Enroute to India 2011

Well, somehow I finished the packing and got on a jetplane to India this morning… I say somehow because since coming back from East Asia a month and a half ago, life has been all over the place – physically as well as mentally. Thankfully, despite forgetting some things, I am now in India. Over 24 hours of travel today…

A few highlights/memorable issues from the travel today:

1) flight from Newark to London, we found ourselves in the last row against the body of the plane. Surprisingly I kind of liked that spot. I mean, our backs were to the bathroom but it’s nice to not have anyone sitting behind you. You don’t feel bad about reclining and the seats were actually quite comfy. Back row economy seats… almost like those 1st class individual cubbies… sort of.

2) we flew into Delhi International from London but had to catch a bus to get to the domestic airport. Once we figured out which bus to get on, with the help of some kind samaritans, we loaded up our heavy luggage (we’re bringing a bunch of school supplies and such) and sat down, then found out we had to pay. But we didn’t exchange money yet. The last thing I wanted to do was to get the luggage back out of the crammed bus… so thankfully a kind man spotted us money. We had a feeling he must have had daughters – he definitely felt bad for us… anyways a nice man that we ended up paying back with US money cuz the exchange was not open at the domestic airport. Truly a good man who took care of us. We are now facebook friends! Haha…

3) our final leg of the trip: domestic flight from Delhi to Chennai. By this point we were both exhausted by lack of sleep and the mere fact that our bodies thought it was the middle of the night. I slept most of that leg but I awoke at one point to a plane with white vapor rolling into the cabin. It was quite thick… looking a bit smoky. I wasn’t sure what to think. When I first awoke, I did wonder if we were going down, but then the plane was oddly silent and seemed like it didn’t matter to anyone else. Least to say we’re still not sure what that was but our guess is some kind of humidifier or air conditioning or something?? We survived.

We are in Chennai for a couple of days to hang out and serve with Jane’s boyfriend’s youth mission team who are serving with a couple of organizations in and near Chennai. It’s a nice warm-up to Calcutta.