CHAPTER 1
She always wanted to travel alone. But when she did..
Well the thing that I am late about (I should probably start organizing my thoughts before I start to write!!) is my long pending travelogue. The coolest thing I have ever been allowed to do (Yeah, you have to be ALLOWED!) is to travel alone to a far-away land. Though it would have been a lot more post-friendly if its was to Machu Picchu, Cairo or Baghdad, mine was exciting enough. It was to the United States of America, the U... ..SA.
I was supposed to be leaving India with my boss and travel back alone.
But with my mother's deepest prayers for a chaperone and all my bragging that I got to travel alone one way atleast, the universe conspired and aligned my travel date with another who was returning the same day. Thank you universe and your twisted logic too!
I wish I was born in the days of the nomads, when you didn't have to hold a VISA or a Passport to step into foreign land and could just go about as you please till you saved a young Prince and was honored by the King or accidentally trip up a caravan and be hanged. (Whatever) Well if had been born then, I need not have waited for three weeks to start my journey. But I was born in the uninteresting age of diplomacy and the UN, so wait I did. But the day did come!
I was at the Airport. It would have been my first getting out of the troposphere (that's the lowest portion of the earth's atmosphere for all you non-geeks), if I hadn't flown to Chennai for my VISA. Still it was my first international travel and I was excited, scared (Did
I write that??? Scratch) and Cautious. I checked my Passport every 5
minutes. Actually I would check and after three minutes I would wonder
If I checked the last time I was supposed to and check again. Oh and
check again to make sure it was mine. Okay, I wasn't cautious I was
paranoid.
Going back two hours (or 7 hours because my flight got slightly delayed by five hours), I was packing and there wasn't enough space in my suit case for the million shoes I wanted to carry, so I limited it to three. The damn things still wouldn't fit. In a moment of creative genius, I picked the highest heeled shoes out to wear and put the less space consuming ones inside. Clever me! (I can be so innovative, out-of-the-box thinker sometimes). If only I knew how much that one moment of wrong decision could turn bad...
Fast forwarding to the airport again, I reached filled out a few forms, went through a couple of gates. The Indian population's American dream and my high heeled shoes didn't make any of that easier. I stood for an hour in the most inhumane foot angle going through the million security checks. I didn't mind, I was traveling. Not just moving my mass from one town to another, not a couple of hundred miles... I was TRAVELING!
My travel was related to work. How I wished it would be more exciting!! Though was I prepared to get what I wished...
CHAPTER 2
What the hell happened just now?
I was to fly to San Francisco via Hong Kong with company through out (or as my dad liked to believe, supervision). So I boarded my flight to Hong Kong, there was no turning back. All those movies about hijacks, snakes on board came to memory and it wasn't helping. There should be more RomCom movies shooted on planes! I wasn't complaining. After all you can't be excited without being scared. For all my pretended fear, I got on my flight and slept! The flight started at 4:30 in the morning.
I slept at 4:30 slept for an hour or two (or so I thought) and woke up to a bright and sunny day at 12:00 AM. The magic that happens when you overtake earth's rotating speed or better yet move in the opposite direction. There may be no Abra-Cadabra but human machines are not that bad. Well after a bit of trying to listen to Beyonce (Surprisingly she's not that good when you are half sleepy!) I was fidgeting in my seat bored and found my neighbour in the same mood. So we started talking.
She was from Mongolia, a first year student in Bangalore and going home. That's when I said the most ignorant thing in the entire trip.
Me:"Mongolia? Cool. So China Huh?"
Her: "No Mongolia. China is different"
Me: "Isn't Mongolia to like the north of China?" (I at least got my Geography right!)
Her: Yes it is. But it is a seperate country. We actually speak Russian!
Me: Ooops.. My bad (Uncomfortable Silence)
She was a nice person and I learnt a good lot about Mongolia the Country.
Apart from that one moment, the flight was as comfortable as it could be. My sister spoke a lot about turbulence and I was half-hoping I could experience it. (But it is not a very good thing to want, so I gave up!). We finally reached Hong Kong (four hours later than expected and just in time for our next flight to SFO). Considering all the delay that happened in the earlier flight, I thought the next one could be delayed by half an hour. But that was not to be.
