The Wobbling Sprocket

I forgot all about this. I don’t know how I could. I think it was the first time Chantal and I ever came here that this happened. Every nite the tide comes up the Chao Praya River. it inundates everything within several blocks of the river. There is a foot and a half of water surrounding the Riverview (they have built kind of seawall) and about a quarter inch of standing water in the lobby being squeegeed around by a couple friendly ladies.

The people living around here (and there are many) exist with a daily flood coming into their homes for about 9 or 10 hours each day. Electrical stuff will be elevated as will beds, but they will walk and work and live in at least a foot of water all morning. By noon, the tide goes down. Tomorrow, the same thing will happen and the next and next….for what? maybe a month…I’m not really sure.

I thought I was going to go down and see the guy who sits outside and arranges travel things and have hiim get me a Laos passport. His spot is under at least 18 inches and he is nowhere to be seen.

There is a lady down the block with a couple washing machines that I wanted to visit. Her place will be under but I think her machines are elevated.

Anyway, for anyone who thinks it is a pain to have a couple inches in their basement, give this some thought…a foot of suspect looking water up and down in your living room/work space for 9 or 10 hours every day for a couple months. I’ll go take some pics. I will need to be careful not to drop my camera.

This is at the Royal Orchid  Sheration down the street.  There is a ferry that takes a lo t of people here.   This is  with the  River out. 

This is with the river up.   Sometimes there is two way traffic.  That actually is pretty interesting to watch.

Well, I had a pair of brand new cycling shoes that Mr Joe (our guide in Vietnam) had asked me to buy and bring to him in Hanoi.

When I got to Chennai, I knew something was amiss when my bag came off first and I noticed one of the zippers was open in the side compartment. A single shoe was in there and it’s pair in another compartment. I checked and found they were both gone. Some Indian baggage handler is the new owner of a pair of brand new cycling shoes. Won’t that seem kind of obvious to his friends and family? Perhaps that doesn’t matter.

I had time so I went to an Indian Airlines customer service desk to report it. They sent me to a baggage desk. It was closed. I talked to a security guy at the entrance. He says I should talk the check in people. I do and they in turn send me to the “duty manager” at the airport. I go back to the duty manager who must be fairly important since he is in a pretty big office. I tell him, my shoes are missing out of my bag. He immediately (and dismissively) tells me my shoes are at the arrival baggage conveyor. It seems odd he would know that, but things seemed to be looking up. Maybe they opened the bag for security reasons and didn’t get the shoes back in.

I fight my way back into the arrivals hall. No easy thing since they don’t normally let you in from the sidewalk. I go to the conveyor. I look and find a guy with a badge. He points to single rubber overshoe….like for rain. Only one at that. It’s not what I am missing.

I talk to the badge guy for awhile. He’s telling me that there is nothing he can do since I had left the luggage area. I am telling him, that it is not an issue of leaving the luggage area or even about my single pair of shoes, it is about knowing that baggage handlers are swiping stuff out of bags. He assures me he will talk to the duty manager again. I give him my luggage tags for the hell of it.

I will probably give up on the whole thing, but I am much more likely to write a letter to the Prez of India Airlines. It won’t get me my shoes back, but I still feel like people should know and care about what is going on. You can have the best service airline in the world, but it isn’t enough to overcome arriving at your destination without your shoes. I’m more peeved at the lack of interest, than I am about a pair of shoes.

Now that I think about it, that Duty Manager never got up from behind is desk so I could see what was on his feet…….

It’s 3am and I am cooling my jets in the Kochi Airport. My flight isn’t until 5:45am. I go to Bangkok by way of Chennai.

We had a gala dinner last night with seafood….prawns and red snapper that you picked out yourself and they cooked up for you. Plus some beer….in teapots and coffee mugs so as not to offend local sensitivities.

During the day, while everyone else was touring around Kochin, I was interviewed by a reporter for the Hindu Times. She had all sorts of questions and I think was fairly amazed that people would actually do what we did. Whatever she chooses to write is to appear in the Sat paper. I sent her quite a few pictures.

Lindsay, Hal, Janice and Adrienne have all departed. Greg departs this afternoon at 4pm. Graeme has another night in Kochi before heading to Bangkok to meet me for another tour and Willie and John are going to an up-market beach resort to chill for a few days before heading back to Australia.

I have frequently said, it is impossible to capture all that goes on during the tours. India especially is sensory overkill of all descriptions. Sometimes, it is a simple thing. Lindsay, was taken with custard apples. A weird fruit that none of us had ever heard of much less tasted. Janice likened riding the roads here to being a human participant in a giant carnival arcade game, where if you didn’t fend off all the incoming, it was curtains. It’s not necessarily all bad, it’s just a completely different set of rules. I could go on and on, but won’t.

I plan to relax in Bangkok. I have been fighting a cold and can use a little r and r.

These metal chairs in Kochi airport are pretty uncomfortable. If you are ever in the Kochi airport, minimize your time in the departure hall. I hope Chennai has something a little more comfy than these things, Chances of dozing off on these things is nil.

I almost forgot. Greg is keeping a blog too..http://www.waldobikesindia.tumblr.com. I should have mentioned that in an earlier post.