Travels Woes

I think I ended my last post by saying that my flight to London was an hour late. And it was, unfortunately my layover was only for an hour and a half. I had to sprint through the airport to get to my flight. And of course, my bags didn't make it. Luckily they were delivered to my aunts house, about 16 hours later. In time for my next flight to Trivandrum. We showed up at the airport, maybe a little late, but flights in India never leave on time. When we went to check in they said. No. There were no seats left on the plane. After a little shock, awe and dsibelief we were escorted to the office of the airline manager on duty.

My brother and cousin (Raj) proceeded to yell in a combination of Hinid and English. My brother simply told him we were getting on that flight. It was sh*t show, but really amusing. It was like there were intense negotiations going on. They kept pulling up different options on the computer and pointing to the giant map of India behind them. The would pick up thier phone, office phones and walkie-talkies and offer our deal to their supervisors, who counter with something else. Random people kept coming in and out of the office with different messages. By this time our departure time our departure time had passed, but the plane did not leave yet..

Finally, they negotiation three seats on the plane. So Vinay, Tori and Barb went on that. (Oh we were all meeting Vinay's g/f Adrienne there, so that might have had something to do with his tone. But in India you almost have to yell at anyone to get anything done. And yeah, I forogot to Introduce her in the lat post. Adrinne rocks. )

Raj went with them to calm down Barb and Tori and I was tasked with getting us on the plan B flight that got us into a nearby town at 1:30am. I walked up to the desk and the first thing the dude does is try and pacify me. I'm not even worked up or anything, but we chat a little. He makes me speak Hindi, even though he obviously speaks English. I use a mix and get by. And I didnt really want to get into a town 3 to 4 hour away (depending on the road or lack of their of) And successfully negotiation our 4 remaining seats on the next flight to Mumbai, two hotel rooms there for the night, dinner voucher, and seats on te 5:30 am flight to Trivandrum. Not too shabby. The hotel in Mumbai was right on the beach, nothing spectatcular, but maybe thats a good thing. When I asked what beer they had, they responded with "Mild" or "Strong" Obviosuly I got the Strong.

The beach here is ridiculously awesome. The resort is pretty small, so there are about 50 or so of us on the beach. And the rest of the beach is full of fishing boats and fisherman. The Seafood is pretty much caught that day. It's awesome. And spicey.
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