Another early morning because of the call to prayer. Yeah. That would get old fast.  But, we’re up and down to breakfast before any crowds, which is a bonus.  Another excellent Dosa this morning – a little different this time as it is another chef making it, but still oh so yummy.

We had a long wait for the “driver” who will come to pick us up at noon, making do by catching up on blog notes, photo transfers, organizing bags, etc.  Finally, time to check out, we hit the lobby and sit and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  We’re beginning to call this tour the Amit Mystery Tour (AMT) since our itinerary is a complete mystery to us – no matter what it says on any of the things he has sent us – you never quite know what will happen or who will or will not show up.

Waiting until 12:15, we message Amit to see about our driver.  We know we have plenty of time – the flight isn’t until 4:40p – and of course we can just order an Uber, but still.  Amit answers and says the driver is on the way. Then Amit says the driver is in the parking lot. Um. Where? We’re in the lobby and there is no one.  Amit said the driver was already in the lot and he’d have him check in with the front desk. He had parked and was sitting in his car!

Per Amit’s instructions, the driver comes in and stands in line for the front desk. We ask him if he’s there for us, we show him WhatsApp with Amit’s information, he shows us our name.  Yep, it’s him, it’s us. But he won’t leave until he checks in with the front desk. We keep telling him it’s ok, finally the front door guys tell him it’s OK and we go outside.  He then takes forever to get the car. While we wait, we are laughing and joking with the door guys as they tell us about a guide who took the wrong person on a tour of Mumbai. Never asked for the guy’s name or anything.  Meanwhile the right guy was sitting in the lobby waiting and had to call the main office to tell them the driver took someone else!

After heaven knows how long, the driver backs up to us at the front door.  And he has NO trunk space!  Seriously! It’s a propane car with a huge propane tank in the back!  Our suitcases fortunately fit in the front seat. Barely. Phew.  We are finally off. But apparently, he doesn’t know how to get to the airport coz it takes him a long time to put it in his GPS. Oh lord….always an adventure, right?

As we slowly make our way out of the crowded city, some alarm is going off in the car (who knows?), he’s blowing his horn almost continuously and adjusting his seat closer to the steering wheel every minute or so. We’re questioning if we’ll ever make it, but we do finally make it out of the city, which is easier, a relatively traffic free highway and that crazy round circle ramp that goes on forever!

Safely at the airport, we happily bid the guy goodbye, then go get in the security line to get inside the airport where they check your ID and boarding pass.  Once inside, it’s easy – the line for bag drop moves relatively quickly and we’re done with a couple of hours to wait for the flight.  We want to hit the lounge, but the Priority App says it is outside Gate 44.  We are at Gate 23, Terminal 1, and 44 looks like it is in Terminal 2, even though the app clearly says Terminal 1. We finally find someone to ask and sure enough, Gate 44 is Terminal 2.  Pooh.  There is another lounge at another gate in Terminal 1, but you can’t get there from our gate either.  They have the domestic gates divided – you can only go through security for your gates.  This is not looking good, until we ask a couple of guys and they tell us there is a lounge in our section.  Cool!  It is the lounge that is listed on the Priority App, it just has the wrong gate number.  Off we go through the confusing security screening, where men go on one side, women on the other.  Both Ed and I end up being stopped and our bags searched because we have to take EVERY piece of electronics out of the bag, including every wire (there are like a dozen) as well as earphones and chargers.  Sheesh.  Total PITA.  Finally through, we manage to get into the lounge, only to find the darn bar is “inoperable today.”  What?  That stinks!  After the last couple of hours, a beer and wine were looking pretty good to us. Not to be.

There is plentiful food available, and plugs to charge our gear, of which we take advantage. Then as the place is filling up – it is small – and more and more people are in there hacking their brains out – there is a lot of sickness going around in the part of the country! – we head out to find the bar in the terminal for a beer and wine.  First trying the ATM because we have no more Rupees left.  The damn machine won’t take the card – so we are out of luck and will have to wait for Nagpur when we arrive. Hate not having local currency though.  Drives me nuts.

On to the bar which is now a Budweiser bar.  Really?  You have got to be kidding!  No Kingfisher? Oh, and no wine.  The sweet waiter says they’ve been asking for it but haven’t received any yet.  Sigh. Gotta go with the flow we guess, so 1 large beer to share it is – at airport prices!  Don’t even ask.  But we have our beer, pay our tab, go in search of the Citibank ATM, which of course is in the part of the terminal we can’t access, then return to the gate area to wait for the flight.

We don’t bother sitting as we know there is always a scrum at boarding, and this flight is no different.  We’re in the first zone to be called and luckily I was at the front of the line by the wheelchair folks asking which lane we should use when boarding started – making us one of the first down the jetway.  The flight itself was easy – we had great seats – exit row with yards of leg room.  Also had pre-ordered our food so we got it first, Chicken Jungalee or some such thing – basically a chicken salad sandwich that wasn’t all that bad.

Landed on time even though we took off late, were in baggage in no time, our large bag was the first bag off the plane!  Sweet.  The small bag? Different story.  That took about 5 minutes (of us sweating the whole time – only because that bag had the beer and wine!!) before we saw it on the carousel, then we were out into the lobby in no time.  Bad news:  No ATM down here (WTF?).  Good news:  the Driver was there!  Thank God – this was one of the most stressful parts of this AMT.  But Shri, our driver, is great.  He takes our bags (we follow him at a fast clip, managing to snap a picture of the only tiger we are more than likely to see – the tiger statue at the airport!), gets us settled in the car and away we go. We ask him if he can find an ATM on the way, and he says he will – thus begins our 2-hour journey to Pench.

Just outside the airport, Shri takes a turn (that fortunately I had seen on the map while I was tracking our journey), telling us it was a short cut to get to Pench. Then explaining our surroundings (which are basically a really bad almost dirt road, slum type housing and little street kiosks and stores) by saying “outside area, not good, short cut to Pench” as he checks to make sure the doors are locked. This is the real India! That is for certain.

Eventually we do hit the highway.  Traffic. Trucks all lit up.  Tons and tons of restaurants along the highway all lit up in lights.  Shri finds us an ATM in some little village, but thinks its closed.  He stops the car, gets out and asks some guys on the street who point across the divided road to a cubbyhole in the wall of building.  Um, ok, when in India!  We run over, get cash, then run back to the car. Phew.

After that, the drive is uneventful, turning off the highway at Shri’s village to drive into the Pench National Forest preserve (which makes us happy he is home and doesn’t have to drive back to Nagpur) – where the road is a narrow lane running through the forest – and completely empty at this time of night (it’s almost 9pm by now!).  That is until we hit a wedding, complete with the groom in all white on a white horse!  We’re stuck in the wedding traffic for a bit, but then, poof, it’s gone and we are on the road all alone once again.

Shri gets us to Kipling’s Court safely, and we head to the desk to check in.  The resort look sort of sketchy at first glance, but in reality it is fantastic.  The service can’t be beat, the room is wonderful, and dinner was still available at 9:30 at night!  Bonus!  They treat us like royalty, coz, well, we are the only Gora (white) and non-Indian here!  The manager comes over while we are eating to ask if our room is all right, the servers walk us along the buffet explaining everything and then even brings us a dish of French fries.  Too sweet. 

Happy and sated, and with beer and wine, thank you, we head to our excellent room and the excellent bed with the tiger print sheets!  Tomorrow an early rise for our first game drive!