Travels Down South

12/9
Today was an epic day of traveling to say the least. We’ve spent a lot of time on the bus throughout this trip, but today we took 2 planes to get to Chennai, which is our first destination in Southern India. Up until this point we’ve spent most of our time in the state of Rajestan, so it’ll be interesting to see the differences.
We started the morning by leisurely enjoying our breakfast in the hotel and leaving for the airport around 10:30 am. The airport in Jodhpur was only a couple of minutes away by bus so that was very convenient. From there we got on a plane and flew back to Delhi (this flight was about an hour long). When we arrived in Delhi we had a very short amount of time to quickly eat before our next flight. Connecting flights was so bizarre because we had to completely leave the terminal to get to another terminal, and we ended up completely re-checking into the airport (It was very strange). At this point we said goodbye to Hal who is leaving us at this point. We are all going to miss him because we had such a great time having him lead us. At this point John Huppertz is taking over, who is a professor at Union Graduate College and a friend of Hal’s. We all go to know John a little bit in our meetings at Union during the Fall Term. I finally had some “pizza hut” (which was a little spicy, its amazing how everything here has to have some spice to it), and I got an iced vanilla latte (I’ve been craving a coffee drink for so long so that really made me happy!). We finally got on the plane, which would take us to Chennai in two and a half hours (I kept making the joke that this reminded me of how Northeasterners always fly south to Florida because I couldn’t help but think they were such similar circumstances!). Finally we arrived on time and everyone’s luggage was in hand (which I’m always so worried about), and of course our bus was late. We ended up waiting at the baggage claim for an hour and a half. This was such a nightmare because we were all so hungry.
When the bus finally arrived and took us to the hotel it was a little after 10:30pm. We were so famished, so a bunch of us went to a Chinese place in the hotel next door after we checked into our rooms and got our bags. Collecting my luggage was pretty interesting; it took such a long time for the hotel to bring out bags to our rooms and I was getting really angry because I was so hungry. Finally they brought the bags up to our floor, but they were still left on those luggage carts and the bellboy was nowhere in sight. I couldn’t wait any longer so I just unloaded the cart myself and took my bags into my room, which was literally 10 feet away. The bellboy finally appeared and was getting angry I was doing this, but I refused to let him stop me (I was so determined to get food as soon as possible). Finally all my bags were in the room and the bellboy follows me into my room to check the room out. He then has the nerve to ASK me for a tip after he didn’t even help me with the bags! I explained to him (well tried to explain since he didn’t speak English well) that we were with a group and our leader would tip him, so that was a struggle. I couldn’t believe the man had the nerve to ask for money for doing absolutely nothing, especially in a country where people don’t usually receive tips. I was so furious at this point; I just needed to put some food in my system.
I was so excited to have decent Chinese food. I got some beef stir-fry thing and some chicken dumplings all of which were exactly what I wanted. I also ordered some eggs, but they never came out with my meal soI thought the forgot about it. I was content with my meal so I didn’t even bother asking for it. When we finally got the bill, of course the eggs that I never received were on it. When we asked the man about it, he said they were on their way! We explained that we were already done eating and we weren’t going to pay for food that didn’t even arrive with our meal and they gave us such a hard time about it. As we’re starting to pay, the waiter brings out the food and doesn’t understand that we’re not going to pay for it; it was seriously such an annoying situation. This is one of those instances where there’s a serious language barrier; it often feels like they’re trying to take advantage of us because we don’t know their language or their customs, but there was no way I was paying for food that didn’t even come during my meal. They finally got it right after we had to fight with them, but overall the food was delicious and exactly what I wanted. Tomorrow we’re going to do some exploring in Chennai and I believe we’re going to the beach in the afternoon, so excited!