My trip to India begins...

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My Indian adventure had begun before I'd even expected it to...

I arrived at the airport in Montreal having slept only 2 hours the night before. It was a fairly nice day when I arrived, but only about 30 minutes before my flight, a thick fog rolled in. The flight was delayed indefinitely ... then cancelled. In this day and age, I didn't think something as innocent as fog could cripple an airport. Apparently this only happens once every 5 years or so. (a sign?)

Delta helped rebook my flights for the next day with 2 other airlines. However, someone at the airport told me that I would probably be bumped since all the flights had been cancelled and I wasn't originally booked with the other airline. Also, I had no key to get back into Eva's house because I had put it through the mail slot, so I was stuck at the airport for at least a few hours.

Oddly enough, I actually found it kind of fun to be stranded at the airport. It was like when you were a child and the power went out at school. Nothing was happening the way it was supposed to, it was like order and rules went out the window. I also thought about how I'd seen stories on the news about when people are stranded at the airport, and this time it was about me!

I put those hours to good use by diligently asking all the airlines if they had any flights leaving for NY every 30 minutes. The waiting and asking paid off as the fog finally lifted and I got a seat on the last flight to NY that day! I was also so lucky to have my friend Chiyo pick me up from JFK and bring me to her house on Staten Island for the night! What an oasis! It was so nice to see Chiyo and Brian one last time before my long departure.

I felt this was my first Indian lesson (even though I wasn't in India yet). It took a lot of patience and life was showing me that no matter how well you plan something, it's completely out of your control!

The next day a new adventure began as I started my long journey to India in which I was to ride in a car (Chiyo drove me to the train station), a train (Staten Island Railway), a boat (Staten Island Ferry), a subway (NY Subway), an Airtrain (at JFK), a plane (to London, then Delhi), and then a rickshaw when I arrived!

The flight was awesome! Air India is a great airline, and the plane was more than half empty, so I had a row of seats to myself and was able to sleep laying down the whole way!

I arrived in Delhi at a ridiculous time of night. And was surprised when the customs agents started hitting on me. (Very unprofessional!) Jim met me and we proceeded to our dingy hotel in the most disgusting part of Delhi!

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Comments

[Peter Allan]

Welcome!
I'm glad to hear you travelling to Asia! Though I'm not Indian but Asian let me welcome you to Asia! Mabuhay!