We practically, literally ran to our next flight. Remember when I said my innovating packing decision (the shoes) would haunt me, they did. After hours of queue-standing, security-checking and wandering in the Bangalore Airport, my feet were already sore. Now I had to run! Lets just say my running at that point was no very elegant or sufficient. So I reached last in my check in queue and was going through the security check. My manager (and another colleague who was travelling with us coincidentally) I guess had better shoes and were a couple of slots ahead in the queue. They saw me going through security and started boarding. I was gonna join them in a minute or so we all thought.
For all the paranoia I had about losing my passport, maybe I should have been a tad more careful about what I had in my luggage. I already explained the one packing mishap, now let me elaborate on the next. My first flight from Bangalore was scheduled to leave at 3 in the morning and Bangalore roads are not the safest at that time of the day. So in yet another un-me moment, I packed a Pepper spray in my bag. I was already feeling safer and before I go any further, Pepper sprays are legal for defensive use in India. Well back in the Airport, It was 2 in the afternoon and there was a big crowd and airport security around. I feel safe in a crowd in daylight and with uniforms around. So when I was going through the security line, the pepper spray was not on my mind. The nice man in the security asked if he could check my bag and I said "Sure. Go ahead!".
Soon the man starting speaking something in Chinese and I was getting impatient. My legs weren't feeling any better standing there. And then he showed me my pepper spray and asked
Him: "Ma'm, Is this yours?"
Me : "Yes..."
Him: "You know you can't carry it, right?"
Me : "Oh sorry, I accidentally packed it. You can remove it!"
Him: "Ma'm, Pepper sprays are illegal in Hong Kong. Not just the airport"
Me : "Illegal like Drugs are illegal"
Him: "Yes"
Me : mouthing "Ill...eee..ggg..alll"
This is from Wikepedia. No Kidding!
Me :
Other : What is the Purpose of your visit?
Me :
Other : Ma'm, What is the Purpose of your visit?
Me : Business. I am only flying via Hong Kong.
Other : Are you travelling via CX872?
Me : Yes.
....
....
The cops arrived. I think English literature is very prejudiced against Chinese/Russian Jails and American Federal agents. The Hong Kong cops were really polite though Firm in their questioning.
I was starting to think maybe I could get three meals and a book to read in Jail. After a lot of questioning, they told me they had to seize the object (the spray) and I was like "Please! Take the thing as far as you can from me!". I got a feeling that I wasn't going to Jail and I was right. They told me that visitors got one warning and so I would not be arrested this time. I would get a warrant and if this happened ever again on Hong Kong soil, I would be jailed. I was relieved and glad that I would be out of this country in the next hour and I was never coming back.
That was when they informed me my flight was leaving as we spoke. That cannot be, the entire process did not take ten minutes. Remember when we were running because the flight wouldn't wait, turns out it really couldn't wait. So there I was stuck in a country I didn't want to be in. When you have exhausted your last warning, you cannot but be paranoid.
CHAPTER 3:
There's simply no getting out of bad luck. Is there?
Like I said, I was stuck in Hong Kong. I did not know that Airline Carriers usually help out in these situations. I didn't think they did. Why would they? So when I saw two people from the Cabin crew of the cariier I was traveling with waiting for me, I was befuddled (Which by the way is only a fancy word for confused and it looks like I have used the adjective quite too often). There was an air hostess and a male flight attendant (I seriously do not know what the word for this profession is! Please reply in the comments section if you do.) and they seemed sympathetic. They told me that my flight had left and I had to take the next flight. When would that be I asked and got the usual "We have to check" answer. So they escorted me out of that security line to the waiting hall. The guy asked for my passport and my boarding pass and that's when it hit me. I hadn't collected my handbag from the counter.
