What I have learned about India is that whatever you are trying to do it will be much more difficult and involve many more steps and days than you expected.  It took us 2 months to get a bank account open.  Our refrigerator has been broken more days than it worked.  So of course getting a plane ticket home proved to be more involved than expected.

Calling a travel agent in the US is difficult because of the time difference and international calling, so after a few attempts through an intermediary (my mom), Dolly talked me into talking to a local travel agent, on the grounds that whenever she or her friends have travelled to/from India, travel agents always got the best price.

The first travel agent I talked to seemed reasonable, but was from out of town.  She is located in Raipur, the nearest "big" city, and the city I will be flying out of.  She found a decent itinerary at a good price, but then when it came time to pay, it turned out that you can't just give a credit card number over the phone.  They needed a photocopy (or imprint) of the card and of the card-holders gov't issued ID... so basically you need to visit them in person.  The other option was to make a deposit to their account in the local branch of their bank and then mail them confirmation of payment.  Both options were way too much work, so we found a local agent.

Dolly talked to them for me because they are Hindi speakers, and I am not, and they had a little trouble answering basic questions: "What time does the flight leave Raipur?" "You land in Chicago at 10:50" "No, what time does the plane LEAVE from RAIPUR?"  "The connection is though Bombay".  So we went into visit them this morning to clear it up, and they guy we had talked to was gone for most of the day for an exam of some kind, even though we had talked to him earlier in the morning, and told him we were coming in.  You think he would have mentioned that he wouldn't be there.

We setup a flight plan with the other guy in the office, and then agreed to come back later that evening to pay.  In retrospect, I'm not sure why we didn't just pay then, but maybe the guy we were working with wasn't authorized to collect payments or something. 

I rode my bike there in the evening, and it was a festival day.  The second of nine nights of Navatri (basically translates to "9 nights"), where every day they worship one of Krisha's (or is it Shiva's) nine forms.  I smiled at a man who noticed that he was standing across from a mandir (temple), and at a rickshaw driver with his hair and bushy mustache dyed a ridculous red with henna.  I was in a good mood, happy to be on my way to obtaining my ticket home, and not bothered by the congestion and noise and chaos that is part of the culture with more gods to celebrate than days on the calendar. 

When I got to the agency, the price had gone up 7000 rupees (about $150)!  Though we were willing and able to pay in the morning, they decided that it wasn't important, and in the meantime, the price had increased 20%.  So I walked out, and rode back home, once again irriated by the traffic and the dust.

When I got back to the neighborhood and went to one of the doctors' houses, borrowed the Internet and booked online, like I should have done in the first place.  My mood was then restored.  If I had a working fridge, I would have bought a small bottle of vodka and a mixer, and chilled them for my not-to-much-later enjoyment.  I don't have a working fridge so I just went and got a popsicle.  I'm flying out of Raipur on the 7th, and will land in Chicago on the morning of the 8th.