Plane's here!

Boarding the plane about 3:30 this morning, in 61C. Woman comes for 61B, points at 62B, and asks if I'd mind switching.

Knowing I had a middle for the next flight, I told her I'd be glad to, if it wasn't a middle seat.

Of course, I got the broken seat that wouldn't recline, so probably just as uncomfortable. Sigh.

Pretty good flights. A few ripples here & there where the pilot turned on the seat belt signs, but amazing stable for going halfway around the world. More disturbance on the last ~100 miles descending into Denver than the whole rest of the trip.

Had great weather too. Rained what sounded like pretty hard the first early AM in Udaipur, but other than that, nice with pleasant days and cool nights.

Anyway, got into DEN last night about 6:50. Through immigration (Global Entry FTW!) just about as fast as I could walk it. Waited for a while for bag, walked right through Customs.

Out the door, onto the bus, which took off in about 3 minutes. Texted my neighbor when getting close. Waited about 2 minutes between bus and Ralph showing up. Got home about 9ish I think?

Puttered around a little bit, had one beer, then to bed about 9:45. Slept hard...until abut 5:45. Early even for me.

Of course, Windows needed to do an update, so an early morning trip to McBurgers. Sausage kinda dry, obviously off the heater and not fresh....and it was delicious. After not having Western food for over two weeks, I was ready.

Over to the store & beer store. Get home and pull the clothes out of the washer, and there's something all over them. Looks like little chunks of paperboard.

No idea what I must've had in some pocket that was made of that. Hoping the dryer blows it off into the filter. Or shake it off real good outside.

Time zone and consciousness still indeterminate, but I think I'm pretty close and will be back on MST before too long.

Thanks everyone from reading along. Will probably throw out some more, "oh yeah, forgot this" posts coming.

Doing some rough mental math, about 40 hours straight on planes or in airports since leaving Udaipur. Too much.

Of course, had I known the flight out of Delhi was going to be delayed, I would've went with the rest of the gang back to the hotel and spent a few hours there relaxing, eating, and washing up. I had plenty of time to go into Munich as well, but didn't want to deal with it.

Figured it out. I had a slight cold during the trip, and put a roll of toilet paper in my jacket pocket to carry around. Generally a good idea in India, cold or not, as there's often not any at a facility.

Apparently forgot to take it out before starting laundry. Oops.

Oh yeah, **** all the halfwits who have to stand right on top of the luggage carousel. You know, morons, if everyone just took two steps back, everyone could see. Step forward when you think you see your bag. If it is, take it off and leave. If not, step back.

It really is that simple.

Also pissed the airports don't put some marks and wording on the floor to tell the ****wits where to stand.

I was pleasantly surprised about how well connected India is. Almost everywhere, except some of the smallest shops, had handheld devices to take payment.

Not much free wifi though. To be fair, even USA#n, free wifi seems to mostly be a thing out west.

Also, was in Enhanced Economy or some such MUC->DEN. Seemed like slightly more legroom. Not sure if my request on the original FRA->DEN flight got honored, but there I was. At least, when I changed my seat after finding about the route change, there wasn't a dollar charge. And the original seat they threw me in (87E) was definitely not in anything other than economy.

Anyway, I'm in 33E, middle-middle. Nobody else in the row. It's about five minutes til we leave; every time a straggler comes walking down the aisle, I'm thinking, "Don't be here...don't be here".

Maybe the last people to board roll up; a middle-aged guy and a tween girl. Rats.

He says, "We're together; would you like to sit on the aisle?"

"Sure!" Didn't even occur to me to bargain--"for $50, I will, but I love the middle."

So that worked out nicely.

United had this cool feature I hadn't seen before. Rather than a physical screen in the window, there was a dial on the wall which apparently made it transition from clear to black.

I didn't get to see it in action. During the security briefing, when they asked people to clear them for takeoff, whatever was on their phone was more important, I guess.

glad you made it back home golddog
funny how life still seems to happen even while on vacation, no matter how many times you hit the pause button

Yes preach brotha.