Holy shit! Why was this happening to me? And a voice inside me said "You asked for exciting, didn't you?". So the guy ran back to the line while we waited and believe me, seeing a man in a suit carrying a handbag never made me feel happier than it did then. Well they checked liked they said they would and there was a flight that day. Good. It was twelve hours later. Not again! I was supposed to be in office the next morning and my earlier flight would have given me that plus a lot of hours to relax. I started calculating first in India time, then in Hong Kong time, then in SFO time and too perplexed to do math, I finally asked them when I would reach San Francisco. I would reach 8 hrs before I have to get ready for office.
My mind had never been more tried than it had been that day. A timeline of what went through my mind from the moment I got down at the airport
1) Run! Run! Run! You are not getting on..
2) Wait! You feet is killing you.
3) You'll live. Just keep Running. Slower people.. Slower!
4) Made it to the line. The line is slow. Faster People.. Faster!
6) I should learn Chinese someday. Naa.. Italian is better
7) Why is the guy with my bag gone this long. They don't steal wallets in airports. Do they?
8) Good. He is back! Stop speaking to your colleague and give me my bag
9) Oh! I carried a pepper spray. Can you be considered a terrorist for carrying pepper spray on board?
10) No fucking way! Pepper sprays cannot be illegal. This guy is an idiot
11) You are the idiot. It is illegal. What happens now?
12) The cops? Girl, Wake up it is serious.
13) Chinese Jails are horrible. No light. No space. You will die in jail and your parents will never know.
14) Maybe they will call up the embassy and check.
15) Really? That's what you want to think about right now.
16) Wait Hong Kong is not a part of China
17) The lady is talking to you. Reply!
18) Why am I not crying now? Am I really that brazen?
19) Maybe they would believe me if I cried.
20) They'll know you are faking it. They are cops!
21) God, I only don't want to be arrested.
22) Did you just think God? You are an atheist remember?
23) Okay I take that back. I simply don't want to be arrested.
24) Yay! This guy says you will only be getting a warrant because you are a visitor.
25) Bless Diplomacy and the person who wrote the Hong Kong constitution.
26) What my flight's gone? It has only been like 10 minutes.
27) I am stuck. I am not getting out of this country!
28) Can I buy a new ticket? Good, you have your credit card!
29) Why are the flight people here?
30) There is a air hostess and a what-do-i-call-him? Steward? Isn't that like a cook? He looks too good to be called a steward.
31) Going I am going to sit down.
32) They are going to book your next flight for you. Relax
33) My Passport? That's in my bag and my bag I don't have
34) The air hostess says wait. Am I still under supervision?
35) The Guy is going to get it. I hope he can find it. Maybe he wont?
36) a) Thats not the guy. The guy was wearing a grey suit
b) Not that guy either. He looks too old
c) Is that him? Looks like it. He has a blue hand bag and that is mine!! Ooofff. All is well
37) Why is the kid in the other seat crying so loudly?
38) My next flight is in 12 hours? Doesn't it take 12 hrs of travel? It is already 3 in the afternoon. I can't make it to office tomorrow.
39) You are so stupid. The time difference. Time difference between Hong-kong and SFO is... is...
40) Don't calculate it like that.
41) When will I reach? Am I getting dumber? I thought I was good at math..
42) Well I will reach at 10 midnight. I will have enough time. I don't have to call my manager.
43) You still have to. He doesn't know you are stuck here. Call? He is aboard.
44) I have to call him. You have to call your parents.
45) Why doesn't the call go through? I thought it was an international SIM.
46) Well send everybody a mail. Nobody checks mail that often. A FB message?
47) Good atleast they know. All is well again.
48) Hey, maybe you can checkout the Hong Kong airport.
49) Why isn't the lady still leaving? I got the boarding pass for my next flight. You are under supervision!
50) No, she is not! She is waiting to get your baggage transferred.
51) Is that possible? I thought my flight left. Whatever! You are not being supervised.
52) She seems nice. She likes India though she has never been there. Why does everybody feel entitled to say that?
53) So Chinese letters are the Cantonese script. Chinese is way cooler. Learn that before Italian.
54) She want to say Hello in Indian. 'Indian'? Girl there are like a million 'Indian' languages.
