First Impressions: Transportation

So I've been in India since yesterday after 51 hours of air transit, and a 4 hour bus ride. We arrived in the district of Hebbal, Mysore, Karnataka, India at about 12:30pm yesterday. Phew!

Since we missed the connecting flight from NY to Doha and had to spend 24 hours at JFK airport, our itinerary from NY underwent some changes, we were supposed to fly to Doha, then Bangalore, and bus to Mysore from Bangalore.. instead we flew to Doha, then Mumbai, then Bangalore, but Mumbai was an experience I'll remember for a while.

Since Qatar Airways doesn't run a flight from Mumbai to Bangalore we had to fly Air India, which meant we had to go through customs, pick up our bags and get to the domestic terminal, get our boarding passes and check-in, go through security and catch our flight. We had 3 hours to do everything, and in the end we would up having about 2 minutes to catch our breath before boarding our 5th and final flight to Bangalore.

Customs went well and we all got our bags, surprisingly, considering the mix up at JFK, but we had to find the Air India counter and it was in the other terminal, which the airport did not have a shuttle for, we had to hire an auto-rickshaw and taxi-van to bring us to the domestic terminal, 3 people crammed into the auto-rickshaw and 4 in the bus... I was the last one left, my suitcase was on top of the van (not strapped down) and there wasn't any room for me to sit. Talk about your panicked feeling. I ended up cramming in the back with 3 other people on our crazy Indian ride through Mumbai... and crazy it was! Did I mention this was just after 3am in Mumbai? I spent the taxi ride wincing over every bump and tight turn, hoping my suitcase stayed on top of the rack!

Indian drivers break every driving rule I've ever heard of! and they honk their horns ALL THE TIME! Buses and transport trucks have "Horn OK Please" or "Horn ON Please" painted on their bumpers. I assume they use it to let other drivers know you're there, but it almost becomes background noise because it's all you hear while you wind through traffic narrowly missing rickshaws, cows, motorcyclists, scooters, trucks and more. I think the only "rules of the road" per say, are 1) honk all the time, and 2) avoid everything bigger than you. We got a ride into the centre of Mysore today and saw a woman on a motorbike have a slow speed accident right beside us with another motorbike who just sped off... she looked okay, I think she was fine.

I've had a lot of people tell me about how badly India smells, and I think it's a double-edged sword. Mumbai was really stinky on our ride to the other terminal, but Bangalore was bearable and Mysore is pleasant, even enticing in some regard when you walk past a booth selling spices and chilies, or smell the sweet smell of jasmine as you drive by the markets. I've been told it's one of the cleaner cities in India, and it seems that way. There's still a lot of dust and dirt, but it's not completely filthy, though you do have to watch your step to avoid any cow-pies in the middle of the road!

So far India has been invigorating and frightening all at the same time. It's hard to explain the traffic, you have to see it to believe it. The next chance I get I think I'll make a video of some crazy indian driving. For now here's a picture of an auto rickshaw!!

Missed Connections

Holy cow what a mess we're in.

Yesterday I headed to Halifax to catch my flight to India, routed Halifax-NY-Doha-Bangalore, but the first flight from Halifax got cancelled completely. The group of us still showed at the airport to be re-routed in order to catch our flight to NY. The new rerouting was Halifax-Boston-NY-Doha-Bangalore, but our flight from Boston ran late, then got stuck on the tarmac at NY for 2 hours. We missed our connection to Doha. There was bad weather and apparently we were one of about 10 Delta flights that were cancelled, so the hotels were completely full, and we have been stuck at the airport since 11pm (NY local time) last night.

We're trying to make sure we get on the flight to Doha tonight in order to head to Bangalore tomorrow, but there's some trouble getting ahold of Qatar Airways to have those flights updated, and Delta Airways has offered to get us to Bangalore, but the flight goes NY-Paris-Doha-Bangalore and it leaves at 7:30pm. Apparently the Doha counter agents don't show up until 7:00pm, which doesn't really work if we want to get re-routed to Paris by Delta.

Sleeping in the airport last night sucked. Why is it that airports always have notoriously uncomfortable seating when 9 times out of 10 passengers get stuck in situations like these where they've got to be held over at the airport? Delta was nice enough to give us each $12 of food vouchers for the day, but that doesn't really help us out.

Also, turns out a group of 3 that got rerouted through Montreal to NY, made the flight to Doha, but missed the connection to Bangalore. So Qatar airways are putting those three up in a hotel in Doha for the night, and we'll meet up with them tomorrow after our flight and catch the one for Bangalore... that's the PLAN anyway..

Here is a photo of some of us waiting to get on our flight to NY in Boston. Pretty smiley, not too shabby, eh?



And here's what we looked like at about 2am trying to find a place to rest for the night... not so fun, still a little smiley though, amazingly. Sorry girls, had to do it.

I leave in just over a week

8 days, that's all the time I have left to get everything in order before I head off to the other side of the world for 2 months. I won't lie, the anxiety is starting to settle in, what if I don't enjoy myself as much as I hope to? What if India scares the crap out of me? Oh, hahaha, see what I did there?

I still have to pack, I still need to get my traveller's cheques, I still need to fill my malaria prescription... I have so much still to do!

I'm worried about leaving my dog behind, and my boyfriend... the cat will be fine, though, I'm sure. PJ has set a few things to do for himself in the time that I'm away though, and I'm glad. He's booked a flight to visit his cousin Paul in Ottawa for Canada Day weekend. I have to admit I'm jealous a little bit; Ottawa is my favourite city, and Ottawa on Canada Day is a blast.

Two weeks later he's going to a Metallica concert in Halifax, and the very next day he's taking a flight to Saskatoon to see his friend get married. He's buying a suit for that wedding too, and as a mechanic, I never get to see him in a suit, so I'm a little disappointed I'll be missing it - but I guess he's disappointed that he can't come with me to India, so we're even.

I'm working right up until the day before I leave, money is tight, so I'm hoping to squeeze out every cent that I can from work. Had I been smart I would have worked somewhere part-time too, just to be sure, but full-time work will do. Mom and Dad have both decided to pitch in with some spending money, which is definitely appreciated and it'll probably go toward some culturally appropriate clothing and cooking/dance/yoga lessons. I'd love to be able to come back and cook an authentic indian dish for friends and family.

This upcoming weekend is a holiday weekend in Canada. Victoria Day celebrates the Queen's birthday (May 24th) on the Monday before the 24th every year. Lot of people refer to it as May two-four, making a reference to a case of beer... I have some friends coming to visit to see me before I leave, and we're making plans to camp out, if the weather holds out. My boyfriend's parents have invited us over for some sort of get-together, I'm excited.

For now I'm just going to review my packing list and make a shopping list of the last few things I need, and I'll probably snuggle up with my dog for a nap while I can.

Can you blame me? He's just so snuggly!