it was time for coffee, so we moved, under cover, to the bar and ordered lemon sodas and stayed there until it was time to get our tuk-tuk to the airport. We went to reception shortly before 12:15 and they managed to get one case in the back, one case on the floor between us with the backpack between us on the seat. We had only gone a few yards when an out of breath apologetic Audley rep arrived, asking why we had left early. We had been under the impression that we needed to depart the hotel at 12:15 to meet our driver at 12:30 and the rep thought we were meeting him at the hotel at 12:30!
Never mind, all was well and he accompanied us all the way to the airport and had very helpfully printed out our boarding passes as without them we would not be allowed inside the terminal. Half way to the airport, the rain became heavier and continuous, not supposed to happen in Udaipur in October, clearly India was crying that we were leaving.
Our rep saw us all the way to the entrance doors, but was not allowed any further and told us to go straight ahead to the checking desk. Actually we had to turn left and a very helpful porter took our bags to the Air India baggage screening, jumped the queue to the business class checkin and then pointed out where security was. All very necessary as there were no signs anywhere!
Then we had to endure the inevitable segregated security, with long queues for ladies and much shorter ones for men. Alison was getting stressed as the (European) ladies in front were busy chatting and holding up the queue. She had to be checked in a screened cubicle, whilst the men had to remove belts, the ladies praying the the men’s trousers would not fall down!
Eventually, we met up again, checked that we had all our possessions and found the upstairs departure area, where we sat down and had a snack and coffee near to gate 3. For a fairly new airport it was incredible that there were no departure screens anywhere, the only screens were showing cartoons. Looking at our boarding passes, we realized that we should be at gate 2 not 3 so we moved across the room to that area, sat down and then there was an announcement that the Air India flight to Delhi would be boarding from gate 3 in 10 minutes, so back we go to where we had come from.
After a little while,a man appeared at gate 3 and shouted “Delhi” and that was the extent of the announcements! We boarded and had quite a pleasant flight, when the snack boxes came around, Pete reminded the cabin crew that we had ordered a low fat snack for alison via the Air India app. “Oh you don’t get a choice of meals on this flight”, he said handing her a box with a cold vegetarian pasty inside, which she promptly handed back to him!
The mango juice was fine, together with a paper cup of water each. Having finished his snack, Pete was tidying up the tables and promptly put Alison’s empty paper cup inside his full cup of water with the inevitable result of a waterfall all over the table and his trousers. The lady next to him hadn’t used her napkin so offered it to the stupid passenger sitting next to her.
We arrived ahead of schedule, but the luggage took a while to arrive; we met the agent who took us by car the short distance to the Holiday Inn and didn’t stop chatting the whole time. Strict segregated security again to enter the hotel. Bad news, we are being picked at 7:00 to check in for our 11:00 flight tomorrow, good news, breakfast starts at 6:00.
The agent did all the registration formalities for us while we sat in reception and told us that he will accompany us to the airport and another Audley agent will meet us in departures to see us safely through checkin. Mobile boarding passes are not accepted, so we will need to collect paper ones at bag drop.
It was not really feasible to make use of the hotels outdoor pool, so we went to our room and updated our blogs. Afterwards we went down to the restaurant and celebrated our last night here with the biggest thali we have seen! The staff were so impressed that we had a free coffee afterwards.
… we will now try to add some pictures to those that we did in Udaipur.
Dear Alison and Peter Well I can believe you are on your way home. We have thoroughly enjoyed catching up with you along the way and feel weâve been part of the journey. You have been on an incredible trek with amazing experiences. Safe travels and be prepared for a wet dull cool Guernsey. Catch up soon:have a great time in London. Love Yvonne and Ian xx
> Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at 4:42 PM
Hi there we are in the “green room” lounge at Delhi International having been met by Inder and driver. With so much to tell him about. Now we have 2 hours before 20 min walk to the plane . Charlie has at long last been in contact for tonight’s meet up.
C u soon A & P.