So I officially changed the name of my blog from "Turkish Adventures" to "Ross' Travel Adventures," as I have decided to keep a blog while I am in India for the summer working at a law firm there. I am excited, anxious, and nervous all at the same time.
The journey to India is a long one, with 2 flights keeping me in the air for a little over 16 hours. Because I was flying internationally, Murphy's laws require that something must go wrong. We arrived at the airport to find the original flight we were on to be delayed by an hour. They pushed it back another hour and as scheduled it would cause us to miss our connection (there is only 1 flight a day direct to New Delhi, so this would present quite a problem). We were able to get onto an earlier flight which was also delayed and we were unsure if we would even make our connection in New York. All we could do is go to the airport brewery (why Indianapolis' airport happens to have a brewery inside their airport I couldn't tell you) and have a drink.
We made it on our flight to New York and it was further delayed by "paper work" issues...whatever that means. We took off and would land with mere minutes to sprint to our next flight. This was going to be tight. We landed at 8:24pm (approximately) and our Delhi flight was scheduled to depart at 8:30. We sprinted off of the plane to make the tight connection (Jerry, Nick, and Tara were ahead of Krista, Ashley, and myself). I followed Krista who was supposedly following them. Somehow we got lost in the hustle of the airport and Krista, Ashley, and I were running to the airport train between terminals. What we did not realize was that it literally takes you outside of the secured area to get there. A German lady who was trying to make her flight also followed us (her mistake).
We took the train over and got to the security line leaping past everyone. I literally must have gone through all of security, including the metal detectors in 5 minutes flat. I was certain we were going to miss the flight. What really concerned me was if the three of us missed it and the other three that were on our plane did not. I sprinted to the terminal and made it just in time! The gate was closed and they had to open it back up for me. Krista was supposedly right behind me, but I did not see her. I stalled the ticket agent as much as possible, telling her that she was right behind me and that I didn't know if I could leave without her. Anything I could. Finally, she said the plane had to go and that I needed to get on it if I wanted to take this flight. There was nothing I could do. Just as I was handing her my passport, I saw Krista (apparently Krista while racing through security had been selected for extra explosives screening). Anyways, she and I both made the flight. Ashley didn't unfortunately, because of a snafu with the travel agent.
After that nice little sprint, I was placed in an aisle seat next to a couple of really nice people. The mother and son were both Americans returning to visit their family. Their daughter was taking the LSAT on Monday and so she asked me a bunch of questions about law school and applications and the like. I ended up giving her my email address and she said she'd stay in touch.
I learned very quickly in the flight that even though international carriers provide free alcohol, Continental does not. I was quite dismayed when the stewardess was going to charge me $6 for a beer. However, a couple of hours later the seal broke on one of the Heinekens and she was going to have to throw it away. She came back with it and served it to me free of charge, which was super nice of her.
The airplane food was decent, an eclectic mixture of American and indian foods.
Then of course there was the screaming child. It is a law of inevitability that on every international flight I am on, there is a screaming child in my vicinity. I do not know how or why. It's like gravity, it just happens. This one happened to be a special occasion, for it was no ordinary screaming child. This child was a super child with special baby screaming powers like I've never seen before! I did not know it was possible for a child to scream for 8 consecutive hours without taking a break, but it was. The mother just sat there and watched. She didn't try to discipline the child, didn't try to pacify him, did not do anything to mitigate the situation. It was completely and utterly ridiculous. We could probably harness this child's screaming ability and power all of New Delhi for the summer. It was that bad. (which obviously caused me to get little to no sleep on the plane EVEN AFTER taking my tylenol PM). When the child finally stopped with about 2 hours to go on the flight, another child started on the other side of me. I couldn't catch a break.
We finally landed and the trek through passport control and customs was quick and easy. Even more surprising, all of our bags came! (Given the short transit time between the flights, I was shocked that my bags made it).
We were picked up by our drivers and I got my first taste of why India is number 1 in motor vehicle accidents. The traffic even at 10pm was as bad as any major city in the US. The drivers were weaving in and out of cars and honking. No one maintained their lanes. There were even a pair of bicyclists pedaling on the opposite side of the interstate. It was chaos. They also drive on the left hand side of the road here (like in England).
We finally made it to our guest house, which happens to be very nice. There is a TV in the rooms, air conditioning, and the beds are OK. Jerry and I finished packing and got a quick bite to eat. Since it was late, the cook, Rhajeev (a really nice guy) apologized to us because he only had Indian food left. I was actually glad he only had Indian food left because that is of course what I wanted to eat. He served us rice, lentil beans, and a green bean & potato dish. The beans and the green beans had a nice little spicy kick to them which made them taste really good (I am sure he went easy on the spices because we are American). He also took the time to show us around the guest house (there is a conference room on the ground floor and a gym). Also, the roof has grass on it and is a really nice area to take in the surrounding sites. I went to bed at 2:30am and the jet lag caused me to wake up at 6:30am. So the adventure begins and I think it's going to be one hell of a summer.
Whoa! An adventure indeed! I'm glad that after all the chaos you were able to make your flight. I know what you mean about bratty kids and those international flights. I was lucky on my way TO Tel Aviv, but my flight back was ridiculous--not only were there three children behind me causing all kinds of ruckus--they were kicking my sit the whole time too. THAT'S when I was really mad the parent didn't say anything. I mean, I could relate to the poor kids' antsyness, I was tired of sitting still also. But I felt like the dad should have let them know that it isn't okay to kick your feet if doing so kicks the back of someone else's seat! I imagine the mother of the screaming baby had to resign herself to keep her own sanity. It sounds like it was a generally fussy baby, not just bored. People should really think twice about their travel plans when they have children that young. A young child has like no attention span on a good day in a familiar environment...a very long confining flight (after what was certain to have been a long time at the airport before boarding) wouldn't go over well with the best behaved children. At least you arrived on a weekend. I hope that you will be able to rest up and adjust to the new time zone before you have to hit the ground running. Thanks for taking the time to blog! I look forward to your next post!
ReplyDelete