How We Almost Screwed Up – 4/28/15

                Our transition to Ladakh was very stressful. Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong, and I am convinced the universe was conspiring against us to miss our flight. We woke up at 2:30 AM so that we could store the luggage that we didn’t want to take with us to Ladakh at 3:00 AM in the hotel. At 3:00, however, we were informed that there did not actually exist such a place for our luggage. After a good bit of confusion and wasted time, we dumped our stuff in the basement and covered it with a bed sheet. Now the time was close to 4:00 AM. We left the hotel in 2 taxis to the airport, one of which arrived at the correct terminal, one of which did not. Alex, Jenny, Chase, and I were at Terminal 1 (the wrong terminal) and waited for the others for a good while before calling them to see where they were. Upon doing so, we discovered our driver’s mistake and hailed another taxi to take us to the correct terminal (another 15 minute drive away). We arrived at the correct terminal close to 5:00 AM where there was slight delay in getting all of our bags checked (we almost forgot to put the med bag – which has needles in it – into a backpack for checking). Next, we headed off to security where some group members got stopped for items in their carry-ons. Among these people, Alex is the most notable. You see, he had forgotten to take out his survival kit from his backpack and had accidentally brought with him 2 Swiss army knives, 3 boxes of waterproof matches, and a length of rope. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had had a machete with him, too. Time approximately 5:30 AM, Ben P and I decide to go to the bathroom (I had chugged 2 liters of water that morning to avoid being stopped at security). Ben, on the other hand, needed to do a number 2. I came out of the bathroom speed walking (our flight was supposed to leave at 6:00 AM and board at 5:15 AM). That speed walk turned into a run as I approached the gate and saw Caleb flailing his arms at me. Ben came a few minutes later and we all hurried onto the plane: dead last with hearts pounding uncontrollably. And that is how we almost didn’t make our flight to Ladakh.