Sri Lanka Day 7: The Never Ending Trip Back to Bangalore

Mood: Mellow but Motivated

Listening to: Nothing – my daughter has Hindi tuitions right now

I’m not really one for hangovers unless I mix a lot of Black dog whiskey with wine in the same sitting (and that will never happen. Ever again.), so the next morning was fine. The Taj Samudra really outdoes itself for breakfast. I finally gave in and ordered a dosa from the dosa chef (yes, really) because I was aching for Bangalore food that badly. They had so many options, my kids even got pancakes. After stuffing ourselves to the gills, we packed up and slowly found Harry.  After assuring that our plane tickets and passports were indeed in our hands, we headed off to the airport at noon. This was the craziest I saw Harry and the traffic was ridiculous. I would never want to live in Colombo!  

The airport was uneventful. We had 3 hours until our flight so we generally wandered around the duty free shops laughing at how expensive the candy and liquor was.  We got some chicken tikka sandwiches from LaVazza, a coffee shop that is in India also, and waited. Then waited some more. Sri Lanka has free internet kiosks in the airport. I think this is a brilliant idea because it kept the kids busy for the remaining hour wait we had.  Daddy G changed all of our Sri Lankan rupees back into dollars because I just didn’t feel like wasting the remaining money on overpriced stuff at the airport.

Our flight to Chennai was short, uneventful, and featured sandwiches again, even though we barely had time to chow down before the plane landed again.

Chennai airport, unlike the last time we went, was a zoo. We cleared customs rather quickly and walked into the main terminal to a madhouse of people. Nothing like coming home, is there. We found seats and sat for a while because we were too early to be let into our gate. Our gate was yet to be determined, so we just sat somewhere.  I pestered Daddy G to get the kids sandwiches so they wouldn’t be whining on the plane or in Bangalore (not much open at that time of night here). No one ate much. The sandwiches were mainly vegetables and cheese but were pretty good.  In retrospect, they made more than one of us sick, and I probably won’t get anything from shady airport shops again. What do you expect? This is India. After waiting until 15 minutes until our flight was due to depart for them to announce a gate, we heard an announcement that our flight was delayed. We waited around until 9, when they announced our flight. 

At 9:30, we boarded with 2 very cranky, tired children. 

The kids fell asleep the minute the engines started. Another short, uneventful flight to Bangalore and we were there. More cranky crying children and 2 suitcases later, we joined the taxi line, which for whatever reason was huge at 10:30 at night.

My eldest started hyperventilating and crying that she was so tired and she was definitely going to throw up. Now, she’s a little prone to exaggeration when she’s tired, hungry, or sick, so we thought this was just an impatient dog and pony show. We did our best to calm her down. When it was our turn in the taxi line, we quickly piled in the taxi and left. 

Unfortunately, we found a driver who put Harry to shame. I think he was trying to get back to the airport and get one more fare for the night, but he was nuts. To top it all off, my eldest daughter puked all over the back floor of the cab. My husband swears the cabbie didn’t even notice until we paid him triple the fare so he could get it cleaned. We felt horrible that it happened, but it was plenty of money to get the car cleaned. After my daughter running into the house and puking again, we finally pout the kids to bed.

I am glad to be home. Our trip was wonderful and I am SO glad we went, but there is nothing like home. I really missed my Bangalore coffee.

Becky