Scott's adventures trying to get to Kathamndu!

Dante’s Inferno refers to the seven levels of hell. One of these levels, maybe number 5 or 6 is called “Air India .”

The one day delay of the Toronto to Delhi flight caused me to miss my Delhi to Kathmandu flight. In Toronto it took 3 visits over 2 hours to the Air India desk for them to tell me there was nothing they could do about arranging another flight for me. In Delhi it took multiple visits to no less than 8 counters and few agents between counters and over 6 hours to get me a flight to Kathamndu. Air India claims that as my Delhi-Kathmandu flight was Jet Air they had no responsibility to me. Jet Air claims that as I missed my Kathmandu flight because of a delayed Air India flight it is their responsibility to cover it.

There is no sense of queue at an Indian counter and the agent deals with whatever paper is waved most vigorously or whatever voice is raised most threateningly before them so I am at a disadvantage in my negotiations. It was not uncommon for an agent to just drop my case mid-stream when someone else butted in with their calamity. This ordeal is described in more detail in my journal.

In the end I got into a hotel overnight in New Delhi and onto another delayed Jet Airways flight to Kathamndu on Saturday.

Whoo-hoo! Kathamndu. The traffic chaos rivals Beijing but has a sense of dancing to it that Beijing did not. I found the New Orleans Café and Sudesh. I visited the Swayambunath –  a very spiritual experience that comes with monkeys. I went out last night with Sudesh and he made me play and sing for my dinner at his restaurant in Patan.

I had a panicked walk home in the pitch dark due to load shedding of the electricity and then broke into my hotel after 11:00 PM by hopping the gate and tip-toeing past the sleeping security guard.

Adventures in travel. Whoo-hoo! Kathamndu.

Scott