INDHIRA GANDI INTL (VIDP) - COLOMBO INTL
"Man," Mitchell said to me, "I've never met ANY royalty before. What do I say? How do I act?"
"Don't worry," I replied, "be gracious and kind. That way you have no chance of offending His Majesty."
"Okay," he said, nervously. We walked together towards our ride to the palace.
****
It seemed that the road out of the airport was a deserted one. There were no other vehicles on the road, so we just cruised along. Suddenly the car screeched to a halt, throwing us out of our seats. "Damn!" Mitchell cursed. "What the hell was that?"
I looked out of my window to see a cow in the road. The driver stepped out of the limo and greeted the cow. He began to pray to it.
"Has the driver gone nuts? Why would you pray to a cow?"
"Shh!! If ANYONE heard you say that they'd have you executed. Cows are sacred here!!"
Mitchell blushed."Of course. Whoops."
****
After the cow incident, we headed to the Taj Mahal, and what a fine piece of architecture it is. We were amazed at how fine it was.
The door swung open. The guard was there, who ushered us out of the car and told us to follow him. We followed him.
Two guards stood next to large doors. They swung open, and there, sat on a large throne, was the Prince.
"Welcome," he said, as we entered the room. "Please, take a seat." We did so.
"We are honoured to be here, your Majesty," Mitchell said.
"It is not a problem. Now I believe you are the famous duo headed around the World?"
"Yes your Highness, that would be us."
"Good. I wish you luck on your journey. Please, accept these two gifts as a token of my gratitude for your visit." The Prince handed us two little statues. They were of cows, finely decorated with colourful beads and Indian text.
"These are lucky charms," his Majesty said, "the two cows will safeguard your lives. I hope you two make it all of the way."
"Thank you very much your Highness, this is much appreciated," Mitchell said to the Prince.
"Thank you for coming, have a good flight." The Prince waved goodbye.
****
After a restless night, it was our scheduled time to leave. We had prepared "Howie" in advance, so we got dressed, got some coffees and off we went.
It was 5:30AM by the time we began to leave the airport. We were both tired; coffee was coming every 10 minutes. Colombo, Sri Lanka, was about 5 hours away, if the weather held. It was a clear morning but the forecast indicated some bad weather.
The sun rose soon after departure. this happened to wake us up a little more, and soon a few rounds of toast were going round. "Mmm, this is good toast." Mitchell bit down into his toast. "Quite a nice morning," he said, as he ate more toast.
"Get us another mug of coffee will you," Mitchell asked me as I disappeared into the galley. I poured one and started heading back to the cockpit when I spilt the coffee after a sudden jolt.
"Uh-oh, clear air turbulence ahead," Mitchell called back.
"Umm...sorry." I saw Mitchell look back to see his coffee on the floor.
"It's okay," he said, "maybe we shouldn't have any coffee until we pass this turbulence.
"Okay, I'll stay in my seat for now, after a new set of trousers. This coffee went everywhere!"
To be continued!
