16.03.21 (about 2:45am IST)

Well, it hasn’t exactly been easy getting to India and officially I’ve not arrived yet.  We’re in the air
somewhere between Colombo, Sri Lanka (where we’ve spent the past 3 hours waiting to board our
connecting flight) and Chennai.  Just minutes remain.

Nikita sent an email today saying she’d try to make it back to Mumbai from Gujarat for us!  I was elated at
the idea and it immediately assuaged any worries I had about entering India with nobody on the other end.
Of course there are always backpackers in various states of undress roaming the streets, but it sometimes feels
(and we are not immune to this) that the Lonely Planet followers find the same thing in every country they visit…

Actually, we haven’t spoken to any travelers yet on this trip, other than a Dutch couple we met yesterday
in Ayutthaya.  Like most Europeans we meet on the road, they are far more interested in our 2.5 years
in Japan than they are in the fact that we come from Canada.  Usually they want to know if we have been able
to “fit in” in Japan.  The jury is still out on that one…

This flying-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing isn’t overly thrilling.  My stomach feels like a rock after having
ingesteda Whopper (all our remaining baht could afford us) in the waiting lounge at the airport in Bangkok,
followed by a spicy vegetable curry on the first segment of this Sri Lankan flight.  It’s a little frustrating because
a direct flight from Bangkok to Chennai would only take 3 hours, and we are instead going to take about
8 hours to get there due to the stopover in Colombo.  Still, we do get the chance to spend a few hours in
Sri Lanka which is not something I ever thought I would do.  Maybe someday we can come back for
a longer stay.
 

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