55) You just called Mandarin Chinese. You are one to judge!
56) "Nai Ho", "Nei Ho", Oh "Ni Ho". Mandarin is hard. Maybe Italian first.
57) Macau is like Las Vegas? You have to be 18 to enter?
58) She likes Korean serial too. She likes Lee Min Ho. Jun Pyo was really good.
59) The Taj Mahal? The Taj Mahal is overrated. You can't say that to her! Tell her it is gorgeous
60) Uff,, They got the luggage shifted and I am hungry. So Ciao then Christina. Christina Liu? Lui Got it.
Well, I had twelve hours to spare in a unknown country, Nice stores to window shop and a company card to pay for all I can eat. Its not that bad after all. Bad luck? Or was it?
CHAPTER 4
Did I finally leave? Yes, I did!
Still at the airport and hungry, I went to the Food Court. I believe any place should be experienced through food. People who travel with me complain that I eat every stop I make during a tour. I am not a very nature person (The only reason I want to be eco-friendly is because I don't want the world with me in it to die) so I cannot enjoy the rainbow or the lush green mountains. The only way I make a connection with a place is by feeling something (water/wind/cold/heat) or by eating something. So I decided to make my connection with Hong Kong by eating some real Chinese food. I looked at the menu and went for the most Hong Kong - ish dish I could find.
The E-Fu noodle. The dish by itself was great it was some flat noodles cooked with chewy strips of some vegetable. Bland yet flavorful. I was starting to enjoy it and that was when it struck me, the chewy portion was just too chewy. I know no chewy vegetables. What was I eating? I almost went back to ask the lady who sold it to me, then wondered if I really wanted to know? I tried to keep eating but it felt like I was eating something I wouldn't if I knew what it was. I left the plate in the trash and moved to the other end of the Food Court. Later Google research showed that the chewy part was just mushrooms. Damn! I was still hungry and scared to eat, so I bought chocolates. Chocolates for lunch, how cool is that?
I wondered if I should get outside the airport for some Hong Kong air but decided against it. I lost my warning remember? What if somebody put another pepper spray in my bag, huh? So I just roamed about looking at people. Looking at people is a fun way to pass time(Albeit not in staring-ey stalker kind of way, that is just plain creepy). Making up back stories for each of them that lead up to the current hour making them characters in your one happy story is even better. (I am a happy-ending fanatic! People who give sad endings to good stories are cruel. Period.)
Weather in Hong Kong was bad they said (It looked good to me!) and we had to wait for for two more hours before we could get on. So I waited for another hour for the gate number to be displayed and another half hour waiting at the gate mentioned when I thought I heard something. It was in Chinese, so I waited for the English version to come up. Maybe my flight was getting delayed again. This is what the message said "Hey morons, wake up (or don't!)! We know you are waiting up at Gate 21 but that's not where you flight's gonna be. It is gonna be at gate 65 and we know you don't know where it is. So, Good luck finding it and getting out of this country. By the way you flight is not delayed any further and boarding will stop 20 minutes before scheduled departure." (In their defence, those were not the words they used). Okay the departure was in half hour and I had 10 minutes to find a gate I didn't know existed. So I did what any sane person would do, followed the nice people who ran in front of me. Before you judge, I knew they were on the same flight.
Okay, the path from gate 21 to gate 65 was very straight forward. You had to go down two floors, take a train and climb up two floors. I had only seen three airports so far and had no idea that there would be a train in an airport, Good thing I followed the nice people! Well I was there in 12 minutes and I did not see a queue. What the 20 minute thing was serious? No that is true. Only that when they said the flight was not delayed any further and when they used the present tense to indicate the flight's presence in the airport, they were kidding. Gotcha! After all running around in my sore blistered feet, I had another 45 minutes to relax. All you airport people, I am trying to make a good memory of Hong Kong and none of this is helping.
When I finally got on the flight, I was relieved. I was going to a country where I had one warning left.
She always wanted to travel alone. But when she did..
