Travel Days #9 (8/30/12 – 9/1/12): India to Nepal
Well, I have completed another World Race travel experience and have made it to my Month 9 destination in Kathmandu, Nepal. It should have been one of our shorter trips since we started only a few hours from the airport and only needed to take one 2 hr. flight to reach our destination. However, a late bus, planned overnight wait at the airport (which we weren’t aware were not allowed at Mumbai airport), and a cancelled flight resulted in a much more eventful 44 hour experience! As usual, our logistics team was on top of dealing with the obstacles efficiently and the squad members as a whole had great attitudes about the adjustments, which made the events more humorous than frustrating. Overall we made it to our destination one day late with another interesting travel experience to add to our list 
I have included the outline of our travel to Nepal below.
Thursday, 8/30/12
7:00pm – Finish dinner (Pizza & Ice-cream party to end our Month 8 debrief); packs piled up; waiting for bus
9:08pm – Bus arrives & loading begins
9:26pm – Loaded & Prayer for journey
9:29pm – Bus pulls away from the YWAM property a few hours outside of Mumbai
10:07pm – Find out that our flight may have been cancelled (technically learned this by “overhearing” a nearby conversation between the airline and my new TL/ logistics rep)
10:58pm – Receive confirmation from the AIM office that our flight originally scheduled for the morning of 8/31 has in fact been cancelled and we have been rescheduled on a flight the morning of 9/1, over 26 hours later
Friday, 8/31/12
12:01am – Arrive @ Mumbai airport and drop-off our squad coaches for their flight
12:08am – Logistics reps & squadleaders get out at our terminal to talk with the airline; WAIT on the bus
2:28am – Squadleaders come back to the bus & let us know that we will be getting a hotel for the night (found out that we can’t stay in the airport b/c we are not permitted to enter until 3 hours prior to flight for security purposes)
2:39am – Bus pulls out of airport parking lot
**2:45am – 3:38am – Drive around between several hotels to check prices & availability (including “Check Inn” which is worthy of mention because of the extreme level of sketchiness); opted to head back to a YMCA about an hour away (affiliated with a Mumbai contact)
3:39am – Head back towards the airport to drop off Chris, Holli, & Greg (alumni squad leaders that had come in for debrief) for their flights
3:56am – Make the airport drop-off & use airport toilets @ usual cost of 2 rupees a piece
4:09am – Bus pulls away from the airport
5:03am – Arrive @ Mahesh Residency (near YMCA) where the Mumbai contact, Joy, arranged for us to affordably acquire accommodations; **Men bring all of the packs up the 2 flights of stairs J
5:23am – Settled into rooms (combination of beds, mattresses on the floor, and additional floor space for sleeping pads) & drift off to sleep
**Spend day & night @ hotel and surrounding area. For me, this meant relaxing in a nice ac room watching movies & 2 trips to the nearby McDonalds.
Saturday, 9/1/12
5:00am – Wake up & put packs out in the lobby
5:20am – All packs are carried down and piled outside
5:50am – Bus arrives & is loaded
6:07am – Bus pulls away from the hotel
7:12am – Arrive @ the Mumbai International Airport
7:32am – Personally go through the first security check & complete the check-in process & get into the immigration line
7:49am – Personally complete the immigration process & move along to main security
8:09am – Personally complete the main security process &head towards the gate
9:45am – Begin the boarding process (involves 3rd & final security check and a bus ride out to the airplane)
10:55am – Plane takes off (just over 2 hour flight; time change = moving 15 minutes ahead)
1:27pm (local time) – Plane touches down in Kathmandu, Nepal
1:46pm – Begin working on immigration form & visa application
2:50pm – Team obtains via & completes immigration process & moves to the baggage claim area
2:56pm – Exit baggage claim (all bags arrived ) & head outside
3:15pm – Meet up with our contact outside & pile into a van with our packs loaded on the top
3:55pm – Arrive @ contact’s home where my team of 7 will be living for the month with our contact’s family – Megh (contact), Bhim (wife), & Subash (22 yr. old son)
