Holy Mother of Close Calls

Or, the Day I Almost Didn't Go to Bhutan.

Getting to Bhutan today ranks up there with the most stressful days of my life. Some of you may have heard last Tuesday that my passport hadn't been returned from the India visa office. Not only hadn't it been returned but they were reporting that they had never received it despite my tracking number that told me it'd been delivered 12 days earlier. Anyway, that situation was resolved as my passport with India visa were delivered to me last Thursday, just in time for my Sunday departure.

But that was nothing.

Here's the approximate timeline of my day today:

6:00 Wake up in Delhi / pack for Bhutan
7:15 Breakfast
7:30 Pickup by my amazing India tour provider and driver
8:00 Arrive at Delhi airport - 3.25 hours early for my 11:15am flight and the first in line
8:15 Still waiting for the ticket line to move
8:20 Druk Air ticket agent tells me that my Bhutan visa and passport don't match (Visa was issued in June, got a new passport in August) and that I will not be allowed entry into Bhutan without a copy of my old passport (reflecting the old number)
8:21 Looking for a computer with internet access in the Delhi airport
8:25 Find small security office with eight men sitting in a small crowded room. Explain my situation and he gives me the famous India head bob (which indicates that it's OK for me to use his computer)
8:30 Still waiting for Gmail to load. He reboots it. It works. I thought I might have emailed myself or my mother a copy of my passport in 2008 before my last big trip.
8:40 Find out I didn't
8:42 Call friend and neighbor Michele. Despite it being bedtime and homework time for her kids, she runs down to my cabin to rouse my subletter Howard and begin the search for my actual old passport. (I honestly did not know where it was.)
8:55 I call her back and she's knocking at Howard's door, explains the situation and begins to dig through drawers, files and miscellaneous things.
9:00 She LOCATES MY PASSPORT! I tell her to urgently go find a neighbor with a scanner and email me the passport.
9:20 After watching the India security officers do something (solitaire?) on the computer and giggling to themselves he sees me staring at him and offers me to use the computer again.
9:21 Gmail issues again. Won't load. He reboots twice. Finally switches all cables to laptop computer that he had on a table behind his desk.
9:28 After much hassle, and a slow print job, I have a copy of my passport in my hands! I ask him to make another copy so that I'll have two (just in case).
9:30 I arrive at the Druk Air desk, see my agent, rush to the front of the line so that she sees me. She nods to indicate my arrival, but that's it. I wait.
9:40 Her supervisor arrives and tells me that I need two copies of the visa (I had two copies of the passport now). She sends a lackey to make the copies. He saunters away from the desk.
9:52 He arrives back at the Druk Air counter, still holding a single copy of my visa. He tells the person there that the printer is out of paper. Can he please get a sheet of paper. He leaves.
9:10 He returns, this time holding the visa and a blank sheet of paper.
9:11 My amazing agent grabbed the visa out of his hands to make the copy himself.
9:12 He returns, and we have to wait in line (again).
9:25 The very quiet agent wants her supervisor to see the copies and she's now disappeared. We wait.
9:45 The agent comes back and tells me that I need to sign a disclaimer that if the Bhutanese government doesn't let me into their country that I will not hold Druk Air liable for any costs incurred. I sign.
9:58 I get to the front of the security line, and on my form I'd written "tour operator". He decided to take the opportunity to tell me why India is the best place in all of Asia and why was I bothering with Bhutan anyway. Had I been to Rajasthan? What about Sikkim? No I said, can I please go now?
10:35 I arrive at my gate, actually 10 minutes early for the 10:45 departure.
11:35 Plane departs for Bhutan (gorgeous flight, by the way!)
12:15 I'm filling out my customs paperwork and realize that my visa only goes through Oct. 17, but my departing air ticket is not until Oct. 18. ARGH!!!\
12:16 I silently panic through the absolutely stunning landing and all the way through the customs line.
1:59 The customs officer asks me why the numbers don't match, I tell him (calmly, of course, "new passport"). Unphased, he stamps my passport and hands it to me.
2:01 My second "Pam Perry" sign in three days made me smile. I then told our Bhutan tour operator about my visa expiring before my departure, and he told me that he'd noticed and already taken care of it. Thank you BUDDHA!

So, I'm in Thimphu, Bhutan now and it's a beautiful place. I'm traveling with an exceptionally interesting group of folks from the New England area and we just shared a beer over dinner. I explained the story of my angels that have apparently taken care of me for the last 8 days, and everyone agreed that they were buying beer tonight.

Phew. I'm chalking this all up to good experience to share with other travelers so they don't have to go through what I've gone through the last eight days.

Good night~
Pam