Jo and Sarb's Year Off

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Day 121 (Sun 5 Nov) - Kolkata

Eagerly got up and took a taxi to the airport to meet Debs (who used to work with Jo at Alzheimer's). Debs was coming to join us experience the delights of North East India for the next two weeks.

We'd read that it could take 2 hours to get to the airport so we set off at 10am only to arrive a mere 45 minutes later. The Air India flight from Heathrow wasn't due to arrive until 12.15. To kill some time we had some breakfast in the comfortable airport restaurant and went to the viewing gallery to watch planes land.

Waited for another hour and then decided we should go and see what had happened to the flight. The arrivals board stated that the plane had been diverted!! Great - poor Debs!!

Jo went to find the Airport Manager to find out what was going on. The Airport Managers office was full of friends and family waiting for the flight from Heathrow but no Airport Manager. It seemed that the plane had been diverted to Delhi (only some 2 hours flight away!!) because there had been a problem with the runway at Kolkata. Waited around for another hour. Finally an official from Air India came into the office and confirmed that the plane had been diverted to Delhi whilst repairs were being made to the runway and they should arrive in Kolkata at 4pm, though that was Indian timing so we weren't holding our breath!!

By this time it was 3pm and Jo decided to try Deb's mobile phone. Luckily she answered it and confirmed that she was sitting on the tarmac at Delhi Airport. They hadn't been allowed to leave the plane but she sounded surprisingly cheerful about the whole ordeal.

The flight finally arrived in Kolkata at 6.30pm, some six hours late. We met a slightly discombobulated Debs as she came through the arrivals gate and bundled her into a taxi.

We headed back through the busy, noisy, dirty streets of Kolkata to our hotel.

Before long we had deposited Disco's bags (Sarb's new affectionate name for Debs) and we were in the Fairlawn ordering a well deserved Kingfisher. Had a few drinks and retired for the night in our hotel.

To make it a little more comforting for Disco, Jo decided to sleep in her room, it had twin beds, whilst Sarb was upstairs snoring away soundly.

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