The Saga Comes to an agonizing close

---

Here is a very long story of how I got from Madurai India to Chicago Illinois where I am sitting now

The first step in the process was flying from Madurai, through Chennai to Delhi. This process went fairly smoothly, with a slight delay. As I arrived at the Delhi airport I rushed through check-in, which was sucessful. I even got a chance to talk to a girl who had worked at an orphanage in Kathmandu for 5 days of a 5 month period (she was really overwhelmed). Anyway, I got onto the airplane and buckled in. The previous day many flights had gotten delayed or cancelled due to dense fog, so I was worried the same thing would happen to me. While at the airport it looked like it was all going to work, we were sitting in the plane and the pilot said that our pushback was imminent and we would fly off into the sky. 5 hours later he gave up the ghost and made the announcement that we would be leaving tomorrow evening instead. Bummer... So everyone got off the plane and we got our passports unstamped. Welcome back to India! At this point it was 6am, and I asked another American employee whether the flight was going out on the 4th (the next day), and she said yes. With confidence in the 630pm departure on the 4th I went to a hotel where I expected to spent most of a day and a night. It was way way over priced and the sheets smelled like a mix of raw sewage and mildew. Certainly not worth the $100 per night that I wound up paying. I was beat though and certainly didnt want to argue. After sleeping for a while I went for a walk, took a couple of great photos (coming soon) and got some Jilebes (mmmm....). I made an early night of it to make up for the bad sleep Id been getting the previous day. I breakfasted at the hotel (complimentary), and then got a 300(!) rupee taxi ride to the airport (5 mins away) around noon. My flight (I thought) was supposed to leave at 6:30pm, so imagine my dismay when it got to 6:30 and there wasnt even a sign of a flight (hmmm...). After much prodding and question asking of people that universally a) couldnt understand me b) I couldnt understand them c) didnt know what the hell they were talking about, I finally found the American airlines office. It was here that the story takes the first bad turn.

As it turns out, the tomorrow that the captain was referring to, and the 4th that the worker agreed to were both in error. The rescheduled flight left without me. I told my story and the friendly worker in the office got me set up with a confirmed ticket. Ahhh... All set... WRONG!!!
When I got back up there for the Jan 5 12:55am flight, I went up there, told my story again, and then proceeded to get berated by the head guy there for being the only person out of 245 to have missed the flight. He was getting really unpleasant, and I would have been pissed but not angry if they had let me get on the flight. After some BS they sent me to go stand with the standby passengers. This was BS because I had a confirmed ticket and I damn well should have been on that plane. If I had to do it again, I would have really made a stink, but I was too nice and got the shaft. So I missed that flight, but there was a real sense of comraderie with the others who were also stuc with standby tickets. So that part wasn't too bad. After the flight left, I asked whether I could get them to get me a hotel room since it was ultimately their fault that I missed the flight. It was looking good until we got back downstairs and I met up with the boss guy again. He and I had it out verbally, during which time he accused me of lying about having been told the flight was on the 4th. I couldn't remember which girl had told me this, it was an insanely crazy scene with everyone disembarking from the plane. I can truthfully say that it did actually happen, besides I see no reason why I would want to waste 2 days in Delhi, spent $250 on a hotel room and everything else. So now I was really really pissed. He basically told me to piss off, and I sulked up to the visitors lounge and slept an angry and fitful sleep. Before I fell asleep, I was able to get my cell phone charged up enough to call American's US number and get another confirmed ticket. The woman on the phone recommended I also get a printout of the ticket, but as the Delhi airport has no internet cafe (why it doesnt blows my mind), I was fairly impotent. So I went to the office in the afternoon and the girl was SHOCKED to see me again. I was shocked to be there too. She confirmed that my ticket was confirmed, and told me to make a big huge stink if I dont get on.

So back to the counter I went at 8:55pm at which point they finally let me get my ticket to get onto the plane. Everything went smoothly until I got to the gate for departure. I was calling Amtrak to make a reservation for Chicago-Purdue and it was quite loud near my seat so I went a little bit away to be able to hear. In my infinite wisdom I left my passport on the seat. A kind guy ( who I had originally placed as a self-centered computer-nerd), came over to me and told me that a girl had walked off with my passport. I was dumb-founded. Turns out the girl had walked over to my chair, picked up my passport (but left the iPod, credit card, and hard drive), and walked back and set them right next to her. All while her mother looked on. When the husband came back he saw what had happened and yelled at her for a little bit. In this case I would definitely say she deserved it. Passports are something you do NOT mess around with. That would have been the last straw...

Ultimately the flight left at 12:55am on the 6th Indian time, and arrived at 5:15am Chicago time (3 days late) without a hitch, and here I am. Tired, smelling horribly (same clothes since the 3rd - Chicago friends it's for your own safety that we didnt meet today 😉 ), but remarkably not that much worse for wear.

I thought about calling American and complaining about pretty much everyone at the Delhi airport, but that would be vindictive and not productive. So I decided to let it go. The Delhi airport is a shit-hole. I've seen all parts of the International terminal and I make that statement unabashedly. It is a shameful attempt for the largest city in a country that is growing so fast. They are working on a new one, but why there is no internet cafe blows my mind. Even Kolkata had one. The people working at the shops were always "closed" when I came up, but yet they would serve the dark-skinned people behind me? This really pissed me off.

The experience was actually not the end of the world. I got the chance to do a huge amount of reading and sit around and think about a lot of things. Much of that was quite productive. Here is my annotated bibliography for my extended stay in Delhi (sorry about all the name mis-spellings):

- The Argumentative Indian by Amayarta Sen

-The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

-The Bible, the Qu'Ran and Science by some dude

- Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

So the trip was a huge success. I struggled a bit at the end, but it was all worth it. It has made me a better and stronger traveller, and that is certainly worth the pain and hurt feelings. Bring it on world, bring it on!

---

Comments

[Mom]

Wow Ian !
Hey Ian, You blog is awesome ! Keep it coming ! I know more about Jordan from your one blog than all of the months that Tad has been there. I love your detail about travel connections, food and the conversations you wee part of. Thanks ! ! ! Love, mom