Once again, Northwest has oversold their flight. Despite having checked in hours ago and having pre-confirmed seats, I am being bumped from Northwest to Swiss Air. I know little about Swiss Air and am not comforted by what I do know. Like many Maritimers, Swiss Air is permanently associated with Flight 111 and faulty capcon wiring in the fancy electronics systems. I am not relieved to see small TV screens built into the backs of every chair on the plane.

On the bright side, the Northwest agent did confirm that they Amsterdam – Minneapolis segment of my ticket was not oversold and I will be able to continue to my flight back to North America on the originally scheduled flight.

Now, instead of a direct flight to Amsterdam, I am being routed through Zurich and then transferring to another flight which will land me in Amsterdam. Despite the extra flight and time in transit, I will still arrive in time to connect to my Amsterdam – Minneapolis flight and will arrive in Edmonton on time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to view Zurich or Amsterdam or tour their respective airports. My layover in Zurich was approximately 20 minutes – barely providing enough time to move from one gate to another – and I had less than 30 minutes to find my gate in Amsterdam.

My Amex will love me. I had no opportunity to visit a Duty Free shop.

Mumbai to Amsterdam was an experience. I was seated next to Mr. Stinky – granted, I’m sure I’m not so fresh smelling myself anymore, but at least I’ve made an effort to brush my teeth repeatedly since leaving the hotel – who snored like a foghorn. I have been awake since 10:30 am (IST) on Friday and have no idea when I’ll finally have an opportunity to sleep.

I wasn’t able to get my passport stamped upon arrival to Zurich. The immigration official explained that Canadians are allowed a 3 month entry into Switzerland before a Visa is required and as such, no passport stamps will be issued for anyone passing through the airport and traveling on a Canadian passport.

Zurich to Amsterdam was a better flight. Granted, I don’t remember any of it because I fell asleep shortly after take off and awoke minutes before landing. It’s a shame the flight was only 1.25 hours long, as I’m sure I could have slept for hours on this plane.

While I’m upset about being bumped off of the Northwest flight – mainly due to the inconvenience and stress of trying to run through the Mumbai airport with only 20 minutes to boarding time – I can’t fault Swiss Air for their service. They were absolutely wonderful to myself and the other displaced passengers from NW flight 41.

In Amsterdam the security officer was more interested in Winnipeg (the city where my passport was issued) than in anything I was carrying or my reason for travel. Apparently, a number of his friends have immigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg.

Airport security seemed non-existent compared to my flights back in September. No one pawed through my pockets or luggage in Mumbai, I wasn’t groped in Amsterdam, and the Zurich immigration official barely looked at my passport.

As with the flight to Amsterdam, I managed to sleep fitfully on the flight to Minneapolis. For the first 4 hours I was wide awake but somewhere in the 5th hour I nodded off and grabbed 40 winks.

While it is only 2:30 pm (CST), it is now 2:00 am IST and my body is still working on India time. With that in mind, I’ve decided to continue the remaining section of my journal entry for today under Sunday on the voyage home…

UGH!!!

We left work late in the morning and arrived back at the hotel by 5:30 am. After much packing, unpacking and repacking of my luggage, I finally crawled into bed at 7:30 am. With a wake up call scheduled for 10:30 am, I wasn’t sure how well I’d be able to hold up once I reached Mumbai.

Anand met me at the door to assist with the luggage and graciously accepted being designated my ‘porter’. I passed off the granola bars and a few other assorted goodies. Earlier that morning, I had noticed that the granola bar supply was down by over ½. Since I wasn’t eating them, I guess they have also been raided by the hotel staff. I’ve added them to the list of foodstuffs that went missing in my room.. cookies, chips, pop (I know, I know…I didn’t follow my diet…and yet I still managed to lose over 10 lbs during my stay in India).

Since the beginning of my stay, I have had an ongoing battle with the housekeeping staff.

In the beginning, it was the constant calls asking when they could clean my room received at 10 am – after I had repeatedly told the management that I was working nights and would not be vacating the room prior to noon on any given day. Then, there was the sporadic turn down service. Each night, we were supposed to receive a snack at the bedside table. Anand often talked about the cookies, mousses, and chocolates he received. After the first week, I was lucky if a cookie appeared in my room more than once a week. Actually, I shouldn’t complain about the lack of sweets too much. When they did put a mousse in my room, it was left there for 4 days until it started to mold and I had to request that it be removed. All in all, I was likely much better off not receiving the turn down service. Later, it was small things (nothing of value or anything that I would miss) disappearing from the room. Calls to the housekeeping department always resulted in assurances that they would look into it and get back to me – but they never did.

