Serendipity?

I have had a trip planned to India with Lisa, my world–traveling friend, for several months. On Monday, the day of our scheduled departure we were meeting in Chicago for our trip to London and then on to Delhi. I received a call at home that my flight to Chicago was delayed, but I did make it to the airport in plenty of time for our international flight that evening. I made my way to the international terminal and then got in line to check in for my flight to London. Lisa was on her way to O’Hare from downtown Chicago and she was stuck in traffic which created a bit of tension, but is seemed like we would make the flight with a bit of time to spare.

When I handed my passport to the ticket agent at British Airways she inquired about my Visa for travel on to India. This is the first I had heard of this requirement and I quickly texted Lisa in her taxi ” No Visa Problem” instead of “No Visa, problem”. The stress was mounting and Lisa finally made it the airport and I informed her of our dilemma. This issue was not one that had a quick solution, as we were soon to learn. Stay in Chicago and try to get an emergency Visa (unlikely), or fly to London and re-route our destination? All of this needed to be resolved before we could catch our looming flight, which included over twenty hours of traveling time and a very carefully planned itinerary. Not to mention all of the prior planning and scheduling we did just to make the trip a reality and the fact that Tim just started a new job out of town. I was beginning to question our far-flung travel plans. Why had we not just planned a trip to FL?

What should we do? Where else can we go? We decided to fly to London and then evaluate our options. Smooth sailing was not the future of this part of our journey. After spending close to 12 hours in Heathrow airport moving from terminal to terminal via bus and train with suitcases in tow and maybe four hours of sleep we boarded a flight to Sri Lanka. Another 10 hours later, the manager of Amangalla where we ended our long journey said, “Welcome to the Gentler India, Sri Lanka”. Serendib is another name for Sri Lanka, which translates best into English as the word Serendipity, which means making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated. Were we meant to come instead to this alternative India? I felt like I was in an alternate universe after all that travel.

I choose to believe that these detours in life are often serendipitous occurrences.The Sri Lankan people are very kind and endearing and the country is beautiful. They have made much progress recovering from the Tsunami that took so many lives and did so much damage. 

 

Comments

[Cynn Chadwick]

Keep posting! I think it's a fabulous fun journey to watch...Serendipity--probably....

[Natalie]

Thinking of you!! Such a yogi!!! XO