Took a few days to chew on this, but finally decided to fill in those interested in how it CAN be while traveling in India, using the domestic airport in Delhi.
Our entire team, those remaining who did not take off Friday night and Saturday night, gathered in the lobby of Hotel The Royal Plaza, to ride the bus to IGI Airport to fly to Bagdogra for the travel portion of our journey for Trip B. ( Trip A group would depart for Agra and Jaipur and Ranthambore later that morning). We arrived at the airport with plenty of time for check-in at JET AIRWAYS. We had a number of hiccoughs along the way.
First, when we got off the bus, saying "goodbye" to our amazing driver, Iqbal and our porter, Bobby, we began pushing out trolleys toward the Entry 4, hoping it was somewhere near the ticket counters for Jet Airways. We were about fifth in line even my grandson said he had left his cell phone on the bus. We looked and saw the bus slowly pulling away from the drop off point and I suggested John start running after it. This he did but reached it about three seconds late. UGH! What to do? Call Bani and have him call Iqbal and maybe catch him before he had left the airport grounds. As we inched ever closer to entering through door 4, I was trying to devise a plan where the other eight members of our group could enter and when and if we got the phone back, John and I could pass through that checkpoint. I reached the door and since I had the e-ticket documentation for seven of us, I suggested that Dave and Magda Baggett go in front of me and get checked through. Then it was Pete Miller with his e-ticket who came next. He got safely inside. Then I went forward to speak to the army guard, trying to explain our situation. Just as the guard was okaying the idea, John called out, "Papa. Bobby just brought me my phone!!!" That was certainly great news. We were now all inside the airport and turned left toward counters B and C, designated for Jet Airways.
When we reached that area, there were already huge lines which had formed to check in. We got into one line towards counters on the B section and moved forward at a snail's pace. I was finally able to read a handwritten sign and return in pink highlighter was INTL. Oh great! We, all the of us have to switch to the line over leading to counters on the C section. The line nearly snaked right out the door to the listing platform!
Our flight to Bagdogra was to depart at 10:20 with boarding to begin at 9:35. No worries, we had plenty of time... NOT, as it turns out. Ever so slowly, our line moved forward, but not making the progress I had hoped to achieve. We had already been inside the airport and in line for nearly forty-five minutes so when I saw an agent talking to people in the line, I decided to push forward, tell her I had ten people traveling together and I was worried because we were dangerously approaching the boarding time noted. She looked a bit panicky, went to the ticket counter, spoke to an agent, returned and instructed me to move my entire group forward, that we would be "next in line". That was all well and good until we reached the person who was at the counter at that time. The only problem was that this person had 10 people as well and people's passports were missing and their bags were overweight and this caused a huge delay. I was trying to be as patient as possible, but I was also watching the clock and the minutes were ticking away. We had already passed the initial boarding time.
When that tour group leader finally finished, I approached the ticket counter and indicated that we were also going to Bagdogra and we had 10 people in our party as well. The agent looked totally disgusted, and rolled her eyes back into her head. Before she could even ask for the 10 passports, I passed them to her. I also called my team members forward, and ask them to put their bags in line to be weighed. I looked at the clock, and realized that not only have the boarding time passed by, but we were also inching dangerously close to the actual departure time. When the agent finally calculated everything we were some 70 pounds overweight with our bags and therefore I also had to run up a charge to pay for that before we could move any further closer to the immigration line which had at least 500 people in it all and moving towards going through the process.
We approached the immigration line, and moved slowly once again towards the front. When we reached the front, there was a young man who called out asking if anyone was traveling to Bagdogra. I raised my hand, and called out that we had 10 people all going there. This young man, who evidently works for Jet Airways, did his best to speed the process of passing through the immigration line.
The second delay was caused by the fact that Pete Miller had camera equipment in his bag and had not taken it out for them to check separately. This held up the process by at least five more minutes. Once all processed through, the young man instructed us to run, following him through the back corridors, rather than through the main concourse areas. Telling out group to run was flashing images in my head of an old I LOVE LUCY episode. It simply was not going to happen! Two of our members were using canes and another had pulmonary surgery removing hang of one King only six months ago. By now the plane should have been in the air for at least twenty minutes, but we all chugged along holding on to great faith that this young chap knew what he was doing. All of us finally reached the gate, and I am confident made a huge positive impression on the other passengers, as we boarded at least a half hour after the scheduled takeoff.
We jammed into our seats and a few minutes later were airborn. Will not bore you with the details of the flight, but want to let you know we arrived safely in Bagdogra. However, after claiming our bags, found we were shy two bags!!! You can't even make up this stuff.
The final excitement came when we arrived some 4 hours later at our destination at Cedar Inn, in Darjeeling, and our bags were delivered to our rooms, I opened mine only to find that the bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label Scotch was smashed in my case and all of my clothes when now soaked with scotch and there were glass shards throughout my sign bag and my clothes.
As I said before, you can't even make up this stuff.
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