We were about 10 kilometers from the airport and decided to walk. Once we got away from the busy train station, the streets were calm in the early morning. On one of the empty stretches, it felt like the earth was rotating under us. We walked through some busy areas and some that were almost like the village in Juanga. About halfway through, we are the emergency granola bar that I had been carrying around since I left home.
The walk took over two hours because we weren't concerned with directions and got lost a few times.
At the airport, they wouldn't let us in to the bigger terminal because Connor was flying out of the older one. I had to buy a "visitor ticket" to enter and we went in and got something to eat at the dingy snacks stand that was the only shop in the terminal. Connors flight was already delayed an hour, but they put him in the 2:15 instead, which was nice because we're ridiculously early. We called Manu and hopefully they'll leave to come pick me up relatively soon.
When we were sitting down, someone came up to us and asked us all the usual questions about what we are doing here. It turns out he actually knows Govinda and the hospital but hasn't spoken with him in ten years. He was way too interested in Connor's flight details and also when he is coming back. He wanted to see his passport to know when he comes back to help him with things. He's the manager for this part of the airport. I was weirded out by the amount of detail he wanted about travel plans and am a little concerned that he'd report us for working on a tourist visa or cause other mischief. I didn't give him any of my information. I guess if Connor gets arrested on the way out of the country, we'll know this guy's intent.
We left to get some food from the other terminal because there isn't anything good to eat here. The guards by the exit gave us a hard time about leaving and coming back and were strangely passive-aggressive "if you miss your flight don't come running back and blaming us," was said several times. We couldn't enter the other terminal because we didn't have a boarding pass for that one, but we got food from an outside window before coming back to play a game of Bhag Chal. I was goats and won. Before we said goodbye, Connor called Biku again to get an update. We had called them at 9 to remind them that we were here. It was now after 12 and they should've been here by now. They hadn't left yet despite Biku's assurances that they would be right there. I don't know why I was surprised. Connor left me his Indian phone and I'll bring it back to him when I leave in a few days. I'm excited to be coming home to my friends and family, but what I'm leaving behind hasn't really hit me yet.
Despite Biku's detailed knowledge of out plans and situation, the car with three other people arrived around 3, long after the expiry of my visitor pass and my forcible removal by the guards.
We didn't get back to Juanga until around eight because we kept stopping do to unexplained errands. We also picked someone up about halfway through and drove them back with us. I didn't want to wait for dinner at ten, so I went straight to sleep.
-AB
Waiting to publish
To not ruin the surprise
Surprise! Connor's back
When we arrived
We made it. Hours later
No comments:
Post a Comment