12/29-31/2024 – Getting to India
The last few days of the year saw us flying, oh, and more flying, and yet, still more flying. The morning of the 29th started out as an unusual day for us. First of all, it was a balmy 50’s in Buffalo, NY with a steady drizzle of rain. Not a snowflake in sight. We had a pretty usual morning though: coffee and some work for Kathy and Dave taking care of our fur babies. That all ended by 11:30 when we headed to the airport for the long journey to India. We arrived at the airport early to check in since we could not check in on the United Airlines app like we usually do. Apparently, they needed to see our Indian visa despite the fact that we had uploaded it to their website. Not the most transparent and user-friendly of apps. Next we headed to a bar in the airport where we had the good fortune to watch the Bills trouncing the Jets. Poor Aaron Rodgers – he didn’t manage to throw for his 500th career passing touchdown against us. The Bills put a kibosh on his attempt to get to that elite career passing touchdown number. He was kind enough to throw two of his passes to Bills players. He is not playing the Bills next week, so maybe the football gods will be smiling down on him then. While we only got to watch the first half before boarding our flight for the initial leg of the journey, we felt pretty confident that the Bills would cement their Number 2 seeding in the upcoming NFL playoffs. Keeping tabs on it during our flight, we were rewarded with the final outcome of the game. The Bills had clinched the 2nd seed in the playoffs.
Feeling happy, we headed off to find the Polaris lounge in Newark – a perk of our tickets. Deciding to get our money’s worth, we sauntered into the club where we promptly started have a belated lunch meal/early dinner meal while we waited for out next flight leaving in 8:30 pm. Finally aboard the plane, we relaxed and settled in for the long 15 hour flight yet to come. Kathy was offered pajamas by the flight attendant while Dave was bypassed all together. Kathy quickly hopped into her pajamas, settled into her area and commenced to watching a movie. The flight was delayed by almost 45 minutes waiting for some passengers who had a late connection. Finally with everyone aboard, Kathy and Dave took off for their next exotic adventure to India and Nepal.
The flight itself was pretty uneventful. The ever present hum of the jet engines and the murmurings of a couple hundred people crammed into a small space was the norm. We had no outbursts or unruly passengers, the flight was just a flight, albeit one in which we got to lie down to sleep with our own blankets, slippers, eye masks, and PJ’s. Arriving in India, we got through immigration and customs and then the visa department where we got to bypass some lines again due to our tickets. The reduced price we paid for the first-class tickets ended up being well worth it to eliminate some of the hassle factors.
Next on the list: find the hotel inside the airport where we could shower and sleep for 4 hours before boarding out next flight. Originally, Kathy wondered if getting a hotel room was worth the extra expense. She ended up conceding that Dave was right – the room was well worth it. We found our hotel check-in desk, a cubicle in the middle of all the car rental companies. Kathy’s eagle-eye was sharp at even spotting it. The desk clerk then verified our name, took us through several check points, screened our luggage to go into the hotel, then through some office corridors, through another security check point and then (finally) up to our hotel room. The hotel only books rooms based on the hours used, not the number of nights – an interesting concept, but well worth it. (Knock it off with the jokes about us getting a hotel room by the hour!) We showered and settled in for our 03:15 wake-up alarm. Sleep was elusive but we did manage a few catnaps – which was made easier without having cats nudging us awake. (We do miss you Navin and Tipsy!) A to-go breakfast was delivered at 03:30 which consisted of a small, very ripe banana and a very small pastry – about the size of a fig newton. It was still nice, despite the size. Our desk clerk greeted us promptly at 03:40 and took us down the same maze as before, where we again passed through security to leave the hotel.
The ticket counter was CHAOS in big capital letters. The machines that print out luggage tags was broke – all of them – and hence everyone was trying to get their tags printed by the small staff available. Having our hotel desk clerk was amazing. He battled his way to the front of the airline desk, in front of a family of about 8 people that had an entire house packed to go on their next trip, and printed our tags and had them sent on their way. Next stop was security where our trusty hotel desk clerk said his goodbyes. Airport Security is India’s equivalent of TSA, where, of course, Dave’s bag was flagged. Waiting and waiting and waiting finally his bag was emptied of all things electronic and then the bag was put through again. All in all it took us 1.5 hours to get through from our hotel room to the gate where our plane was leaving. We are finally on our way to Amritsar to begin our exotic adventure in India and Nepal.