The final straw was the daily battle to throw things out. I had brought a blue dress to India that I have owned for 4+ years. It’s one I wore frequently at work, and was well used. Finally, it decided it was time for retirement and the worn fabric had torn in the middle of the dress. As it wasn’t on the seam, I decided that it was time to let go and throw it out. To have cut it and hemmed it would have made the dress border on the obscene. After making my peace with the decision I threw the dress out, changed and headed to work. When I returned to my room that evening, the dress was folded and sitting on the bed. This continued for well over two weeks, until I finally stopped trying to throw it out. I began to panic. What if the hotel didn’t throw away my broken suitcase and the old pair of shoes I had worn through? What if they decided to ship it all back to me?

I’m beginning to wonder what I did to deserve the treatment I received. My room was never left in too much of a mess and I made a point to tip the concierge and housekeeping staff whenever I requested anything from them. Anand suggested that they were partying in my room, since on the few occasions I did turn on the TV, the volume was always cranked and it was never left on the channel I had most recently watched.

The Swiss president is staying at the Leela and the hotel was swarmed with hotel security, local police and the Swiss version of the secret service. One of these fine gentlemen took pity on Anand and I and offered to assist me with the luggage. It was a great offer and one I immediately accepted. Unfortunately, the bag he grabbed was the lightest of all – the small cabin bag I had purchased which containing next to nothing – leaving Anand and I to drag the monster suitcase and book bag down the hall and to the elevator.

On checkout, I once again found a number of items on my bill that were charged to my room that I had not signed for. 4 weeks ago, some meals for a guest in room 225 (I was in room 325) were applied to my bill. After discovering the error, I had the charges removed and paid the balance of the bill. 2 weeks ago when I again settling the bill, the meals were once again present on the bill. The original receipts were hauled out for review, the name and room number was noted, and I was told the amount would be removed from the bill. When I settled the 2nd bill, the meals were not on it. This morning, guess what appeared on a separate bill associated with the room? If you said the meals for room 225, you’ve guessed correctly. Needless to say, disputing the meals and private bar (mini-bar) charges took over 45 minutes. The charges were finally removed from the bill and were not on the copy of the receipt I signed. I will be keeping a close eye on the charges to our corporate card to ensure that charges I did not sign for aren’t billed to the card now that I’ve left the hotel.

I am now a thoroughly disgruntled former guest…I can understand the original mistake – sometimes handwriting is hard to decipher – but the continual back and forth over my hotel bills has made me wary of 5 star hotels. I’ll settle for a nice Hilton or Homewood Suites room any day…

As I was leaving the Duty desk, I made sure to let the Duty Manager know that I had left the suitcase (and its’ torn dress and stinky worn shoe contents) to be thrown out. Anand joked that I did not want it shipped to me in Canada. The staff laughed and seemed to think my request was reasonable, but with the luck I’ve had with the 3rd floor cleaning staff, you never know what might happen…

After a final lunch at the Cirtus restaurant, Anand and I headed for the airport where we were met by Sahana. Unlike my previous domestic flight from Mumbai to Bangalore a number of weeks ago, the security seemed considerably lax and I was quickly through the security check. Sahana assured me that her friend Arpit would be more than happy to take me about town.

Somewhere along the way, some wires were crossed. As Arpit awaited my arrival at the domestic terminal, I was spirited off to the international terminal. Thanks to a porter at the international terminal, a phone call was made to Arpit and I was ‘rescued’ from the Mumbai airport. Arpit is an actor by trade and is not filming at the moment. Apparently there was a very glitzy party in Mumbai last night and he had told Sahana it was a shame that I hadn’t arrived in Mumbai on Thursday in order to attend the party. All the stars of Bollywood were in attendance and it would have made for an amazing story to tell.

When I tell him where I am from, Arpit immediately recognizes the name of the city. He has an uncle in Toronto who often travels to Edmonton and is the first person I have met who is familiar with most of the larger cities in Canada.

