the hotel hosted the guests for Bombay leg of Liz Hurley's two-week extravaganza of a wedding, with guests dashing straight from the front door to waiting motor launches to take them to the privacy of waiting super-yachts in the harbour beyond.

To have pictures of burning Taj Hotel broadcast around the world will have a deeper impact than even perhaps the terrorists intended, striking a blow against a symbol of Indian wealth and progress and sending shivers down the spine of some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.

Thousands Tourist stranded in Bangkok International Airport

Thousands Tourist stranded in Bangkok International Airport

Up to 10,000 passengers are being stranded after Bangkok International Airport has been ordered closed as a result of blockade by the People's Alliance for Democracy.
THAI reported that more than 21 flights -to Japan, India, Iran, Europe, among others- were cancelled Tuesday night. This affected up to 6,000 travellers. Overall, up to 10,000 travellers could be affected Tuesday night alone, according to airline sources.
As PAD protesters moved to block the motorway entrance to Bangkok International Airport in the afternoon when the plane carrying Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was scheduled to land, the arrival of his plane from Peru was announced to have been delayed due to technical problems. The estimated time of arrival has not been confirmed. Some sources said he could be arriving Wednesday evening.

Many travellers have already suffered inconvenience. Arrival passengers were stranded Tuesday night and the AOT officials were trying to facilitate their transport out of the airport. AOT has also issued a statement pleading with the PAD. Hectic accommodation was being provided to some stranded departure passengers. Some of them had had to walk with their luggages for up to two kilometres due to problems at the entrance