Friday morning, it’s back on the boat and bus to the Manado airport. Lance and I have two easy flights back to Denpasar, where I walk him over to the international terminal, and I hop in a cab for my overnight in a nearby hotel. It’s evening, so I pretty much check in, head to my room and enjoy a quiet night’s sleep before a full travel day. The resort is really pretty nice, and even more so when you consider it’s $58 for the night (and yes, that’s with full breakfast buffet). Everything is charged and I’m ready to go, so back to the airport at 10:30 am, check in for my Singapore air flight, and off I go, into the wild blue yonder once again. 2 1/2 hours to the great nation-state of Singapore, then a loooong walk through the airport to my next 5 1/2 hour flight to New Delhi. Luckily, the plane isn’t too full and a nice Indian gentleman has the window to my aisle and no one in between. There is, however, a person with some mental issues in the row behind us who moans through the first 3 hours of the flight (sounding kind of like you, honey, on the dive when your stomach was bothering you!). I skip-watch quite a few movies and we land right on time.
My bag is about the 6th one off, so I can head right out to find my connection. Don’t see Kaita or a sign with my name, so I pull out my phone to make a ridiculously expensive call, and before I can finish dialing, she’s right beside me, querying if I’m Debi (she’s cut off all her hair and I have grown mine long and am looking down at the phone). Anyway, we’re off in a taxi for the Shanti Inn, which is lovely, and all is well. A good night’s sleep before breakfast, a local market and a 3 pm train ride to Rishikesh tomorrow. Excited to ride the train (first class, no chicken seat-mates for me!) tomorrow. Did you know that the Indian railway is the largest private employer in the world? 1.6 million employees, give or take. At least that’s what I’ve read.
More upon arrival.
Ciao!