The Trip and Day 1

This is one of those horror story travel tales that should never happen, but did anyway.

My original travel itinerary had me going from Philadelphia to Frankfurt to Mumbai to Colombo. I was due to leave around 8pm on Thursday night. My sister was flying in from college that same day, so we had a master plan of picking up my sister, checking me in, having a family dinner, and then bringing me back to the airport for boarding. We did all of this with resounding success.

There was one little blip in the checkin process, however: I did not have a seat assignment at that time. Therefore, my seat would be assigned to me at the gate, at which time my luggage would be loaded onto the plane. Not before.

I got to the gate with a few hours to spare and waited around for the gate crew to show up so I could get my seat assignment. They arrived approximately 30 minutes before boarding and announced immediately that those people waiting for seat assignments should just sit tight, as the seating was still being worked out. So I sat and waited. I knew I was guaranteed *a* seat, I just didn't know which one. After about half the plane had boarded, I got my seat assignment. I then boarded the plane and waited for takeoff.

Takeoff was delayed by a few hours due to the following 3 elements: 1. We were waiting for a few more people whose connecting flight was late. 2. There was some sort of equipment malfunction in the stewards kitchen and it had to be fixed. 3. A fire earlier in the day had caused the airport to shut down completely. There was a good 50 plane line waiting for runway space to take off.

By the time we finally got ourselves off the ground, I was worried. I knew that my layover in Frankfurt approximately 2 hours, and I knew that our takeoff had been delayed by more than that. Missing my connection in Frankfurt might result in missing my next connection in Mumbai, which meant that Meg, the other student consultant, would be stuck waiting in the Colombo airport for some undetermined amount of time.

We landed in Frankfurt well after my connection had departed, so I made my way to the ticketing counter to see about alternative flights. The attendant found one to Mumbai that would allow me to make my original connection in Mumbai, thus preserving the total overall travel time. This flight was leaving in 30 minutes, so I had to hurry to catch it. It left on time though, and I arrived in Mumbai exhausted, but with 2 hours before my next flight to Sri Lanka.

As I exited the flight, I came upon an airline worker standing next to a whiteboard sign. Among other things on that sign was my name. I asked the worker about it and she told me to wait, that there may be more coming. Once it became clear that this was not the case, she explained the connection procedure in Mumbai. She had to get my luggage transferred first, and then me, all onto the plane. In order to transfer my luggage, she needed my baggage claim, my ticket, and my passport. She walked off with all of these, not to be seen or heard from in 20 minutes, until she came back with the news that my luggage was missing.

I wasn't too surprised. Given the unusual circumstances surrounding both previous departures, I considered it highly possible that my bag was no where near where I was. I filed a claim with her and boarded the flight to Colombo.

I arrived in Colombo at 6:00 AM local time. I found Meg easily and after updating the Colombo airport staff with my luggage woes, we set out to find Ashan, our contact who was supposed to meet us at the airport.

We wandered around for hours looking for him with no luck. Finally, around 10 or 11, a woman came out of the airport with a sign with our names on it. She escorted us back into the airport, into a small storefront owned by the Cinnamon Hotel. This room, no bigger than a walk-in closet, had a beautiful desk and an extraordinarily comfortable sofa. Best of all, it had air conditioning, something not very common in the Colombo airport. This woman was a staff member at the Cinnamon and she laughed as she told us that all of the airport security staff had been looking for us for the last 2 hours. However, since we were outside, waiting at the pickup curb, we had not heard ourselves paged. She called Ashan to let us know we had been found and to let me talk to him. Ashan proceeded to tell me that we would be taken to the Cinnamon, that we should eat, sleep, and then call him for the rest of the plans.

The drive to the Cinnamon was my first exposure to the Sri Lankan traffic system. It is far different from any style of driving found in the U.S. People drive on the left, and they drive aggressively. In addition to cars, there are many smaller vehicles on the road. Motorcycles and mopeds about, as well as a very interesting 3 wheeled contraption that has a small engine and a fabric top. There is room for a driver and the back seat can hold two passengers comfortably. I found out later that these are a very cheap, safe (?!) way to get around Sri Lanka, as they are for hire, and cheaper than taxis.

We got to the hotel and were immediately dumbstruck. This hotel is gorgeous. Marble everywhere, a fountain in the lobby, beautiful plants... The woman who escorted us to our rooms explained that this was Sri Lanka's first 5-star hotel.

I got to my room, took a much needed shower, and set up our meeting with Ashan. When he arrived with his extremely nice fiancee, he explained that we would leave the next day for a 5 hour drive along the South coast to reach Hambantota and the Children's Resource Center, our first work site. He and Swasha (sp?) answered our questions about life in Sri Lanka and told us where to find a mall for clothes. Additionally, he planned to follow up with the airlines to find my luggage. They were both wonderful people, and I felt much better after meeting them.

There was a very convenient mall right next to the hotel, and I was able to find clothes and shoes there. We then went to Unity Plaza to try to find some computer parts, and Majestic City for some movies. Majestic City is another mall, and it was there that I realized just how uncommon caucasians are in this city.

I was waiting for Meg outside of one of the stores when a family approached me. The father asked if I would be willing to take a picture with his son. I agreed, thinking he meant for me to operate the camera, but then his children gathered around me while the father stood back with the camera and I understood that I was meant to be in the photo. Either I look like someone famous, or I'm just an oddity here. I posed with his children, and then with his wife, and then Meg and I departed the mall to go back to the hotel. At this point, although it was only about 7 PM, we were exhausted. So exhausted that we grabbed a quick dinner and went to sleep immediately, forgetting completely that we were supposed to call Ashan that night. It's now about 3:30 AM and my sleep schedule is all confused, which is why I'm up typing this.