Well the thing that I am late about (I should probably start organizing my thoughts before I start to write!!) is my long pending travelogue. The coolest thing I have ever been allowed to do (Yeah, you have to be ALLOWED!) is to travel alone to a far-away land. Though it would have been a lot more post-friendly if its was to Machu Picchu, Cairo or Baghdad, mine was exciting enough. It was to the United States of America, the U... ..SA.
I was supposed to be leaving India with my boss and travel back alone.
But with my mother's deepest prayers for a chaperone and all my bragging that I got to travel alone one way atleast, the universe conspired and aligned my travel date with another who was returning the same day. Thank you universe and your twisted logic too!
I wish I was born in the days of the nomads, when you didn't have to hold a VISA or a Passport to step into foreign land and could just go about as you please till you saved a young Prince and was honored by the King or accidentally trip up a caravan and be hanged. (Whatever) Well if had been born then, I need not have waited for three weeks to start my journey. But I was born in the uninteresting age of diplomacy and the UN, so wait I did. But the day did come!
I was at the Airport. It would have been my first getting out of the troposphere (that's the lowest portion of the earth's atmosphere for all you non-geeks), if I hadn't flown to Chennai for my VISA. Still it was my first international travel and I was excited,
Going back two hours (or 7 hours because my flight got slightly delayed by five hours), I was packing and there wasn't enough space in my suit case for the million shoes I wanted to carry, so I limited it to three. The damn things still wouldn't fit. In a moment of creative genius, I picked the highest heeled shoes out to wear and put the less space consuming ones inside. Clever me! (I can be so innovative, out-of-the-box thinker sometimes). If only I knew how much that one moment of wrong decision could turn bad...
Fast forwarding to the airport again, I reached filled out a few forms, went through a couple of gates. The Indian population's American dream and my high heeled shoes didn't make any of that easier. I stood for an hour in the most inhumane foot angle going through the million security checks. I didn't mind, I was traveling. Not just moving my mass from one town to another, not a couple of hundred miles... I was TRAVELING!
My travel was related to work. How I wished it would be more exciting!! Though was I prepared to get what I wished...
CHAPTER 2
What the hell happened just now?
I was to fly to San Francisco via Hong Kong with company through out (or as my dad liked to believe, supervision). So I boarded my flight to Hong Kong, there was no turning back. All those movies about hijacks, snakes on board came to memory and it wasn't helping. There should be more RomCom movies shooted on planes! I wasn't complaining. After all you can't be excited without being scared. For all my pretended fear, I got on my flight and slept! The flight started at 4:30 in the morning.
I slept at 4:30 slept for an hour or two (or so I thought) and woke up to a bright and sunny day at 12:00 AM. The magic that happens when you overtake earth's rotating speed or better yet move in the opposite direction. There may be no Abra-Cadabra but human machines are not that bad. Well after a bit of trying to listen to Beyonce (Surprisingly she's not that good when you are half sleepy!) I was fidgeting in my seat bored and found my neighbour in the same mood. So we started talking.
She was from Mongolia, a first year student in Bangalore and going home. That's when I said the most ignorant thing in the entire trip.
Me:"Mongolia? Cool. So China Huh?"
Her: "No Mongolia. China is different"
Me: "Isn't Mongolia to like the north of China?" (I at least got my Geography right!)
Her: Yes it is. But it is a seperate country. We actually speak Russian!
Me: Ooops.. My bad (Uncomfortable Silence)
She was a nice person and I learnt a good lot about Mongolia the Country.
Apart from that one moment, the flight was as comfortable as it could be. My sister spoke a lot about turbulence and I was half-hoping I could experience it. (But it is not a very good thing to want, so I gave up!). We finally reached Hong Kong (four hours later than expected and just in time for our next flight to SFO). Considering all the delay that happened in the earlier flight, I thought the next one could be delayed by half an hour. But that was not to be.
