June 5th, 2022
This day will be spent in the air for the most part.
We were almost 2 hours late in leaving, but quickly headed off to cross the open space between North America and Europe.
The map showed the typical polar route common for shortest distance flight, going over Greenland, Northern Scandinavia and across Russia and Kazakhstan and a small slice of China and into India.
About 2 hours in I saw instead we were on a longer line across the Atlantic to fly over the UK?
I decided to watch a movie (the new Bond film from last year) to pass the time. During the movie we had our first meal, some kind of chicken, a vegetable/potato thing with some kind of salad and a roll. Much it was what I would call Indian style food since the flight was mostly people from India.
Once done with movie, the map showed us lined up to cross along the English Channel and over mainland Europe, so now I am thinking Russian airspace might be closed off (due to recent events) so we are taking the longer route to India. [This was in fact the case, travelling across Europe, then skirting the southern shore of the Black Sea over Turkey, crossing Armenia and Azerbaijan to get over the Caspian sea, across Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan then down over Pakistan (and likely a small slice of Afghanistan) till we crossed into India]
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| Flight route |
By now all lights in the cabin were out as most were sleeping. I put on headphones to have some music in case the 2 year old brat two rows up went on another bloody scream fest like earlier in the flight (what kind of masochist boards a 14 hour flight with a 2 year old???)
Over the next several hours I dozed off and on for short periods, but never really slept. A snack service came through after a few hours and then again I tried to sleep and through sheer exhaustion and taking off my boots (I was unable to fit my riding boots in checked bag, so was wearing them on flight) I managed some fitful sleep. Most others went back to sleep or were watching films.
As we got about 3 hours out, I put boots back on and stayed awake by watching another movie (Galaxy Quest), though I think I still zoned out some as I seemed to have missed parts of the movie. Then the last bit of time as we came into land was used up filling in immigration forms and then just sitting there. Once on the ground we had some time as we taxied and at that point I started a conversation with the girl on the other side of the empty seat (I was in middle seat section aisle seat, she was on other aisle, but thankfully no one between us, so made flight nicer).
She was actually from a town up in the mountains and knew many of the places I would be riding in and visiting.
Finally arrived at the gate and waited while the plane emptied and was able to get off myself. Then walked down a long hallway to more hallways where I fixed up my bags and did a short video.
Walked a bit farther and then down a ramp to the health check area, which was not manned, so we all just walked through it to the immigration hall down an escalator.
As a non-Indian citizen, I went to one side of the hall, but both sides had long lines at all counters.
Stood in line for over an hour and was just hoping my E-visa was going to be good (2 other Americans a bit ahead of me had some kind of issue and were taken by the manager to another area). [They had made an error with their E-visa and its validity dates. The E-visa would become effective upon arrival for 30 days, but you only had 30 days in which to arrive and use it. They had bought the visa too soon and it was already expired, or at least that is what I can figure based on the over heard remarks and what I read on my own E-visa documents.]
Once at the window I worked past some language issues to get the guy what he needed, they then scanned my finger prints and then passed me into the next hallway after stamping my passport with the now active Visa.
Walked down and around the immigration hall, showed the Visa stamp to a guard and then walked out and into the duty free shopping area on my way to baggage claim.
By the time I reached the baggage area all the bags had been taken off the belt and were sitting on the floor. Took a few minutes to find mine, it looked okay, so went on over to the Customs exit hall.
There were two entries, and I took the Green (nothing to declare) line and just walked through. Not even anyone watching (though a few lounging around).
Once out I was looking for signage to the Metro train when I noticed a guy with a sign which had the name of another rider in the group (I knew the name from talking with him on the Facebook group). I then noticed my own name on the sign in his other hand, so guess they are picking me up!?
We introduced ourselves and then he called over a guy with the car (it was a taxi basically) who walked me out to the vehicle in the lot. Was not a short walk, in hot, humid air, but after the cold plane it felt good to be warm again.
Loaded bags and then was driven the approximately 1 mile to the hotel (Holiday Inn) where he unloaded the bags. I tipped him $3, not sure if I had too, but figured I would be nice.
Went through a security checkpoint (Had gone through 2 in the car: getting into hotel complex and the hotel parking lot) and into the lobby.
They still had my reservation (I was a bit concerned since I was now about 3 hours past when I was supposed to be there). Got checked into my 4th floor (out of 5) room and did some quick bag sorting to move stuff around in the bags.
Went back down to buy a water, but no place was open (was just after 1:00 a.m. now) Went into the bar, but they were now closed, but the guy cleaning up at the bar said he would still sell me a Coke after I asked if there was some place I could get one.
The issue then came up that I had no Indian Rupee on me, only US Dollars. I had not had a chance to use a money exchange at the airport since the car was waiting. They were hesitant to take the US money, but finally agreed and we then had to look up the exchange rate and figure out what I owed (around $3.50). I gave them $4 and said not to worry about it.
Went back to the room and drank it, then changed clothes and relaxed a bit in a room with no lights. None of the light switches would work, one lamp was on and had a pull cord and the desk lamp was on, but had no visible way to turn it off. [Turns out you need to put your room key in a slot by the door to enable the power in the room. None of the lights, outlets or the mini-bar fridge worked till you did that. Never seen that setup before, but guess it is quite common outside the USA.]
Arranged bags a bit more, updated Facebook and then went to sleep around 2:00 a.m. after taking a shower. (It was now Monday the 6th).
I will pick up the story in the next entry since it is now a new day.
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