Kolkata December 28

On Monday December 28, I got up at 6:00 to leave early, only to find that the gate to the PCI building was locked. I was unable to climb over the fence, so I had to get the building administrator to open the gate up. I then left at 6:30 and walked to Troop Bazaar and got a private car to take me to the airport in Guwahati.

After about 15 minutes, I realized that between failing to climb the PCI fence and rousing the building administrator, I had gone back to my room and taken my waist pouch off, which I then proceeded to leave behind. So I had to return to the PCI building to pick it up. That meant that I ended up leaving Shillong only at 7:30. But that was not a problem since the trip to Guwahati in a private car was quick and under three hours, so I arrived at the airport at 10:15 with plenty of time to spare.

I was able to use the internet at the airport, before passing through security. The security check was extraordinarily chaotic and crowded and I was so focused on trying to understand why the security person was freaking out about my waist pouch that I got distracted and left behind my laptop computer at the x-ray machine. Fortunately, I realized that after about five minutes, so I was able to retrieve it without any problem.

After that second totally scatter-brained episode of the day, things went better. The flight left a bit late at 12:40 pm and arrived in Kolkata at 2:30. I put my bag in storage and walked around the airport area before taking a taxi at 4:00 to the Howrah train station, which took an hour and 15 minutes due to heavy traffic congestion. I walked around the city center for a while, before returning to the Howrah station later that evening. Rather than check into a hotel, I decided to hang out at the train station. I slept for a few hours stretched out on the floor, like a lot of other people, and kept myself entertained by listened as always to podcasts on my iPhone.

At 4:00 am I took a taxi from the Howrah Station back to the airport, which without traffic took 15 minutes. I got my bag out of storage and checked in for my flight to Vishakapatnam, which took off at 6:35.