India, part 1

   Paul and I were invited by his sister Joy to join her on a tiger safari in India to celebrate her turning eighty years old this year. How can you turn down an invitation to go on a trip with Joy, the world traveler, especially when the adventure is focusing on tigers! All of us have been to India before and were lucky enough to see the magnificent cats back then. It has been seventeen years for us, and I believe ten years for Joy since our last India adventure, so we all decided it was time to return to India. I will add that Paul and I will be celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary this year so this will be our gift to ourselves!

   A couple of days before our departure I am having second thoughts about going because of the chaos in the middle East. In fact, I tell Paul I am not going and he informs Joy, who like Paul is disappointed. They decide they will still go although Joy is a bit uncomfortable with the situation too.

   I then call Katy, from Wilderness Travel, to break the news to her. Katy listens patiently then proceeds to explain to me that the company is in constant touch with their people in India and the consensus is that there are no problems in getting to India from the USA. That was my main concern. A couple of the people coming from the USA have had flights that had to be rerouted, but our flight was fine. I ask if anyone else in the group has canceled and she said only one person and it was due to health problems. After listening to her calm and kind explanation I reverse my decision and decide to suck it up and go to India.

    Paul and I have booked the Wabaunsee County transport van to deliver us to KCI. We requested that our friend Chuck drive us and to our delight he agreed too. It is a great service provided by the county at a very reasonable cost. The best part is we don’t have to drive to KCI and pay to have our car parked there for nearly three weeks.

      Chuck picks us up before 8 a.m. and then he picks up another woman who lives in northern Wabaunsee County. We arrive at the airport at ten a.m. and thank our friend for bringing us. Chuck is a great driver, and we appreciate him giving up his day for us.  Thanks Chuck!

    When we enter the airport and go to the check in area for United, we are approached by a staff member. The woman takes us to a kiosk and proceeds to do everything for us. Great. I breeze through the Precheck line, but Paul’s artificial knee sets the alarm off as usual. He is used to this and is prepared for the going over the TSA person gives him.

   Our KC flight leaves on time so we land in Dulles on schedule. The flight information board shows that our flight to Newark is on time, so we are feeling good. I happen to look at the flight board sometime later and now it shows our flight has been delayed and will be leaving fifteen minutes late.  The next time we check our flight the delay is up to thirty minutes late. I go to the desk and ask a man what the problem is. He explains that Newark is fogged in and they are having to slow the incoming and outgoing flights down to be safe.  He checks the passenger list and tells us there are ten people that are on the same flight to India as us. The helpful fellow admits that they probably wouldn’t hold the plane up even for that many people. Great. We end up boarding the plane more than an hour late. The pilot gives the usual “welcome aboard” talk and tells us approximately what time we will land. We will land about the time our plane to Delhi is to be closing its doors.

    This is a short flight and as soon as we land, we begin asking people in front of us to please let us by as we are hoping to make a connection and have very little time. We go from row thirty to row eleven before they start allowing people off the plane. That was a big help, and we were thankful for people understanding. We rush to the shuttle with eight other people who are of Indian descent. Once everyone is aboard the shuttle Paul tells the rather bored driver to “drive”! He complies with Paul’s request. Our companions, who I assume have taken this flight often, are confident that we will make it to our gate before the doors are closed.

   Once off the shuttle, Paul and I take off running. Well, Paul walks really fast and I run if you can call it that. We both have a backpack and a carry on but at least my big case has rollers. A young woman that was on the shuttle with us blows by us like we are standing still. Before long, my heart rate is crazy and I am gasping for breath, so once in a while I have to slow down to catch my breath. Paul looks back often and asks if I am okay. He doesn’t seem to be having much trouble.

    I see our gate and am elated when there are eight or ten people still lined up to board the plane. I walk right past them telling them we are in boarding group two. I asked them what group they were in and they replied group five, so I feel like we have the right to go to the front of the line. I thought Paul was right behind me, but when I look back after scanning my ticket, I see him standing at the end of the line with Joy! I didn’t even see Joy as I was so fixated on getting on the plane. Paul catches up with me and tells me I got a couple of dirty looks when I cut in line. Oh well. I need to sit down and get my heart quieted down.

   We have the two front seats in economy plus and is it nice to have all that leg room! Joy is seated right behind us. Across the aisle from us are a group of monks dressed in their saffron colored robes. I don’t know why I should be surprised but I am when I see them working/reading on their laptops, tablets or smartphones. It just doesn’t fit my image of monks!

   The fourteen-hour flight to Delhi is fine, with only a few instances of minor turbulence. I think the three of us slept more than we thought we would which is good. Once in the Delhi airport we have no problems, it is just very slow to get through customs. Not because there are a lot of people, the process is just time consuming.

    As we exit the customs area, we see a man holding a Wilderness Travel sign up with our names on it. We wave and approach the man who introduces himself as Sandy. I believe he is somewhat amazed that each of us only have two pieces of luggage. None of us checked any luggage which helped get us through the airport quicker.

   We follow Sandy to a small van and after the luggage is stowed, we are taken to our hotel called Andaz. It is just a few minutes’ drive from the airport thank goodness. We got to the hotel at midnight but the process to get checked in to our rooms is very slow. I think it took longer to get checked into the hotel than it did getting through the Delhi airport!

   Joy and our rooms are on different floors, and we drop Joy off first. The rooms are very nice. I shower plus hang clothes up for tomorrow, etc.  We get to bed about two a.m. completely exhausted. It took us 24 hours from leaving our house to arriving at our hotel in Delhi!