We practically, literally ran to our next flight. Remember when I said my innovating packing decision (the shoes) would haunt me, they did. After hours of queue-standing, security-checking and wandering in the Bangalore Airport, my feet were already sore. Now I had to run! Lets just say my running at that point was no very elegant or sufficient. So I reached last in my check in queue and was going through the security check. My manager (and another colleague who was travelling with us coincidentally) I guess had better shoes and were a couple of slots ahead in the queue. They saw me going through security and started boarding. I was gonna join them in a minute or so we all thought.
For all the paranoia I had about losing my passport, maybe I should have been a tad more careful about what I had in my luggage. I already explained the one packing mishap, now let me elaborate on the next. My first flight from Bangalore was scheduled to leave at 3 in the morning and Bangalore roads are not the safest at that time of the day. So in yet another un-me moment, I packed a Pepper spray in my bag. I was already feeling safer and before I go any further, Pepper sprays are legal for defensive use in India. Well back in the Airport, It was 2 in the afternoon and there was a big crowd and airport security around. I feel safe in a crowd in daylight and with uniforms around. So when I was going through the security line, the pepper spray was not on my mind. The nice man in the security asked if he could check my bag and I said "Sure. Go ahead!".
Soon the man starting speaking something in Chinese and I was getting impatient. My legs weren't feeling any better standing there. And then he showed me my pepper spray and asked
Him: "Ma'm, Is this yours?"
Me : "Yes..."
Him: "You know you can't carry it, right?"
Me : "Oh sorry, I accidentally packed it. You can remove it!"
Him: "Ma'm, Pepper sprays are illegal in Hong Kong. Not just the airport"
Me : "Illegal like Drugs are illegal"
Him: "Yes"
Me : mouthing "Ill...eee..ggg..alll"
This is from Wikepedia. No Kidding!
- Hong Kong: Forbidden for civilians and legal to possess and use by only the members of Disciplined Services when on duty.
- Such devices are classified as "arms" under the "Laws of Hong Kong". Chap 238 Firearms and Ammunition Ordinance. Without a valid licence from the Hong Kong Police Force, it is a crime to possess and can result in a fine of $100,000 and to imprisonment for 14 years.[22]
- India: Legal[23] and does not require any licence
- They are sold via government-approved companies after performing a background verification.[24]
Me :
Other : What is the Purpose of your visit?
Me :
Other : Ma'm, What is the Purpose of your visit?
Me : Business. I am only flying via Hong Kong.
Other : Are you travelling via CX872?
Me : Yes.
....
....
The cops arrived. I think English literature is very prejudiced against Chinese/Russian Jails and American Federal agents. The Hong Kong cops were really polite though Firm in their questioning.
I was starting to think maybe I could get three meals and a book to read in Jail. After a lot of questioning, they told me they had to seize the object (the spray) and I was like "Please! Take the thing as far as you can from me!". I got a feeling that I wasn't going to Jail and I was right. They told me that visitors got one warning and so I would not be arrested this time. I would get a warrant and if this happened ever again on Hong Kong soil, I would be jailed. I was relieved and glad that I would be out of this country in the next hour and I was never coming back.
That was when they informed me my flight was leaving as we spoke. That cannot be, the entire process did not take ten minutes. Remember when we were running because the flight wouldn't wait, turns out it really couldn't wait. So there I was stuck in a country I didn't want to be in. When you have exhausted your last warning, you cannot but be paranoid.
CHAPTER 3:
There's simply no getting out of bad luck. Is there?
Like I said, I was stuck in Hong Kong. I did not know that Airline Carriers usually help out in these situations. I didn't think they did. Why would they? So when I saw two people from the Cabin crew of the cariier I was traveling with waiting for me, I was befuddled (Which by the way is only a fancy word for confused and it looks like I have used the adjective quite too often). There was an air hostess and a male flight attendant (I seriously do not know what the word for this profession is! Please reply in the comments section if you do.) and they seemed sympathetic. They told me that my flight had left and I had to take the next flight. When would that be I asked and got the usual "We have to check" answer. So they escorted me out of that security line to the waiting hall. The guy asked for my passport and my boarding pass and that's when it hit me. I hadn't collected my handbag from the counter.