The generosity of spirit and friendliness of Indians constantly surprises and amazes me. Arpit has given up the bulk of his evening to act as tour guide, shuttle me around and ensure that I am fed and cared for while I wait for my flight to Amsterdam. He holds Sahana, his long time friend, in the highest regard and states that ‘any friend of Sahana’s is a friend of his’.

Noting my preference to tea biscuits over sweets, Arpit has provided me with a packet to take on the plane. I don’t know how I can repay Sahana and Arpits’ kindness, generosity and friendship. Arpit insists that making myself at home will be repayment enough, however, I doubt that can express the gratitude I feel for his brief involvement in my trip to India.

Thanks to Arpit I have crossed another item off of my ‘to do’ list. I saw my first Hindi movie in India tonight. We watched Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (which was ¾ dubbed in English) and if you haven’t seen it yourself, I highly recommend it. The movie takes place during a routine journey between cities and explores the relationship between to acquaintances after a religious riot breaks out in a village they are passing through. It’s an engrossing drama, but doesn’t contain the usual Hindi dance routines and songs. However, if you’re looking for something more traditional, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer isn’t it.

WOW! Apparently I had a lot to say today 😉 I guess today’s journal entry make up for the tiny ones in last week and this weeks’ segments of the trip journal.

Paulo: I didn’t manage to learn what song was playing on the Leela’s website. Since I’m leaving tomorrow, I’ll pass that torch on to Anand. Hopefully, he’ll get the answer you’re searching for.

Ok, I know I’m not going to be able to get packed, get enough sleep, and be ready to leave at noon tomorrow. With that said, I’m heading downstairs to the Duty Managers desk to arrange for a late checkout.

— Break for visit to Hotel Duty Manager desk —

It’s all arranged. I have a late checkout set for 1:30 pm Friday. Hopefully, that will allow me to get enough sleep before I have to tackle the journey home.

Anand and I decided to visit the Family Mart on JP Nagar road before heading in to work. Family Mart is Bangalores’ first multi-purpose departmental store. It has a music, books, clothes, toys, makeup, perfume, restaurants and a grocery store. It’s the closest thing to Walmart that we’ve seen since we arrived and since it opened yesterday, we definitely had to check it out before I left town. While the store was interesting, the best thing about it was that for the first time since I arrived, no one followed me around the store trying to sell me something. I mentioned to Anand that if Family Mart had been open weeks ago, I wouldn’t be so desperate to be ignored by a North American sales clerk 😉

The main purpose of my visit to Family Mart was to pick up snacks for the plane at the grocery store. Sure, we wanted to check it out…but there was a method to the madness. Unlike Nilgiris American food celebration – with it’s tiny display of American brands and flavours – the Family Mart grocery store appears to be targeted to those with a flavour for North American and British brands. As you walk in the door, you see Coke, Pepsi, Lays (ok, you can get those anywhere in Bangalore), Fruit Loops, Old Spice, etc. It was definitely the largest grocery store we’d been in since I arrived in Bangalore and was bright, spacious and clean.

Tic Tac supplies refilled, we headed off to work.

— Break for work —

I think Anand is slipping. While in the elevator today, he was making comments about holding the elevator to let the pretty girls get on. Then, later in the day he was asking people for instructions on how to send text messages using the projects’ cell phone! In India, it’s common to carry on flirtations and relationships via SMS messaging on cell phones. Perhaps all our teasing is beginning to have an unforeseen effect…

I had a few minutes to chat with Bill today and learned that his rugs have arrived safe and sound. He also asked when the pictures on the web site will be updated… *thuppt*

I’ve taken over 300 pictures and not all of them have been downloaded to my laptop as of yet. I promise to expand the gallery once I’m home. *honest* All of my photo editing software is on my Mac and manipulating pictures (re- sizing, etc.) is very annoying on this Winblows based system.

— Break for Training —

Today is my last day at work. It seems unreal, knowing that I’ve walked out of this building for the last time. Everyone is wondering when I’ll be back to visit India and the centre. Manish pointed out where the agents will be sitting by the time I return to the centre…as much as I wanted to go home, I don’t want to leave.

Throughout the evening, I said many personal goodbyes. While I have only spent a week with the second batch of agents, and am not terribly close to them, the first group has become a surrogate family while I have been living in Bangalore. When I joked that they have become like my children, Sagar (the oldest of the bunch) took exception and was subsequently elevated to status of baby brother.

