Leaving Ladakh

This is a few days back now . Time has flown and there has been barely any for personal use .... let me explain . Today is the 12th but what I’m gonna write about now is the 9th of February . That morning I woke up in Ladakh feeling like dirt and went down to the breakfast area for some fruit and juice with hopes and dreams of it staying in my stomach . All I was dreaming about was my toes getting some feeling back from either the altitude or the diamox that I had been taking to battle altitude sicknesss . We were all rallied in the front to check out and get our bus and some teams were kinda shafted by their organizer (we all know who ) and that had nothing to do with us but let’s just say someone pulled a fast one . Gotta be careful who you book trips with and if you ever want to book a hockey trip I would say that Rainer Schmid is the best in Germany and won’t let you down . When we got to the airport chaos began .... it’s the only airport in the region and due to the fact this is a disputed region there are a lot of military personnel . We had to show our passports to get into the airport with our ticket . When we got passed that we put our bags into scanners and I was asked to put my backpack through even though I said it was my carry on .... nobody cared . The bag was tagged as a checked bag even though I said otherwise . When we got to the check in counter we decided to weigh our bags and keep track of whose bags were heavy because some people decided they didn’t have to pay extra on the way in .... we know who you are :) and their bags were definitely much heavier then everyone else’s on the way out too . My bag was 2 kilos over and that is what I offered to pay on the way in .... one guy had 40 kilos but still only paid 2 kilos over . Tisk tisk :( its ok Rainer paid for you .... no complaints . 

After that ordeal we had to fill out a form to leave which all the info is in my passport anyways ? Just open the dam book lol . Next we had to clear another security and at that point my backpack was flagged as a checked bag because of this sticker on it that I didn’t notice . Security made me go back to the check in desk and there I explained my bag was a carry on and they believed me and took off the sticker and put another tag on . Back to security , they checked for tag and now I’m in the boarding area with everyone else . Now we are told to go outside to verify our bags ?? Wtf ? Ok so I went out saw my bag said it was mine and found out they wanted me to verify everyone’s bag . Hogey was out there with me and realized I was stressing out .... partially from being sick but mainly because this is absolutely ridiculous and I don’t do ridiculous so well hahaha ! I needed a coke so I went to the counter and asked for 3 for myself and a couple of the lads .... the guy wiped them down with a rag I can only say made the bottle dirtier . It was disgusting . People here don’t get the cleanliness thing we expect in the western world  .... they try but really they don’t understand to the fullest and I don’t mean to be offensive to anyone but this is a third world country and people really don’t care as much as we do in the west . Our plane was boarding (finally) and there was one last security check before we entered the bus to take us to the plane ..... let’s hope the compresssed air onboard helps with the pressure from the altitude ! 

The flight was short and simple and all our bags arrived promptly at the airport in Delhi and we boarded our tour bus to go to Holiday Inn in Aerocity to drop off some of the hockey bags before leaving for Agra . The guys on the bus had no clue how to pack our bags and left the goalie bags until last which was a bit frustrating because they wouldn’t listen to any of us and our suggestions .... and this time it wasn’t just me suggesting ok . I know everyone thinks I’m the one to complain but if things weren’t f’d up then I wouldn’t have a reason to complain :) when we got to Aerocity the same ding dong grabbed my bag out of the back and took it off the bus ? I told him to put it back on and he shrugged his shoulders .... I wanted to kill him . 

We got back on the bus and started making our way at Agra which is way further then I thought . Most of us took naps on the ride and I think we arrived there by 8 pm or so .... could have been earlier . Only thing on all our minds was getting food and having some drinks . We got our rooms and convened back at the hotel bar and chugged beers while half the team ate .... I found out there was a Domino’s Pizza in walking distance and we went over to put an order in and a couple guys jumped in a tuk-tuk and grabbed 24 tins of Kingfisher which is an Indian beer ... it’s not bad for a lager . No such thing as IPA’s in India :( can’t win em all . When we had all our food and beer we headed back through the madness and across the street over to our hotel and we had an impromptu hotel room party in my room . My neighbour was not very pleased but who cares ? It’s a Friday night ! Those pizzas we ordered were .... crap 💩 nobody finished their food and it sat in my room for the rest of my stay lol ! The night went late and around 3 am I had to let everyone know it was time for bed . Sorry guys , we have an early tour tomorrow .