Airport shenanigans

I guess with all the trouble I had getting INTO the country, it wouldn't have been right if there wasn't an adventure getting OUT.  It started with our taxi coming 30 minutes late, and then we had to walk about 30 minutes to get to the taxi, which ended up being a shared van with other random tourists, which was fine, just unexpected.  We still made it to the airport in plenty of time, and we thought great, we'll have time to chill out together before leaving…wrong.  Due to the last-minute cancellation and rebooking of flights that I had to do, I only had an e-ticket, with no print-out, since I'd booked the flight from our hostel.  In every airport I've ever flown in, that's no problem, you just present your passport and you can check in…not so in Delhi, however.

Apparently, you need printed proof of having a ticket before they will even let you IN the airport!  A stern policeman with a big gun frowned and said I couldn't get in, that I would need to buy a ticket.  I explained the situation and he just kept saying to go to the ticket counter.  I was getting frustrated after a few minutes - how ridiculous would it be to miss a flight because I couldn't get into the terminal?!  Finally he grudgingly told me to go to the other end of the terminal and someone would help.  We ended up going into the 'guest' side of the terminal (behind huge glass barriers from the terminal proper, asking several people for help, and eventually someone called my airline.  They then told me to go to yet another entry and wait for a representative who would have a list of certified passengers and they would let me in after that.

Whew!  My name was on the list and I thought we were golden…but then I turned around to find Max arguing with the policeman - they didn't want to let him in now - because it was too long before his flight!  He was coming with me (my flight at 11 pm) but his wasn't until 3 am, and apparently they don't let people in until 3 hours before.  They were going to make him go back to the guest lounge and camp out -- thankfully he frantically pointed at me and said we were together and I tried to look panicked and it worked.  We hadn't really said goodbye yet, and I hated to do it standing in limbo between the terminal glass doors surrounded by our luggage and being glared at by cops with guns.  

After all that, we only had about 20 minutes to say goodbye anyway, and then we parted ways, with me heading to the customs line and Max standing behind the glass window…but turns out they hadn't given me the right form at the check-in desk, so I came out once to get it and fill it out…and then again realized that I didn't have appropriately tagged 'Approved Carry-on Luggage' tags - this time Max brought the tags to me in line…and then the lady in the pat-down cubicle had never heard of the Chinese city I was flying to and I think she assumed I had a fake ticket because she took it out and checked with her supervisor.  When I finally made it through, I was not surprised to find that my flight was no longer on the computer screens - I had to ask a bunch of people, and it ended up leaving from a completely different side of the airport and was never on the screen.  Ridiculous!  Happily, however, I did make it on the plane, it was not cancelled, and it even made it to China earlier than scheduled.  Moral of the story: leave plenty of time for the Delhi airport!! (and maybe don't fly with me unless you're ready for anything to happen!)