Mamatha and Divya are threatening to send Anand home to Canada with a suitcase filled with Ganesha’s destined for my home and office. Ganesha is a favoured deity in Bangalore and, as the ‘remover of obstacles’, has definitely made an impression on me. Divya suggested sending me a list of all the coming presents so that I can ambush Anand at the airport and demand the goodies.

Granted, to carry out those plans, I’d need to drive the 14 hours from Edmonton to Winnipeg (or take the 3 hour flight). It appears I’ve had no success impressing upon the agents the size of the vast land mass that is Canada…

The agents presented me with a little card that they had all signed. It is so ‘little’ I’m not sure I’ll be able to find it when I put it in my suitcase. The card is at least a foot long, and 6 inches wide! They have all signed it and I plan to put it in my cubicle at work as soon as I return. I am sure that every time I look at it I will laugh and remember our final ‘wrap up’ session at work. True to Linda and Bills’ example, I made sure to point out that Anand is still single. Sagar has accepted the responsibility for ensuring that Anand is reminded of his need to find a wife – and has even offered to help him post a ‘mate wanted’ add in the local singles paper. After dismissing ideas to host an wife screening hotline at the center (we’d need at least 6 agents to man the phones and screen calls from interested women) and the idea of holding one on one interviews in the HR office, we all joked about setting up interviews at the Leela between 4am and 7am each morning, where prospective wives can be screened. Krishna has offered to handle all prescreening. However, with Krishna in the mix, he’s likely to tell Anand there are no suitable women in Bangalore and keep all of the beautiful women to himself!

Messages were passed on from family members – Divya’s mother sent goodbye wishes and Divya presented me with a Ganesha. Faisal presented me with a lovely yellow vase, and the class followed suit with an amazing brown scarf. It is longer than I am tall and I will have to post a picture of it on the site when I return home. I have swapped addresses with Bindu and Sahana and will be adding them to my Christmas card list. Hopefully, everyone else will soon follow suit and email their addresses so that I can continue to keep in touch.

Following David L’s famous line – “it’s acceptable to hug people on your last day of work”, I made sure to get a hug from each and every member of the team before leaving. Manish joked that Anand was paying close attention to the fact that most of the girls kissed me on the cheek during the hug – and that he is now greatly anticipating his goodbyes. Divya and Bindu promptly advised they would be taking a vacation day on Anands’ last day at work *grin*.

In his farewell speech, Manish mentioned my journal and some of the contents. I have mentioned it briefly in the past, but I think the agents did not realize that it was online.

When Sahana learned that I would be arriving in Mumbai (Bombay) at 4:30 pm and that my flight to Amsterdam would not be leaving until 1:30 am, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She contacted a close friend in Mumbai and arranged for him to meet me at the airport and show me around the city. Sahana provided me with his phone number, so I could contact him when I reached Mumbai and gave him a brief description of what I would be wearing. As Bill and Linda can attest the Mumbai airport is not a place you want to spent 20 minutes let alone 9 hours – I was more than happy to have a tour guide and an opportunity to leave the airport.

Whatever was wrong with me on Sunday and Monday appears to have run it’s course. My stomach is back in fighting form and I’m hungry again for the first time in days.

It appears Anand was a busy boy yesterday. He has spoken to Manish about the possibility of my leaving a few days early and Manish agreed with the idea in principal. All that remains is approval from Linda for the flight change. After outlining the potential savings (2 nights at the hotel and associated food costs) and determining what the total revenue saved would be, I sent the proposal to Linda. With her seal of approval (thanks Linda!), I contacted Joyce to arrange for my new flights back to Canada.

Joyce contacted Carlson Wagonlit and arranged for new flights to be booked. I am now flying home on Friday at 3pm (IST) and will arrive in Edmonton on Saturday at 7pm (MST).

It’s amazing how happy 48 hours and 180$ Canadian can make you…

Today I was a woman on a mission. After visiting the KLM office and switching my tickets, I decided I better buckle down and begin packing when I returned to my room after work this evening. Otherwise, I’ll be up all night packing on Thursday.

— Break for work —

I fell into bed as soon as I arrived back at the hotel and didn’t get any packing done. I’m beginning to dread tomorrow.