Three budget airlines

So although I've never really travelled budget airways before, its not really as bad as one may think. Ok sure, I had to pay a whopping $15 for a mini-dvd player to keep Ish entertained throughout the flight, and another whopping $12 for a pathetic meal of pasta and plastic cheese.... but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't that bad. We got the seats to ourselves and Ish got to look out the window at the boring blue sky (and try to watch out for other planes so we don't crash into them - his word exactly!).

We arrived in Singapore airport at 6pm, and our connecting flight to Chennai left at 9pm, so I had under three hours to collect my luggage, head to the budget terminal 2 and line up to check into the next flight. Thats the bummer about my flights, I had three different flights with three different budget airlines, so my luggage had to be collected at each place and re-checked in. The budget terminal in Singapore was just that - budget. There was not queue system in place, and in fact there was only two check-in counters open when I got there! After about 15 minutes waiting in line, another counter opened up, and true Indian style, everyone rushed to that one, trying to slot in any available gap they could find.

Me? I stayed put. Once everyone in front of me had successfully rushed to the counter next to me, I had plenty of room to push forward, and was checking in my luggage within minutes. Ish was suitably tired and grumpy by this time - and no wonder, it was nearly 1am NZ time, and he hadn't slept at all! Thankfully the people behind us in the queue were from Auckland, and they managed to keep him entertained while I dragged my (slightly heavier than) 20kg bag onto the conveyor.

Due to the time difference, and the lack of sleep we'd both had, the flight from Singapore went by quick. We slept the whole way, and arrived in a hot humid and stuffy Chennai at 11pm (local time). My mother had arranged for a taxi to be there waiting for us, and he took us directly to our pre-booked hotel room. It was rather exciting stepping outside the airport and seeing my name on a professional-looking sign... and by professional I mean written - and then scribbled and written again with black permanent marker on a white A4 sheet. The taxi to the hotel had AC - thank God!

The hotel room however, did not. The minute I walked into the room, I definitely felt like I was in India. There are some things that Indians just cannot get right, thought bless them, they do their very best. The lobby of the hotel room looked flash and modern, and after a brief scan of the room, it looked pretty modern as well. BUt after careful inspection, we found no water in the jug, and no place close by to buy any, the plug socket next to the bed had no current (which meant no power to charge my phone, or switch on the bedside lamp) and the bathroom had empty soap and shampoo bottles. Ahhh life in India had begun!

Ishaan having a bucket bath in the hotel bathroom

The journey ahead of us is exciting. I'm not one to just pack up and leave.... but yet here I am, life packed into two 20kg bags. We leave Chennai in an hour, and the year ahead of me stretches out, waiting to be discovered.