Although my trip home is less eventful than Amy's (I actually get to leave the country on my first attempt) I did have some pretty hairy moments. My travels started out with the taxi showing up almost an hour before the confirmed time (5pm. Aka 1700). But Vidjaya kept trying to tell me that I had actually asked for 4:30. Which was a total lie. All my correspondence stated 5pm taxi for 9pm flight. So basically I felt like LVP was trying to get me out so that the next set of people could move in. The taxi is nice enough and the guy spoke a little bit of English. I ended up leaving at 4:30 (decent compromise) and arriving to the airport a little after 5. I was thru security by 5:30 and bought my biscuits at the famous place, explored a little and was at my gate by 6 for my 9 pm flight....which was delayed to a 10pm flight. I finished 3 cups of tea and started the kite runner and had a samosa and coke for dinner before I loaded the plane.
So we are running behind but I still have 2 hours in Mumbai to go through customs, security, and make my international connection. That should be enough. Right?? Well, it probably is if the domestic airport is connected to the international airport! Not so in Mumbai. By the time I take the bus from the plane to the terminal I have 1.5 hours before my plane loads and an hour wait for a shuttle to take me 30 minutes to the international airport :(. And apparently there is no priority based on departure time. My only other option was to take a prepaid taxi (pay when you get in) and that was pretty much the only way I had any potential to catch my flight. Luckily another guy had the same problem so we went out to split a prepaid taxi. After we got in the car they charged us $40 USD for a 15 min drive. They drove around the corner and them refused to go any further until we gave them the money. So sketch. They totally played us but we had no bargaining power bc we were in such a rush. And then they made us switch to another car!! If I was completely by myself I would have been TOTALLY freaked out. But I was so angry that they would have been fools to try to mess with me.
So I pulled an Amy and told the guy that I knew he had taken advantage of us and said that if he didn't get us there in 10 min that I would take a pic of him and the car and call the police. He drove REALLY fast! When we got to terminal C I literally leapt from the car, grabbed my bag and sprinted into the terminal. As I made a mad dash towards customs people were jumping out of my way. It was prob only 200meters but I ran like I was competing for the state championship back in high school. Getting to customs I didn't know where to find the form to fill out so some guy standing by jumped to help me. It took 2 min to fill out the form and then he asked for a tip. All I had was a 10, 100, or 500 rupee note so I have him the 10. He complained ab it being so small but all I did was offer a quick apology before rushing off to the line. Luckily the customs line moved decently quickly so I wasn't freaking out too much. I made it through security just as the flight was schedule to board. Arriving at the gate I find out that boarding is delayed by 30 min. Whew. I had a few minutes to relax and check my breath before getting in line again.
My layover in Munich was very unexciting...finally. The flight was also nice and quiet and uneventful. I watched like 5 movies and the time passed so quickly. And my luggage actually made it with me! After my crazy layover in Mumbai I expected to leave Charlotte without any luggage. The best part was exiting the airport to find my family with welcome home signs. It's always nice to feel missed because I missed them too. Now on to my last rotation of medical school!!
So we are running behind but I still have 2 hours in Mumbai to go through customs, security, and make my international connection. That should be enough. Right?? Well, it probably is if the domestic airport is connected to the international airport! Not so in Mumbai. By the time I take the bus from the plane to the terminal I have 1.5 hours before my plane loads and an hour wait for a shuttle to take me 30 minutes to the international airport :(. And apparently there is no priority based on departure time. My only other option was to take a prepaid taxi (pay when you get in) and that was pretty much the only way I had any potential to catch my flight. Luckily another guy had the same problem so we went out to split a prepaid taxi. After we got in the car they charged us $40 USD for a 15 min drive. They drove around the corner and them refused to go any further until we gave them the money. So sketch. They totally played us but we had no bargaining power bc we were in such a rush. And then they made us switch to another car!! If I was completely by myself I would have been TOTALLY freaked out. But I was so angry that they would have been fools to try to mess with me.
So I pulled an Amy and told the guy that I knew he had taken advantage of us and said that if he didn't get us there in 10 min that I would take a pic of him and the car and call the police. He drove REALLY fast! When we got to terminal C I literally leapt from the car, grabbed my bag and sprinted into the terminal. As I made a mad dash towards customs people were jumping out of my way. It was prob only 200meters but I ran like I was competing for the state championship back in high school. Getting to customs I didn't know where to find the form to fill out so some guy standing by jumped to help me. It took 2 min to fill out the form and then he asked for a tip. All I had was a 10, 100, or 500 rupee note so I have him the 10. He complained ab it being so small but all I did was offer a quick apology before rushing off to the line. Luckily the customs line moved decently quickly so I wasn't freaking out too much. I made it through security just as the flight was schedule to board. Arriving at the gate I find out that boarding is delayed by 30 min. Whew. I had a few minutes to relax and check my breath before getting in line again.
My layover in Munich was very unexciting...finally. The flight was also nice and quiet and uneventful. I watched like 5 movies and the time passed so quickly. And my luggage actually made it with me! After my crazy layover in Mumbai I expected to leave Charlotte without any luggage. The best part was exiting the airport to find my family with welcome home signs. It's always nice to feel missed because I missed them too. Now on to my last rotation of medical school!!
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