Guwahati: Easy Come, Easy Go

We left Jaipur airport at 8:05 am to fly to Guwahati and arrived half an hour early. There had been a bit of a luggage fracas at the airport in Jaipur with one airline staffperson really focused on our luggage and insisting C had to pay even though she only had one tiny carry-on and one personal bag. It seemed a bit bizarre but we made it through and the rest of the flight was smooth.

The rest of our crew were waiting for us at the guesthouse so we ate lunch, wandered around the one cow town that is Guwahati and returned in the evening. That was when I tried to open my luggage lock and realized something was wrong. The key looked like the right shape but wouldn’t go in. Everyone took turns trying it for themselves in case I was just incapable of opening a lock. No one could get in so I decided the lock was defective and got the guys at the guesthouse to saw it off for me.

The next morning I opened my pack to get some more money for the day, but it wasn’t there. I asked my co-travellers to take my bag apart and look for themselves. My money pouch with the lions share of my money was not in there. Now, I carry money in multiple places; in my bag that stays with me, in my money pouch which is sometimes on my body and sometimes in my luggage, and in hidden parts of my luggage. I don’t want to be high and dry if someone steals my purse, or if they make me remove the money belt at the airport screening and it “disappears” somehow going through the scanner (it has happened to people I know and could easily happen in India where women are metal checked in a curtained room and unable to see their belongings come out) or if my luggage disappears. So I have a bit of money still, but not much.

We thought through the previous day and knew it couldn’t have been hotel staff anywhere, and then we remembered the squirrely guy at the airport and my dodgy lock. We dug it out for a closer look and it appeared to have been tampered with. The bastard had been watching the checked luggage scanner and then grabbed J & my luggage and stayed with us as we checked in. We were questioning his behaviour at the time and in retrospect it was pretty clear. He stole my trip money. I’m resourceful so I’m sure I’ll be fine but it’s a bit of a pisser, to be sure. I think sweet J took it harder than I did. 

Nothing to be done about it so we checked out the planetarium (awesome) and took the ferry to the Umananda temple on the Brahmaputra River (pretty cool). The Brahmaputra is apparently the only male river in India. And no, I have no idea if it occasionally meets up with any of the female rivers.

Tomorrow is the drive to Cherrapunji. And then the 3500 steps.