The journey to Kodai. Melbourne - Chennai. Day 1

Well, we made it!! Woot. 

I’m writing this on Friday, 19/7 but don’t have internet connection. I arrived at Kodai International school at 3 this afternoon.

What an adventure, I had always thought that getting to Kodai was going to be a challenge, but I never imagined it becoming a small adventure.

I couldn’t help but think about the Lord of the Rings, and how my adventure was similar to his. Even when things weren’t going to plan, I couldn't help but smile.

It’s hard to explain how this small journey has felt, but I might just go from the very beginning (a very good place to start, you begin with ABC…) and give you some of the details and thoughts I had.

My day started at 5:20am to the sounds of a shower and lights from the kitchen. I enjoyed quite a good sleep, considering it was the last one I was going to have in Australia for several months. My 110% full bag lay on the floor, after mum and I had struggled with it the night before.

We got ready, said goodbye to Matt (who couldn’t come due to school), and departed for Melbourne International Airport at 6:30.

It was a low-key trip; there was nothing of real interest to be told.

We arrived at the airport, met up with Antonia and checked-in our bags. After that, we went and had morning tea (coffee, apple scroll and hot chocolates).

I am glad I was able to spend those moments with Lach. Quality bro time is the priceless thing and I will miss it dearly (though it mostly comes in rare packets of 2-7 seconds).

After that we went to one of the workers from the airport who was going to accompany Antonia and I to the plane. I’ll admit that she was quite attractive. She lead us and the 2 families towards ‘the wall’, the walkway to security in the international terminal. 
It has such a dramatic name because relatives are not allowed through it, so it is the last time that passengers see their relatives till they return.

They were some gut renching seconds. Though, right now I feel a much stronger emotion looking back on it than when it actually happened, probably because I’d done all my crying the day before. Just as I went through I looked back and saw everyone standing there waving, 2 families united in a most unique way.

After that was security, where they had to put my brushes (some metal wires bunched together for playing drums) through the scanner again.

Unfortunately there was no shopping that could be done, so we moved straight through to the gate. It was there that I lost my first item, a book that was personally signed by the author.

We got onto the plane, and said goodbye to the wonderful helper.

On the flight, I watched David Attenbougher’s “natures curiosities”, then tried to listen to an audio book of Wind in the Willow, how ever when I went to pause it went back to the start, causing much frustration and ultimately rage quitting. I also watched ‘UP’, much enjoying the search to try find the Star Wars hints in the film. A couple I found was the characters escaping through a vent in the wall, and the 3 planes crashing into each other towards the end.

Some hours later we arrived in Singapore at about 4 in the afternoon. We got off the plane, and someone from the airline escorted us to where we were to wait a couple of hours till our next flight, called special services. We got there but there were no seats so Antonia and I went for a quick shop/look around. I had been told by a wise man named Mark that Singapore airport was something special, with foot massages.

We went walking and found several gardens... in the middle of the airport. They were truly magical (I suppose that’s why they were called the enchanted gardens)! One of them had a fish pond. At first I though all the flowers were fake, that there couldn’t be this sort beauty in an airport, but I was wrong. It was truly magnificent.

Then, feeling somewhat pekish, we located a McDonalds.

It was definitely a better, easier version of the Macca’s in Australia.

We returned to the special services, to find that we could have continued shopping for another hour. Instead, we sat and watched TV. 

Finally someone came and took us to the next flight. When going through, that’s when I lost my second item, some scissors. I had completely forgot about them since I packed my pencil case more than a week before. Anyway, we got onto the plane and off we went to Chennai, India.

It felt like a longer flight. We were so tired, due to a little jet lag. When we got into Chennai, the local time was 10, but our body clocks were at 2:30am. We managed to snatch a few short moments of rest on the plane though.

Navigating through Chennai airport proved to quite difficult, and seemingly impossibly without someone helping us from the airport. The accent and language barrier proved to be very difficult. I had a lot of trouble knowing what they were asking for. We got through it though, with my brushes being checked again.

We waited for a bit of time for someone to come and take us to the hotel nearby.

The pickup site outside international arrivals at Chennai airport is crazy. It is a constant stream of cars using their horns and weaving through randomly stopped vehicles. There is also a LOT of buses.

It was the first, or second time I’d been in a car with no seatbelts. In our semiconscious states I managed to enjoy the risk while moving though traffic.

We got to the hotel and went to our respectable rooms. After organising things I tried to have a shower. I discovered that the water didn’t come from the shower head like I hoped, but the bath tap. There were some buckets so I ended up tipping the water over my head. It was a strangely significant thing for me for 2 reasons. The first was that I had never done it before, and the second was that it created a link between the India I had seen from Australia and the real deal. It was sort of humbling as well, a realization that this is how thing’s are in this part of the world, the phrase ‘I don’t think we’re in Melbourne anymore Toto,’ came to mind.

After that I gradually got myself ready for bed, and eventually went to sleep around midnight Indian time, so 4:30am in Melbourne.

I was slightly stressed about how the morning was going to go, since I didn’t fully know. Little could I have known how drama filled and stressful it would be Antonia and the fam back home.

Tune in next time, for the sequel in this epic saga of story telling.