A Passage to India
Nov. 18th, 2008 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsA chronicle of a disaster.
To make all of this more difficult, I'm doing this entire trip on crutches with an aircast on my broken left ankle.
My departure day starts out hopeful -- neutral weather in Ottawa, should be ok. Airport arrival and clearing US customs goes smoothly. I go to the restaurant in the US departures lounge and grab some lunch. (Side note, it is kind of sad that the only restaurant in Ottawa at which I get recognised as a "regular" is in the US departures area of Ottawa International Airport. Sad, but says something about my life.)
After lunch, I check my flight - delayed. Doh. I notice something new in the departure lounge, though. A few rows of seats have power outlets under them -- both 3-prong and USB. Neato. I can keep my new MP3 player charged while listening & waiting. And, my flight is only delayed an hour -- I've got a 4-hour layover in Newark, so I should be fine.
4 hours later, we depart. We touchdown in Newark at 8pm, for my 8:20pm departure in another terminal. Of course we don't make it. And, the person wheeling my wheelchair takes me out of security to change terminals. Why? I don't know. Maybe wheelchairs can't get to the inter-terminal bus? Anyway, the people supposed to be dealing with this sort of problem are past security, but I find someone at international departures check-in that is willing to help after telling me I should be somewhere else. Maybe being in a wheel chair helps?
The automatic booked offer is for a Tuesday evening departure -- that is, 4 days (FOUR DAYS) delay! I don't even have to tell him it is insane. He finds me a different routing the next day -- Newark-Heathrow on Continental then Heathrow-Mumbai on Jet Airways. Ok. And he gets me a hotel, and some meal vouchers. This gets me in to Mumbai at about 12:15am, rather than 8:30pm, but my flight out should be 5am, so that should be ok.
From the hotel I call Amex travel to cancel my hotel in Mumbai, and to rebook/book my flight from Mumbai to Goa. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have that flight... the one I had was cancelled already or something. And, they can't seem to book the next one -- Kingfisher doesn't seem to accept either my corporate Amex for my personal Visa for the booking. So, they make me a reservation, but I'll have to pay when I get there. I guess I can do that.
The next day -- Saturday -- I check out of the room, and head to the airport around noon. My flight will be at 6:30pm, so I kill some time with food, etc. Ok, my flight should be at 6:30pm, but guess what, more delays...
I get into Heathrow with about 1.5 hours to make my next flight. With a terminal change. I make it with some time to spare, but not a lot. But, finding a restroom -- that's a long haul on the crutches.
Also, up and down plane aisles -- to get to the restrooms -- that's a lot of hopping, too. Cause the aisles mostly aren't wide enough to use crutches. I could use seat backs, but I don't want to except for balance -- would shake the people in the seats too much.
I arrive in Mumbai, wait for a wheel chair, and head for luggage pick up. And, shortly after watching the belt for a bit, a luggage handler approaches me. Have I seen my luggage? Am I Mr Gibbs? Apparently they already knew my luggage didn't make it.
So, we go and fill out forms. They want address & phone number where I'll be. I've got neither. All I've got is "Hotel Nova Goa, Panaji". They say that will be enough. I sure hoped so.
Then, apparently domestic flights are another terminal -- so long wait for a bus, and get there. I lose the wheelchair at the bus, and there isn't one at the other end.
I wander through, and find Kingfisher check-in. They won't be open until 3:30am, so I sit and read and wait.
At check-in they look at my reservation and tell me it is cancelled. Try the other code I have -- that is doesn't exist or cancelled, too. Argh! And they can't sell me a ticket -- but ticketing is just outside "that" door.
Hobble over to ticketing, ask for a ticket to Goa. Do they take a credit card? Maybe? Try the credit card... wait... wait... she phones someone... wait... ok. Offet to pay cash. The price is 3475 rupees. But, she doesn't have change. By this time, I don't care. I pay her the 3500 rupees, close I have. So, I overpaid by 25 rupees -- that's under a $1, and I just don't care. I just want to get on that flight. Back to checkin, where after checking in, I can get a wheel chair again for the trip to the gate.
Several of the flights in India are bus to the plane, and there are buses between terminals, too. Getting on/off those buses... that's a high step to do one legged as a big hop up. More tiredness for the leg.
Finally I arrive in Goa, get out to where I think people will be meeting me, fend off 3-4 offers of a taxi, and there's noone with a sign for David. Luckily, within about 5 minutes someone shows up.
