We have finally arrived to India. After 38 hours of travel by air and road, stopping by Amsterdam, New Delhi and Bengaluru, we made it to our destination Mysore, India. My group and I encountered some complications during our travel, one of the members had her plane ticket revoked as we were boarding our plane in Miami without an explanation, and other members were told the plane was full and were trying to leave people behind. Luckily, there was someone else with the man at the check-in booth (I think a supervisor), because he told the man that she was part of a big group booking and could not be left behind so they would have to find someone else. The other member that had her ticket revoked was able to get it fixed right away so we were all able to leave together.
From Amsterdam to New Delhi, the airplane experienced turbulence as we passed through a storm. At first, the airplane started shaking a bit, but after a while the airplane was dropping in altitude very quickly as it shook. I remember I got nervous and started sweating. I look around me to see if I was the only one worrying about the airplane shaking so strong, and I see some people sleeping peacefully or talking to each other, while others are seen praying. I was also sweating, because I had not experienced such a strong turbulence in the past. After about 15 minutes, the airplane seemed to have passed and storm and everything went back to normal.
When we got to the airport at New Delhi, the airport staff instructed us to go to the wrong check-in desk 3 times and we were walking back and forth around the airport. We had to get new boarding passes before going to Bengaluru, and when we finally got to the right check-in a some of us were not found in the system. I am not sure if this is something that happens often in India, but some of the group members were instructed to speak with a supervisor to get the situation fixed. We waited about 2 hours until they were done and everything was resolved. During TSA checking, in India there are two separate lines in order to get through. One for the males and one for the females. After the women pass through the metal detector, we have to go into a separate closed room where the women get checked even further. The person doing the search is a woman, and runs her own metal detector. Once I got out of that room, I noticed that the men do not have to go into another room to get a more thorough search.
Once we were inside the plane and ready to go on our last two and half hour plane ride, a crew member walking into the row I was sitting one and asks everyone in the row to give him our boarding passes one by one. When he gets to my boarding pass, he tells me "Please come with me". At that moment, I was confused because I thought everything had been resolved before getting in the airplane. The man tells me to follow him and takes me to the front of the airplane. The pilot then tells me to keep following the crew and take me outside of the airplane! The crew member walked me out of the airplane, away from my group, without saying one word. He then tells me to wait. At that point I was extremely nervous and confused so I asked him what was going on. He still does not say anything to me and I see him making signals to the men in the ramp to bring something out. The men bring out a luggage, and the crew member asks me if that luggage was mine. I respond to him and tell him Yes, and if there was something wrong. The man tells me No that everything is fine and they needed me to identify and confirm if the luggage was mine. Again, I insist on asking what do they need with my luggage and why they are asking, but I do not get a response. They spoke limited English and I asked them if I would get my luggage inside the airplane, and they assured me everything was fine and my luggage will be on the airplane. I was able to return to my seat, but still with the curiosity as to why they did all that. Turns out, when I picked up my luggage in Bengaluru, someone had removed the long tag with the bar code with the traveler information that is placed at the time of check in. Luckily, I filled out the paper identifiers back in Miami with my name and last name. It seems that they noticed my luggage did not have the tag needed and came to look for me inside the airplane to make sure it was mine.
Arriving at Bengaluru it was an easy exit without any problems. The group had to travel by road for about 3 hours in order to get to the city that we are staying at (Mysore). The bus drivers, who are part of the PHRI team, had water bottles and snacks for us, and we also stopped at a restaurant to eat lunch. The staff was extremely nice and made sure we got everything we needed before arriving to the apartment. After all the travel adventures we had, I am excited for what we will experience in India.
