London, Ho.

Just landed in London to find a text message letting me know that Matt [did something hilarious] without knowing it. Hilarious. A much needed laugh in an otherwise pretty weak 18 hours.

You see, the email that told me my flight from Delhi was delayed came from some cryptic non-British Airways address, so I asked the hotel to reconfirm my flight. They tried calling the Indian British Airways desk, but they had gone home for the evening, so they called the airport, who said the flight was on time. Then they called the airport again, and they said it was departing at 4:10am. Then I checked online, and British Airways said it was departing at 6:26am. Then the hotel called the airport again, and they said it was departing at 3:30am. So I just went to the airport and figured I would sort it out there. After all, there wasn't much of a difference sitting in the hotel lobby than sitting in the airport.

Sure enough, 6:26am was the actual departure time, not anywhere near 3:30am, but I settled into the "Oberoi Clipper" lounge and did a whole bunch of nothing from about midnight until boarding (the internet was down). People say the Delhi airport is a zoo, but it was totally reasonable, like any other airport. Maybe its because there are so few tourists, or maybe its because Delhi has made a lot of improvements in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games coming in 2010 (including a metro), but it was totally fine.

I did decide that I would take some of my six hours there to try to rejigger my flights and see if I could avoid having to go through London AND Toronto to get to New York, and sure enough I managed to get a flight from London to JFK on American last minute - way easier than trying to deal with the people on the frequent flyer mile travel desk who came up with the initial three-leg journey as my only option.

At first, I was a little sad to have lost the privilege of the British Airways Terminal 5 lounges at Heathrow, as I had really been looking forward to that travel facial, and American Airlines is supposed to be a lot less nice than British Airways to fly on, but getting in 6.5 hours early even though you left 3 hours late is worth it. Plus, British Airways turned out to be no Jet Airways at all. First of all, the pajamas are way less comfortable. Two, the plane is a lot older and dirtier. C, their flight attendants are British ("Computer says no..."). Fourth, there is no top-but vibration feature. And fifth, there was only one way that my body would fit in the seat if I put the bed down (I had to cross my ankles). I did manage to get a decent bit of sleep (having been exhausted from staying up till 6:30am at the airport) and taking an Ambien just to be sure, but this monkey likes his sleep time and needs more of it.

I leave soon for New York. I am excited to head back to the city after a wonderful trip. In my experience, all of the horror stories you hear about India are totally wrong. Nothing was really that shady, the people were amazing and friendly, the sites were absolutely unreal, and Cynthia, Christina and I had a blast seeing it all together. Thanks India, for being so awesome.