22.3.26

I gave up on trying to sleep at 1am and ate a packet of chocolate chip cookies that were meant to be for today’s journey.

Yesterday friends posted online that the new Race Across the World will be featuring Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Kazakistan and today’s country of our travel saga to get home, Kyrgyzstan.

Added to that there’s a man in MAFS who imitates Borat, so the stans were firmly in my head. Best/worst case scenario I decided is that we make it out of India and end up stuck in Kyrgyzstan.

Finally it was 3am, up, coffee, kitchen tidied and ready for the off at 4am.

The first of my many ‘What ifs’ today. What if the taxi doesn’t come. He did, was even 5 minutes early.

We were at Dabolim in less than an hour, passports and bookings checked outside the airport, all good.

What if the Air India flight is late, cancelled, crashes en route to Dabolim or is highjacked?

It was fine, bang on time. The only hitch was the 10 kilo excess baggage for Liz, which we couldn’t pre book. It was much dearer than we thought it would be. We gracefully left her to it when she was trying to negotiate a discount as she’s a pensioner.

There was a moment later when we couldn’t find Liz and needed to board. We grabbed her bags, Sharon went searching and calling her in the toilets and we all agreed there’s no way we’re missing this flight. She spotted us, she’d been casually buying a holder for her incence sticks. Heart rate subsided and we all boarded.

Randomly the 4 of us were given rolls and a small water each. We hadn’t ordered food. Just as well we weren’t paying for it, corgettes, peppers, mayo and paprika wasn’t nice. I don’t think any of us ate it.

2 and a half hours later we safely arrived in Delhi. Population 35 million, 2nd largest City in the world.Tokyo is number 1.

Delhi airport was fabulous, a total opposite to Mumbai. A swift check in and boarding passes all done omg, this is happening.

What if Tezjet who never show on any tracking systems don’t actually exist?

Well they do and I left a wonderful lasting memory for a few lucky passengers.

Before boarding I went on a 1100 rupee challenge, about 10 pounds, to use the last of my cash. Duty free only had spirits, designer perfumes weren’t in my price range, nor was Body Shop and the pharmacy staff were ridiculously pushy so I went to Starbucks.

A grande Vietnamese coffee, 2 large almond butter cookies and a barbecue chicken wrap used up most of the money.

They faffed around for ages heating the wrap and cookies. As I walked back to the others they were laughing and saying they were just about to go off and board without me. We didn’t have a lot of time so I fast walked it, brown paper Starbucks bag in hand, no time to drink the coffee.

I had a feeling that the plane would be half empty, after all who goes to Kyrgyzstan? I was so wrong. The tiny plane was rammed. I’d booked us all into middle seats as they were free of charge. And at the back because planes never reverse into mountains.

I noticed the Starbucks paper bag was a bit wet at the bottom. The lid had a large hole for the straw, like a milkshake.

A lady was sitting in Lizs seat. She blanked Liz completely and wasn’t moving. My seat was the row behind Liz, my bags were heavy and I asked to squeeze past. No room for my case in the overhead bin, presumably because the lady that shouldn’t be there had her case in it. A lady behind me tried barging past, imagine the scene, a tiny aisle, think broom cupboard, me trying to manoeuvre a suitcase, a breathing machine and a now even wetter Starbucks bag past Liz to get to my seat. I told her no, she must wait. She barged by regardless.

The guy in the aisle seat moved to let me in. Aware of the wet bag and not wanting to put it on my seat, to avoid a wet bum, I tried to put it across and on the floor.

At that point the coffee flooded out like a funnel all over the guys now vacant seat.

I asked the stewardess for tissues and in the process as the bag was still in my hand, more coffee gushed out over the older tiny lady in the seat next to Liz. She squealed, a very over the top reaction to a ‘few’ drops of ice coffee. I handed her some of the tissues and began drying the seat next to me whilst still trying to find a space for my case.

She asked to be moved and the guy next to me sat on a t-shirt and never said a word or made eye contact with me.

I wished I’d bought a small coffee now, although it was delicious.

My bbq chicken wrap was in a waxy cardboard box and survived the chaos. The almond cookies were now coffee almond cookies and my passport that I tossed in the bag for convenience was dripping. I’d been so looking forward to my plane picnic.

When we got off Sharon was still laughing about the whole episode. We’re crying laughing again now while I’m telling the story here. Even more mortifying is that I told the old lady it was only coffee and wasn’t going to kill her and gave her the tissues to clean it herself. Apparently there I was at the back of the plane ordering everyone about. The stewardess took my case to find a space for it.

The plane was so noisy, the guy next to me was grinning and videoing the take off, I did the same.

It made the whole 2 and a half hour journey, the landing was remarkably smooth.

They opened the back doors to disembark. I had to battle against the flow of people to try and find my case. No sign of it. I asked the ladies at the front, they didn’t know. We walked to the back of the plane and there was the stewardess who took it away. She’d stored it somewhere at the back.

I then had to do the walk of shame to the waiting airport bus. I’m sure everyone was rolling their eyes.

I have to confess I left the soggy bag and tissues under my seat.

We had an exceptionally long wait at Bishkek, arriving there at 9.30pm with the next flight at 3.50 am. It was unavoidable, we just wanted a safe journey avoiding the Gulf in case things escalate and we got cancelled again.

We couldn’t go past check in to the rest of the airport and it’ll be midnight or so by the time we can check in.

We decided to stretch out and try and sleep. Epic fail, constant safety announcements, a generator of some sort by the cafe, people talking, playing videos, the floor cleaning guy, as Sharon said, it sounds like a swarm of bees. To top it off a man was wrapping something that must be the size of an elephant given the amount of tape. Oh no.. 2 medium packages.

The gift shop is very cute though.

Check in didn’t open til 1am. We were all so tired by then.

The gate area was quiter, but still not suitable for sleeping.

Finally it was 3.50am. All aboard the Pegasus Express to Istanbul.

fabulous.