Rescued by a Bollywood Actor?
I’m learning to expect the unexpected when traveling. Today when things started to get a little crazy Joe Barrows a famous Bollywood Actor came to the rescue… well sort of. Today started out like the rest of my days in Goa with my normal breakfast in a hammock on the beach. But instead of heading back to my room for a nap… I was jumping in a taxi bound for the airport. I guess all good things come to an end… and this was my time to say goodbye to Palolem beach and all the great friends I have made over my month long stay… but I digress. The underling theme of this story is delays and the unexpected. The mission for today was to fly from Goa to Tokyo Japan via Mumbai and Delhi. Well to start off my taxi was 20 minutes late to leave… so I rushed to Goa airport to find that my flight to Mumbai (where I catch my Tokyo flight) was “delayed” for 2 hours.
I started to panic thinking that I would miss my flight to Tokyo, which was “Scheduled” for 6:30pm. So now I would be arriving at 5pm which would barley be enough time to get my luggage and take the 30 minutes ride to the International airport. Intro Joe Barrows… while I was on the flight to Mumbai I noticed a few kids asking a nicely dressed man sitting next to me for his autograph. Now I have lived in Hollywood for 10 years, so I have met every famous person you can imagine… so I wasn’t afraid to talk with him and at this point I needed answers. So I asked him how far it was to the international airport… He answered and started asking about my impending doom about missing my flight. When we landed he sprung into action like the true Bollywood star he was. He seemed to demand great respect from everyone. He started talking with the flight crew and then him and I were escorted off the plane first and then he proceeded to convince the ground crew to pull my bags off the plane rather then wait for them to arrive at the baggage claim area. He then started arranging transportation to the international airport; at this point he felt I was in good hands so he left. I said “Thanks for everything… and have a Happy New Year!”
During this whole process, which was only 10 minutes he was signing autographs and taking pictures with people. I could tell that the Indian people were like “Who cares about this American guy, I want my photo with Joe Barrows damn it!” So within 10 minutes he was gone and I was reduced to a commoner with no celebrity friends. I decided to have the tour information guy call Air India and let them know that I was on my way (like they would hold the plane for me…haha) But I was surprised to hear that he said my flight was “delayed” until tomorrow morning! Now it was only around 5:30pm and most airlines wouldn’t delay a flight that long they would just cancel the flight until the next day… but again this is India we are talking about so you cant think straight… instead if you think backwards and a little sideways you might be close to understanding. But that said I still wasn’t sure who to believe because this (tour info guy) could have been talking to the wrong airline. So I decided to rush to the international airport anyway.
When I finally got there I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off… guards telling me to go that a way and then other people saying to go back where I just came from. I finally found the Air India check in… I said to the guy “So my flight is delayed until tomorrow?” He looked at me puzzled and then yelled “No”… “It’s about to leave… hurry hurry!” So I ran to the gate like a mad man knocking down old ladies and small children that would run in front of me like a cat that runs in front of a car. I finally made it the gate to find the sign reading “Boarding Calcutta”.. Hmmm Calcutta? I sure don’t want to go there! I asked at the gate and found that my flight was indeed delayed by 3 hours although 2 minutes earlier they checked me in and told me the plane was leaving and sent me on the 100 meter dash. They must have just been messing with me…because they cant be that stupid. But in the end it turned out ok. I finally boarded my flight for Tokyo at 9:30pm, the flight was empty so there were tons of seats to sleep in and there was a super cute flight attendant… so at least something was going right. But I also learned a lesson or two in life. 1) Never count on anything in India to be on time. And 2) Bollywood actors are nicer then Hollywood actors. And that was my story about how a Bollywood star sort of saved the day!
Oh and Joe if your reading this… Have your people call my people! 
Posted by Jimmy under India, Thoughts, Travel Tips, Uncategorized, Updates |
