My trip was uneventful until I got to Houston....

Which isn’t saying much because I only began my journey to India in Dallas. So here we go….I packed very carefully for this trip because I was leaving the U.S. to spend 5 weeks in India. I’m a girlie girl, and I need lots of girlie girl things in order to be comfortable. Tom had also requested that I bring a number of things for him, so in addition to my pile of must-have girlie girl things, I had Tom’s wish list that included cotton socks from Old Navy, a sturdy spatula, potato peeler and potato masher, a measuring cup, and some other miscellaneous American things. Tom is also a Starbucks Mocha Frapp junkie so I managed to securely wrap a 4-pack of those glass bottle Mocha Frapps and stuck 2 in each of my checked bags.

I packed a smaller carry-on bag with my laptop, power cord and mouse, along with my hair dryer, curling iron, a change of clothes, a pair of shoes, all 24 of the dvd’s I wanted for my viewing pleasure, Tom’s new Netbook and the handbook that goes along with it, Tom’s new camera, and 3 small bags of M&M’s.

Shockingly enough, both of my checked bags weighed in at 48 lbs each, which isn’t too bad considering the number of “essential items” that I had in those puppies. I checked those 2 bags in Dallas for the flight to Houston, and then carried on my smaller bag and my backpack.

Arrive in Houston and head to Terminal D where Emirates departs. I’m sitting at the gate and this very nice Emirates lady approaches me and tells me that my carry-on is 1. too large and 2. too heavy since they are operating a full flight to Dubai. She tells me that the carry-on must be checked in order to have enough space inside the plane. I tell her that I’m lugging 2 laptops and a camera in that bag, along with some other important items (M&M’s – haha) and that I’m not comfortable checking the bag. She gives me 2 small cloth Emirates bags (great for shopping!) and tells me to pull out the 2 laptops and the camera, put them in those 2 bags to carry-on, and she’s taking my suitcase whether I like it or not.

So I obviously have to give up the smaller suitcase. She promises me that it will be checked all the way through to Chennai and hand-writes a tag for it. The bag is taken from me when I board the plane. I think you probably know where this story is going by now.

Move on to my arrival in Chennai. I don’t know how to explain what an airport in India is like, but suffice to say it is hot, smelly, crowded, and OLD. I get through Immigration and then move on down to where the baggage claim is. There are tons of people standing around the 3 baggage carousels. I find a good spot where I push my little luggage cart right up the conveyer belt and I wait…..and wait…..and wait. The bags keep coming, people pull their bags off and leave, and I’m still waiting. Finally my 2 big bags appear so I get them on my little luggage cart, and I wait….and wait….and wait.

Still waiting….some Indian dude asks me if I’m waiting on a bag and I tell him that I’m waiting for 1 more. He makes a motion with his hand and says “All over”. Well, hell….I knew it was too much to expect my bag to make it but I still had high hopes. So I am moved over to the “Airport Assistance” counter where they are ready to “take a report”. The girl pulls out her long-ass form and asks for all of my tickets and my passport. She begins filling out the form and when it gets the part about where she has to describe the bag she asks me what color the bag is. I point to my pink and black backpack and tell her “it looks just like this except it’s a small suitcase”. So under the “color” section on her form she writes “RED”. I tell her the bag is not “RED”, the bag is “PINK”. She tells me they don’t have the color pink. HUH??

This girl tells me that my bag must still be in Dubai. I told her that Emirates told me the bag would be checked all the way through to Chennai. She tells me that the bag isn’t there. Yes, I’m aware. She tells me to give them 1 day as they need to enter my “complaint” and then try to contact Emirates to get my bag to Chennai. The bag will be delivered to me when they receive it.

Okay, does that sound right to anyone? In the U.S. maybe, but in India? So I guess I have to accept that my bag is lost or on it’s way back to Dallas, along with the dvd’s, my hair dryer, my shoes (leaving me with 1 pair of shoes to wear for the next 5 weeks), my curling iron, and 3 bags of melted M&M’s. I’m trying to stay positive but I am a pessimist at heart. I really liked that pink and black suitcase….I’m sad that it’s gone.