Homeward bound

Bags out at 7, swift breakfast and then on the coach by 8 to the airport. Getting out of India was worse than getting in, so it turned out! It started with the Disney-like queue outside the airport to show passports and “boarding card” (a piece of paper given to us by Phil showing flight number. Once in we joined the next queue which was …. Passport control 😳This was longer and reminded me of the Visa Entry queue on arrival 2 weeks’ ago. As with when we arrived, all desks were not manned and officials would just leave their posts and others randomly appear. Having survived this, the next hurdle was much more challenging…. Security!

The trays provided to put our possessions into to be scanned were much smaller than any other airport I’ve been in. Therefore Ted and I had about 6 between us. A gaggle of foreign women barged in front of us with large bags, huge packs of nappies and tried to perch them on top of the trays like peas on drums. As more random women were coming up from the right I tartly told them there was a queue and jostled my trays through. As it was then necessary to go through the body scanner, and the female body scanner in our lane wasn’t working, I had to leave Ted to do this and go 2 lanes along. The whole thing was completely chaotic and I did let a woman go in front of me as her flight was going in 15 mins she said. Beckoned into the interestingly looking “scanner” ( a makeshift room with a curtain across) I was scanned with a hand held device which bleeped madly over my right hip. “It’s my new hip” I said helpfully but then felt obliged to expose my scar to corroborate! The female seemed pleased with this effort and let me go. I rejoined Ted on the other side of security except his hand luggage was missing…… He got permission to go back to where the queue of people with trays were to find he had somehow (probably due to the pushy women) abandoned his bag and it was sitting on its lonesome being bypassed by the crowd. Ted then shoved it into the security scanner but this almost caused WW III as the man watching the screen declared there was a screwdriver in it. Ted was equally adamant there wasn’t and both he and security man 2 examined it thoroughly. Back into the scanner it went and again security man 1 declared that there was a 🪛 and ….. there was! Deep in the side pocket of the bag was a tiny screwdriver that must have been in that bag for about 15 years. So for all their seeming inefficiencies the Indian security system works because no one picked it up in Heathrow!!

By the time we arrived at the gate it was time to board. Uneventful flight really and having dashed to get to baggage reclaim, say goodbye to Phil and group members we retrieved one piece of luggage…… All other group members had gone and only a handful waited disconsolately hoping for bags to appear. Looking around, I saw a collection of suitcases over by another baggage belt so I went to have a look and there was our missing bag! 🤷🏻‍♀️What else could happen.

It then took from 5.30 to 7.15 to tube it into St Pancras, walk along Euston Rd to Euston Station, get a few supplies from M&S and discover that the next train to Preston was at 7.30 pm an hour earlier than our booked one. A friendly railway worker said the ticket was valid for that train and gave us a heads up what Platform it was going from so we could mosey along and find some unreserved seats.

So that’s it really. Here endeth the Blog. As usual it’s fairly hard work to keep up with but it’s our record of the trip. We have learned an immense amount about the small part of India we have visited and seen the contrast of a couple of big cities and Shimla. The dirt, rubbish, poverty and inequality is truly upsetting but I guess this is why we need to travel to understand the history and challenges that different countries face. The caste system still exists and people are very aware of which caste they belong to. Class also exists yet though people can change their class, they cannot change their caste and people do not marry outside their caste. I am grateful for any followers and their comments. I will do the next one in September this year for Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 so watch this space! Over and Out!Read more