So yesterday started like any other international travel day: very little sleep the night before, dragging out of bed, shower, shampoo, shave, gradually make your way to the kitchen only to just remember that you forgot to pack that one thing that you said you cannot forget….only you did, so you go find that thing, bring it back to your bag, carry-on, or other particular piece of luggage (and I mean that word, luggage as in “to lug”). Then you get a little nervous; you pace, or fidget, check for your passport, documents (again), now look at your flight status AND (dun dun dun!) the flights is CANCELLED.
Exactly. If you don’t really know Albuquerque (it IS a city in the United States), you don’t know that while we have one of the best airports EVER (not kidding), there are few flights coming and going from this high desert city on the Rio Grande. So, when I discovered that our flight was cancelled, I began a slow panic. See, here’s the thing: it’s hard to rebook flights out of Albuquerque to somewhere because chances are that the few flights that also go to that place are being booked by people in Albuquerque trying to get out as well!
So, here’s the scenario: flight to Denver cancelled…no flights to Denver (at all) before the departure of the international flight to Bangkok. BTW, want to know something else about travel to another part of the world from Albuquerque? Miss that FIRST flight and the rest of your schedule is toast….blackened toast, left way too long in the toaster…you can smell the burned crisp of bread across the whole house….ANYWAY flight to Denver cancelled…on the phone (now panicking officially) with airline agent who cannot get us to Bangkok on the time necessary to make the connecting flight (on the next day) to Bhutan.
And that’s another part of this fractured tale: Bhutan is less hard to get to than it was, but it is hard to get to…enough so that if you miss that connecting flight you are TOASTED…meaning no way to get to Bhutan no how.
So, here we are, on our way to Bangkok: rebooked, traveling the 1:20AM flight out of LAX….arrive in Bangkok in the early afternoon…just in time to get to the hotel and crash hard.
Well, that’s the TRAVEL side of things. The mental/emotional toll is always something else entirely. I supposed to be at a conference. The conference lasts only 3 days…..I am going to miss AT LEAST 1 ½ of those days…..at least. The whole reason for the trip, wiped away in an instant. Certainly a test of patience….I guess that’s why I am listening to Pema Chödrön on how to breathe deeply and allow spaciousness to occupy my mind rather than those other crazy thoughts (I’m missing the friggin conference!!!)
Ah well, more thoughts soon….stay tuned.
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