I asked this question up-thread but it was during your food poisoning episode so you must have missed it. Did you ever turn on the TV in the hotel room? If so, what type of programming was available?

Also, since you were there over Christmas, was there any indication that it was happening? Mr. Google tells me that only 2.38% of the population practices Christianity.

Thanks. And glad you had a 'mostly' great trip!

Sorry I missed the questions, Cowboy.

I did turn on the TV. Only could figure it out in Delhi. I mean, I didn't try very hard. I imagine it was set on some other input, but I couldn't get anything in other places.

In Delhi, I just flipped through the channels. Seemed to be tons of news (or maybe commentary) type shows. Of course, mostly Hindi, some English. Some cricket for sports, that was about it. Was kinda surprised SportsCenter wasn't a presence, I've found that elsewhere in the world.

Yes, Christmas is pretty big, but as a secular holiday. In fact, it's a national holiday for workers. As you point out, the nation is small minority Christian, but most all shopping areas and hotels had Christmas decorations up.

One of the first things I saw, leaving the Delhi airport, was a huge (maybe 20') tall Santa.

-------------

I think I'm on east coast time. Keep waking up early. Hopefully moving toward MST.

My friends in Aus are in town, going to get together this afternoon downtown-ish. Always good to see them.4

Looking at my united account, I see this:



Seemed to be much longer plane rides than what they're showing. Probably something to do with me being an economy passenger, I suppose.

Now I've got to figure out how to use 92K miles.

We're at the airport in Udaipur, checking in for the flight back to Delhi. Seems like it's taking a long time.

When traveling with a group, the weight restrictions on luggage are totaled for the group. So, all the bags are weighed, and if we average less than the allowed amount, we're good to go.

Ruby comes back and says we're over, and they'll weigh each bag individually to see who has to pay overage fees. We ask how much the overage fees are.

7000 rupees. 1000 each, or about $12 per.

We just start pushing 500 rupee notes to her. We don't care who's over specifically, and we don't want to deal with the tedium of reweighing each bag. That seemed to satisfy them.

Can't get sleep right.

Thought it was a nice coincidence that, when I got home, there was just time to do some light unpacking, have one beer, then go to bed at normal time. That'll be great, will wake up at normal(ish) time, be right back on schedule.

Wrong.

While I've been getting to bed about my normal time, keep waking up at some ridiculous hour (between 1:45 and 4:45) and not being able to get back to sleep.

Fortunately, I don't have a job to deal with, so can crash for a little while during the day, but just haven't been able to get back in the groove. Sigh.

Last night, made the return to our bar-poker league. Finished 2nd for a $10 gift card, but that's not why I'm posting.

We play at a local Mexican bar/restaurant. Their non-Mexican food is good too.

Had my first hamburger since returning. It was glorious.

Still can't get the sleep thing down.

Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention how surprised I was at the tiger's size. I thought they might be more like a cheetah.

Reminded more of a leopard. Built for power. Tiger vs lion probably a coin flip.

Asked the guide how fast they can run. He said that wasn't really their thing; they'll hang out in the grass and ambush their prey.

Last of the malaria medication this morning. Still not on MST though.

any idea how much an indie india heavy metal band
double stamped concert media tickets might fetch on the open market?
obviously assuming the originial lanyard is still intact and included

Nope. Lots, I assume, especially if it was Red-autographed and authenticated.

I've been back on MST for about a week. Unfortunately, we're having a cold snap. High of 9 today.

The other day, I was thinking that google flights should allow users to set up notification rules. i.e.,

"When the high temperature is expected to <less than|more than> <X>, look for flights somewhere <warm|cool> costing less than <Y> dollars.

I did try to find something a few days before, but no luck on a combination of cost and warmth.

A cousin has rented a house in Puerta Vallarta til May, so I've been trying to figure out when I want to go down there. Now would be a good time, lol.