Off to the hotel, some breakfast, then train for the day, and crash out at 6pm.
To make all of this more difficult, I'm doing this entire trip on crutches with an aircast on my broken left ankle.
My departure day starts out hopeful -- neutral weather in Ottawa, should be ok. Airport arrival and clearing US customs goes smoothly. I go to the restaurant in the US departures lounge and grab some lunch. (Side note, it is kind of sad that the only restaurant in Ottawa at which I get recognised as a "regular" is in the US departures area of Ottawa International Airport. Sad, but says something about my life.)
After lunch, I check my flight - delayed. Doh. I notice something new in the departure lounge, though. A few rows of seats have power outlets under them -- both 3-prong and USB. Neato. I can keep my new MP3 player charged while listening & waiting. And, my flight is only delayed an hour -- I've got a 4-hour layover in Newark, so I should be fine.
4 hours later, we depart. We touchdown in Newark at 8pm, for my 8:20pm departure in another terminal. Of course we don't make it. And, the person wheeling my wheelchair takes me out of security to change terminals. Why? I don't know. Maybe wheelchairs can't get to the inter-terminal bus? Anyway, the people supposed to be dealing with this sort of problem are past security, but I find someone at international departures check-in that is willing to help after telling me I should be somewhere else. Maybe being in a wheel chair helps?
The automatic booked offer is for a Tuesday evening departure -- that is, 4 days (FOUR DAYS) delay! I don't even have to tell him it is insane. He finds me a different routing the next day -- Newark-Heathrow on Continental then Heathrow-Mumbai on Jet Airways. Ok. And he gets me a hotel, and some meal vouchers. This gets me in to Mumbai at about 12:15am, rather than 8:30pm, but my flight out should be 5am, so that should be ok.
From the hotel I call Amex travel to cancel my hotel in Mumbai, and to rebook/book my flight from Mumbai to Goa. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have that flight... the one I had was cancelled already or something. And, they can't seem to book the next one -- Kingfisher doesn't seem to accept either my corporate Amex for my personal Visa for the booking. So, they make me a reservation, but I'll have to pay when I get there. I guess I can do that.
The next day -- Saturday -- I check out of the room, and head to the airport around noon. My flight will be at 6:30pm, so I kill some time with food, etc. Ok, my flight should be at 6:30pm, but guess what, more delays...
I get into Heathrow with about 1.5 hours to make my next flight. With a terminal change. I make it with some time to spare, but not a lot. But, finding a restroom -- that's a long haul on the crutches.
Also, up and down plane aisles -- to get to the restrooms -- that's a lot of hopping, too. Cause the aisles mostly aren't wide enough to use crutches. I could use seat backs, but I don't want to except for balance -- would shake the people in the seats too much.
I arrive in Mumbai, wait for a wheel chair, and head for luggage pick up. And, shortly after watching the belt for a bit, a luggage handler approaches me. Have I seen my luggage? Am I Mr Gibbs? Apparently they already knew my luggage didn't make it.
So, we go and fill out forms. They want address & phone number where I'll be. I've got neither. All I've got is "Hotel Nova Goa, Panaji". They say that will be enough. I sure hoped so.
Then, apparently domestic flights are another terminal -- so long wait for a bus, and get there. I lose the wheelchair at the bus, and there isn't one at the other end.
I wander through, and find Kingfisher check-in. They won't be open until 3:30am, so I sit and read and wait.
At check-in they look at my reservation and tell me it is cancelled. Try the other code I have -- that is doesn't exist or cancelled, too. Argh! And they can't sell me a ticket -- but ticketing is just outside "that" door.
Hobble over to ticketing, ask for a ticket to Goa. Do they take a credit card? Maybe? Try the credit card... wait... wait... she phones someone... wait... ok. Offet to pay cash. The price is 3475 rupees. But, she doesn't have change. By this time, I don't care. I pay her the 3500 rupees, close I have. So, I overpaid by 25 rupees -- that's under a $1, and I just don't care. I just want to get on that flight. Back to checkin, where after checking in, I can get a wheel chair again for the trip to the gate.
Several of the flights in India are bus to the plane, and there are buses between terminals, too. Getting on/off those buses... that's a high step to do one legged as a big hop up. More tiredness for the leg.
Finally I arrive in Goa, get out to where I think people will be meeting me, fend off 3-4 offers of a taxi, and there's noone with a sign for David. Luckily, within about 5 minutes someone shows up.
Off to the hotel, some breakfast, then train for the day, and crash out at 6pm.
