Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Karen Goes Home

3/15

After the briefest of naps, we got up at midnight for the trip to Chennai Airport. This entailed being cleared by the customs official aboard ship, lugging two huge suitcases down 5 decks (thanks Jim!) and being driven by the customs official to the gate, where our taxi should have been waiting - but was not.

Luckily the customs official had his cell phone, and called back to the taxi company, finding out where the taxi-wala was waiting (about 3 miles away - we never would have found him) and handing us off. Jim had agreed to ride with me to the airport to make sure I got off okay - my anxiety level was running high...

Got to the airport (goodbye my love!) and took several wrong turns before finding the very long line for the flight to Doha, Qatar. I had arrived early - about 1:45 - for my 4:30 flight, and thought I'd have lots of sitting and waiting to do, but ended up standing on various lines for the whole night! It's bad enough that it takes two hours to check baggage, but Indians (and Asians in general) just don't believe in forming an orderly queue, and insist on shoving and pushing as a normal way of doing things (as if it would make the plane come any faster...).

So, you don't need to hear the minutiae of my three flights home (but tell Malcom to check out the artificial islands at Doha made for millionaire (billionaire?) mansions - they are very impressive from the air!) Here's the rundown:
Ship to takeoff at Chennai Airport = 5 hours
Chennai to Doha = 4 hours
Layover at Doha = 5 hours
Doha to Washington DC = 14 hours
Layover at DC = 3 hours
DC to Norfolk = 1 hour
Tired mom sees Peter and Lauren waiting in airport and bursts into grateful tears at 11:40 pm - I made it home in one 32 hour day - it's still the 15th! I had been unable to get any sleep on the plane, so intend to spend the next several days decompressing and getting my body back on Eastern Daylight Time...

From Jim: After dropping Karen off at the airport, the taxi was supposed to take me back to the ship, but I was due for another big adventure -- the cab-wala would not take me to gate 7! The cabbie dropped me back where he had been waiting at midnight -- about 3 miles from where he was supposed to be-- so I had to walk in the dark, in the rain, make a dangerous crossing of the railroad tracks - got lost - found my way to gate 8 -- and eventually gate 7. No sleep for me this night either - India wins again!!!

1 comment:

The Early Bird said...

We may have to protect the environment from destruction.
For snake,human,etc.