Coming Home

The long journey home has begun. The trip from Pune to Mumbai this morning was much easier than expected. I was able to find a shared taxi to Mumbai. The taxi driver was actually going to pick someone up for his business from the international airport and he said he could take me to the domestic airport which is close by. This was a pretty awesome set up because it meant that I didn't have to deal with rickshaw drivers in Mumbai and the traffic from wherever I might be dropped off. The drive to Mumbai was fast and smooth, but it took almost as long to get to Mumbai as it did to get from the outskirts into the airport because of traffic. I ended up getting to the airport with pletty of time to spare. My flight was scheduled for 2:10pm and I arrived at 10:00am. After killing time for several hours because I was not allowed to check in yet I went to check in and they told me my flight was cancelled. Shit. They said that could get me on a flight a couple hours later. They better!

I made it to Delhi. I am currently waiting for my taxi at Hotel Grand Godwin. My flight leaves at 2:10am. I hope I don't fall asleep and miss it! It is crazy how many miles I am about to cover...

Oh ya I almost forgot. Don't flight Go Air in India. I have decided to make a post where I impart all of my knowledge about getting around in India when I get back.

New Delhi Airport Experience:
I had begun to feel very good about myself and how I had finally figured out how to easily get around in India by the time I left for the airport from Hotel Grand Godwin. After taking some strange detours and picking up someone random on the street I arrived at Delhi International Airport about 11:00pm for my 2:10am flight. I waited in the line that was formed outside the airport and I showed my passport to the security guard who promptly told me I could not get inside without a ticket. As I stared inside in confusion at the ticket counter I pleaded that this made no sense whatsoever but my arguments were either lost in the language barrier or just completely ignored. Other people where able to get in because they had printed off the recipe from the ticket they had purchased online. I saw some airline offices near where I had gotten out of the car so I decided to go find British Airways and see if they could help me get some kind of a ticket. I was a little worried now because Josh had bought the ticket and he had already gone home so I was only left with the electronic record of my ticket, if they could find it. The British Airways ticket office was closed but I did see someone in the American Airways office so I went in to see if they could help. They could not... My ticket apparently was booked through British Airway's so they could not find any record of it in their system. I explained to them that the BA office was closed and they recommended another office in a different location that might have somebody in it. It did not, but it did have a security guard outside who recommended that I try talked with the BA people in the road who check luggage at the curbside. So I went to plead with this person who spoke better English and must have understood my predicament and he eventually went in to get a supervisor. The supervisor spoke with me got my information and ran around until he eventually told me to get back in the line and he would meet me at the front when I got to the security guard. When I got to the front the man was no where to be seen and I was left with the same problem I had before. Eventually the man came with a ticket in his hand that he got printed from the ticket counter (wow) and I was able to enter the airport.

After making it through one of the most intense, but worthless security checks I have been through I planned to kill a little more time shopping around inside the terminal. The terminal was just like the security, pretty terrible. I settled for a weird orange juice drink and then tried not to fall asleep while waiting.