My traveling woes

Recently I went to Minnesota for my cousin’s wedding reception. I had a flight from Baton Rouge (1 hr drive from my place) at 5:45 am, so that meant I had to be at airport by 4:45 am. I got there half asleep only to find that my plane has been cancelled (there was ice storm at Dallas, my transit to MN). It was a mistake in my part too as I forgot to check the flight status in the morning before I left, it was ok the night before. I had to fight with airlines representative and they finally switched my airlines and rerouted me. As, I stayed there waiting to board, I was pondering, I always had issues when it comes to flying.

If you have read my blog “Remembering December 31”, I have mentioned my troubles when I flew from Nepal to US. I had few more troubles when I was in Nepal itself. Onetime when I was returning from Tansen (my field site), there was this huge landslide blocking all the major roads to Kathmandu. I took a cab to Bharatpur & Butwal airport but couldn’t find a flight. Then I took cab to Pokhara (I had to sleep in the cab near Syangja-Pokhara boarder because of curfew, which we did not know) and got myself a flight in double price. Other time, I was returning from Delhi, I had my visa interview for US the next morning, and my RNAC flight was supposed to land me at Kathmandu around 6 pm. But, I eventually got to my home the next morning, around 3 am. There was this guy in Delhi airport who was also cursing the RNAC along with me, and we talked a whole lot about politics when we were waiting for the flight. I (24 yr old kid at that time) was debating with this elderly fellow about politics only to find later that he was P.L. Singh (the ex-mayor of Kathmandu).

Few months ago, I had flown to Oklahoma to meet my sister. My flight from Lafayette to Dallas was good, but we had to get off the plane after we boarded for flight to Oklahoma from Dallas as they found out that there was something wrong in the engine. I eventually reached Oklahoma 4 hours late than my scheduled time.

Other time I was flying to St. Louis via Dallas, my flight was supposed to take off at 11 am but was delayed till 6 pm. It was ok, because I checked the flight status before I left for the airport (although I had to miss my valuable time at St. Louis). My flight from Dallas to St. Louis was further delayed because the stewardess group didn’t arrive. That was one of the stupidest reasons for having flight delayed. When returning from St. Louis, flight to Dallas was ok, but flight from Dallas to Lafayette was again delayed for even more stupid reason; the air hostess went out to grab a lunch and was missing. After an hour she appears strolling with a bag of subway. There are few more incidents and stories about my other flights too which I have not mentioned in this blog.

After the wedding reception, my return flight from Minnesota was again delayed and so was my connecting flight from Dallas, but by now I was used to it. I guess I have travel curse, so if you plan to travel somewhere and want to get there in time; my suggestion is never travel with me.