Holy shit! Why was this happening to me? And a voice inside me said "You asked for exciting, didn't you?". So the guy ran back to the line while we waited and believe me, seeing a man in a suit carrying a handbag never made me feel happier than it did then. Well they checked liked they said they would and there was a flight that day. Good. It was twelve hours later. Not again! I was supposed to be in office the next morning and my earlier flight would have given me that plus a lot of hours to relax. I started calculating first in India time, then in Hong Kong time, then in SFO time and too perplexed to do math, I finally asked them when I would reach San Francisco. I would reach 8 hrs before I have to get ready for office.
My mind had never been more tried than it had been that day. A timeline of what went through my mind from the moment I got down at the airport
1) Run! Run! Run! You are not getting on..
2) Wait! You feet is killing you.
3) You'll live. Just keep Running. Slower people.. Slower!
4) Made it to the line. The line is slow. Faster People.. Faster!
6) I should learn Chinese someday. Naa.. Italian is better
7) Why is the guy with my bag gone this long. They don't steal wallets in airports. Do they?
8) Good. He is back! Stop speaking to your colleague and give me my bag
9) Oh! I carried a pepper spray. Can you be considered a terrorist for carrying pepper spray on board?
10) No fucking way! Pepper sprays cannot be illegal. This guy is an idiot
11) You are the idiot. It is illegal. What happens now?
12) The cops? Girl, Wake up it is serious.
13) Chinese Jails are horrible. No light. No space. You will die in jail and your parents will never know.
14) Maybe they will call up the embassy and check.
15) Really? That's what you want to think about right now.
16) Wait Hong Kong is not a part of China
17) The lady is talking to you. Reply!
18) Why am I not crying now? Am I really that brazen?
19) Maybe they would believe me if I cried.
20) They'll know you are faking it. They are cops!
21) God, I only don't want to be arrested.
22) Did you just think God? You are an atheist remember?
23) Okay I take that back. I simply don't want to be arrested.
24) Yay! This guy says you will only be getting a warrant because you are a visitor.
25) Bless Diplomacy and the person who wrote the Hong Kong constitution.
26) What my flight's gone? It has only been like 10 minutes.
27) I am stuck. I am not getting out of this country!
28) Can I buy a new ticket? Good, you have your credit card!
29) Why are the flight people here?
30) There is a air hostess and a what-do-i-call-him? Steward? Isn't that like a cook? He looks too good to be called a steward.
31) Going I am going to sit down.
32) They are going to book your next flight for you. Relax
33) My Passport? That's in my bag and my bag I don't have
34) The air hostess says wait. Am I still under supervision?
35) The Guy is going to get it. I hope he can find it. Maybe he wont?
36) a) Thats not the guy. The guy was wearing a grey suit
b) Not that guy either. He looks too old
c) Is that him? Looks like it. He has a blue hand bag and that is mine!! Ooofff. All is well
37) Why is the kid in the other seat crying so loudly?
38) My next flight is in 12 hours? Doesn't it take 12 hrs of travel? It is already 3 in the afternoon. I can't make it to office tomorrow.
39) You are so stupid. The time difference. Time difference between Hong-kong and SFO is... is...
40) Don't calculate it like that.
41) When will I reach? Am I getting dumber? I thought I was good at math..
42) Well I will reach at 10 midnight. I will have enough time. I don't have to call my manager.
43) You still have to. He doesn't know you are stuck here. Call? He is aboard.
44) I have to call him. You have to call your parents.
45) Why doesn't the call go through? I thought it was an international SIM.
46) Well send everybody a mail. Nobody checks mail that often. A FB message?
47) Good atleast they know. All is well again.
48) Hey, maybe you can checkout the Hong Kong airport.
49) Why isn't the lady still leaving? I got the boarding pass for my next flight. You are under supervision!
50) No, she is not! She is waiting to get your baggage transferred.
51) Is that possible? I thought my flight left. Whatever! You are not being supervised.
52) She seems nice. She likes India though she has never been there. Why does everybody feel entitled to say that?
53) So Chinese letters are the Cantonese script. Chinese is way cooler. Learn that before Italian.
