The Flight... and Its Following Exhaustion

The flight from Singapore was exhausting, and not only for the fact that I had not slept all night. It began with a group of several belligerent indian gentlemen who refused to remain in their seats, causing some what of a commotion on the airplane during taxiing and takeoff. Beyond this, a mysterious unclaimed bag had been found aboard the plane which seemed to cause the flight attendants some visual concern. The attendants moved the bag to the rear of the plane and seemed to forget about it. Following this, one man from the group of belligerents stood up during take off--once again causing a small commotion. He did so to retrieve a large cell phone from his bag, which he held low in his lap, turning it and fingering the buttons. At this, I began to gauge his every move, assuming, of course, that his phone was the detonation device for the bomb inside the bag that had been found. Thankfully, either there was no bomb inside the bag... or the bomb didn't work Either way, we landed safely and I was nonetheless exhausted.

The second source of my exhaustion was due to a discovery that I made as I was looking over my flight itineraries. I discovered that, on my two returning tickets, I was scheduled to arrive at my connection in Singapore nearly a full day after my connecting flight back to the Philippines had left. I had no way back to the Philippines. I would have to tell the airline as soon as possible once I arrived in Chennai.

I arrived and got through immigration, found my bag and entered, alone, into a new country. I stood before a bustling mass of faces and signs searching for arriving passengers. The morning was heating up and I was already covered in sweat. Although this was all new and exciting, there were two goals that I could not shake from my mind: 1) fixing the return ticket and 2) finding Hanson (my contact in Chennai; however, both of these goals had been frustrated by a very complicated mess of circumstances. In order to change the ticket, I must first talk to the Airline; In order to talk to the airline I must enter the building; however, once you leave the airport (in Chennai) you cannot reenter, unless you are flying out. In order to talk to Hanson, I must either meet him online, or find his number and call him; however, his number was stored in my email, but there was no WiFi and my computer's battery was dead. I wanted to plug in my computer, but my computer does not have the proper plug to connect with an Indian electrical outlet. I wanted to call another one of the contacts that I had written down, but I had no rupees, only Singaporean Dollars and Pesos. There! I thought to myself. That is one task that I CAN complete! Thankfully, I was able to exchange some of my Singaporean Dollars and find a nearby Internet Cafe through which I was able to connect with Hanson.