A day of delays and waiting

The conference ended on Tuesday evening and late Wednesday afternoon I was due to travel to Delhi via Mumbai. The extra day was to train a user of our system. Unfortunately he didn't turn up. Neither did the internet at more than a few bits per hour!

It was a day of delays.

I checked out of my hotel room at 11.30ish and wandered 5 mins down the road to the Indian Airlines office where I had to physically present my ticket to have it confirmed as valid to travel. I've no idea why. Goodness knows what would have happened if I'd just turned up without calling. Anyway the fella in the office scribbled some numbers on it and that was the magic ingredient required. On the way back I saw a whole load of discarded traffic lights in the ditch. Very odd.



A few minutes after getting back to the hotel reception where I planned to spend the next few hours a call came for me to inform me that the plane was running 3hrs late! Yikes. I was already fed up with having waited in all morning for someone when I could have done something interesting and this added to my frustration. The internet was still not working properly.

After 7 hours of sitting in reception I headed with Silvere (see Zambia) to the airport in a Taxi. On arrival it was clear that the plane was going to be even later than advised.

Before long there were people moaning at officials and claiming they'd never fly "indian" again.

Around 9.30 (I think - I was so fed up I'd given up remembering) we eventually boarded the plane to Mumbai. A short hop of about 40mins. Great on the way and all seems fine! But no, just as I thought the descent had started the captain announced we had been put into a holding pattern for the next 45 mins due to congestion. I thought that only happened at Heathrow!

The Aurangabad to Delhi flight is a "hopper" so it is supposed touch down in Mumbai let some off and more on... After we landed we were told to stay in our seats for Delhi. We waited and nothing happened. Then people came in with vacuum cleaners and started cleaning the plane! Eventually an announcement. We all had to leave the plane and enter Mumbai airport for some reason. As it was so delayed they would give us a meal for free. The last thing I fancied at 11pm was a curry when I was already so later.

Off we all got, moaning and moaning. I met up with a couple of American travelers and we sat and chatted together over a light bite. An hour or so later we headed to the gates again only to wait another hour before we were called to board at around 1.30am. I was supposed to be at Delhi by 9pm!

Eventually we took off and flew the 90mins or so to Delhi without further incident.

We touched down around 3am! Thankfully my taxi driver I'd booked had waited for me as it was dark and cold in Delhi. By 3.30am I had my baggage and headed for the The Residence Hotel. I didn't see much of it but it seemed very nice. I hit the bed and tried to sleep but couldn't worried I'd over sleep and not leave by 9am to get the next flight to Bangladesh in the morning.

What an awful day and night.