54) She want to say Hello in Indian. 'Indian'? Girl there are like a million 'Indian' languages.
55) You just called Mandarin Chinese. You are one to judge!
56) "Nai Ho", "Nei Ho", Oh "Ni Ho". Mandarin is hard. Maybe Italian first.
57) Macau is like Las Vegas? You have to be 18 to enter?
58) She likes Korean serial too. She likes Lee Min Ho. Jun Pyo was really good.
59) The Taj Mahal? The Taj Mahal is overrated. You can't say that to her! Tell her it is gorgeous
60) Uff,, They got the luggage shifted and I am hungry. So Ciao then Christina. Christina Liu? Lui Got it.
Well, I had twelve hours to spare in a unknown country, Nice stores to window shop and a company card to pay for all I can eat. Its not that bad after all. Bad luck? Or was it?
CHAPTER 4
Did I finally leave? Yes, I did!
Still at the airport and hungry, I went to the Food Court. I believe any place should be experienced through food. People who travel with me complain that I eat every stop I make during a tour. I am not a very nature person (The only reason I want to be eco-friendly is because I don't want the world with me in it to die) so I cannot enjoy the rainbow or the lush green mountains. The only way I make a connection with a place is by feeling something (water/wind/cold/heat) or by eating something. So I decided to make my connection with Hong Kong by eating some real Chinese food. I looked at the menu and went for the most Hong Kong - ish dish I could find.
The E-Fu noodle. The dish by itself was great it was some flat noodles cooked with chewy strips of some vegetable. Bland yet flavorful. I was starting to enjoy it and that was when it struck me, the chewy portion was just too chewy. I know no chewy vegetables. What was I eating? I almost went back to ask the lady who sold it to me, then wondered if I really wanted to know? I tried to keep eating but it felt like I was eating something I wouldn't if I knew what it was. I left the plate in the trash and moved to the other end of the Food Court. Later Google research showed that the chewy part was just mushrooms. Damn! I was still hungry and scared to eat, so I bought chocolates. Chocolates for lunch, how cool is that?
I wondered if I should get outside the airport for some Hong Kong air but decided against it. I lost my warning remember? What if somebody put another pepper spray in my bag, huh? So I just roamed about looking at people. Looking at people is a fun way to pass time(Albeit not in staring-ey stalker kind of way, that is just plain creepy). Making up back stories for each of them that lead up to the current hour making them characters in your one happy story is even better. (I am a happy-ending fanatic! People who give sad endings to good stories are cruel. Period.)
Weather in Hong Kong was bad they said (It looked good to me!) and we had to wait for for two more hours before we could get on. So I waited for another hour for the gate number to be displayed and another half hour waiting at the gate mentioned when I thought I heard something. It was in Chinese, so I waited for the English version to come up. Maybe my flight was getting delayed again. This is what the message said "Hey morons, wake up (or don't!)! We know you are waiting up at Gate 21 but that's not where you flight's gonna be. It is gonna be at gate 65 and we know you don't know where it is. So, Good luck finding it and getting out of this country. By the way you flight is not delayed any further and boarding will stop 20 minutes before scheduled departure." (In their defence, those were not the words they used). Okay the departure was in half hour and I had 10 minutes to find a gate I didn't know existed. So I did what any sane person would do, followed the nice people who ran in front of me. Before you judge, I knew they were on the same flight.
Okay, the path from gate 21 to gate 65 was very straight forward. You had to go down two floors, take a train and climb up two floors. I had only seen three airports so far and had no idea that there would be a train in an airport, Good thing I followed the nice people! Well I was there in 12 minutes and I did not see a queue. What the 20 minute thing was serious? No that is true. Only that when they said the flight was not delayed any further and when they used the present tense to indicate the flight's presence in the airport, they were kidding. Gotcha! After all running around in my sore blistered feet, I had another 45 minutes to relax. All you airport people, I am trying to make a good memory of Hong Kong and none of this is helping.
When I finally got on the flight, I was relieved. I was going to a country where I had one warning left.
