Re-positioning Day

October 5^th, 2026

Siliguri, India

Woke at 6:00AM today and took a quick shower and dressed.

Packed the last few small items and then went for a very quick breakfast.

Once done, used the restroom and then grabbed my bags and headed down to the lobby.

Paid for the room and incidentals, and then sat to wait for my car to the airport.

At 7:00AM a guy pulled up, came inside and asked if I was Alex, but I said no.  He parked and waited around for a bit, then talked to the front desk a few times, and eventually they called me over to find out who I was waiting for.

Turns out this was my driver, but he had been given wrong name?

Day starting on wrong foot.

We got into the car and got going only about 10 minutes later, so shouldn’t be too bad.

Traffic was quite heavy though, so still took about 25 minutes to reach the airport.

Got out and walked into the departures area and tried to make heads or tails of the mess.

People standing all over the place, but finally noticed two lines that went past barrier and into the building.

You have to show your boarding pass to enter the building (or something about your flight if you have not checked in online ahead of time).

You then have to put bags through a quick X-Ray and get a pat down to enter the hallway.

Once done with that, you have all the airline check in counters to choose from.

While I have my boarding pass, I need to check a bag, so found the Air India line and since I was flying Business Class I got to stand in the line with 1 person instead of the line with 30 people.

Once it was my turn, I checked the bag and she printed me a paper pass as well.

She then instructed me to go down to the end of the baggage belt and wait till I saw my bag go into the machine, and then wait another minute or two before going to the gates.

Odd request, but went down.

I then saw what they were doing.

If the checked bag had any thing odd, they would call for the person to come into the room and open the bag so it could be inspected, then they would leave via another door, take catwalk over the belt and then could leave.

I saw my bag come down, waited for a bit while it sat there, then it went into the machine.

Waited a good 2 minutes and no one came out, and many more bags went in, so figured I was good.

Went up the escalator to the 2^nd floor and found the airport lounge I had a pass for.

They checked me in, and then I sat there for about 45 minutes filling out some paperwork online for the India Immigration stop, and checking on some other things.

I was not hungry enough to eat anything, so just drank the water they gave me (and still had half a bottle of my own I left there since I could not take it through security.)

Left the lounge and went through security.

Had to take out a few things from the bag, but no issues otherwise.

Found me gate and took a seat and waited for the boarding.

Bit confusing as the announcements are hard to hear, and usually in more than one language, but never sure what you are hearing, and since the English one is usually last, all the locals are moving around first making more noise as well.

I thought I heard that we could start boarding, and saw some people in the business class line.  I asked and they said I could, and took me to the front.  None of the others actually had business class tickets, but appeared to be part of a group, so were keeping them in that line for some reason.

I was scanned in, then out the door and onto the bus.  Then they started letting all the other people through.  Really no benefit to being first to board there since you all end up on the same bus.

Once full, we drove out to the plane, and then they had us waiting for a few minutes before they let us out.

Once out, I started to move toward the entry point for the plane.  They had some odd building cars setup before the ramp, so when two lines started to form I though the one might be the business line, but then noticed the lines were gender splits.

One of the agents saw my confusion, looked at me pass and then told me to go to front of the line of Men.

They held line while I got in, and then noticed they were having everyone open carry-on bags to go through them.

Then in the next section, you got pat down again (so third pat down and 3 baggage check today)

I then could walk up the steps to the plane.

Found my seat, which was in the first row and put bag in the overhead.

Then waited while the plane loaded up.

Once full, and it was full, we closed up and started to taxi.

Was airborne soon after and had some nice mountain views along the first 3^rd of the flight, before the clouds got too thick to see.

They served us our meal, and then I just played on the phone for a bit till I got tired, and then sort of zoned out till the plane landed.  Did not actually sleep, but kept eyes closed and tried to just not focus on anything.

My head was starting to hurt a bit, my congestion was getting worse, and that of course was triggering my cough again.

Once we landed, and spent some time getting to the gate, we sat there for a while waiting for the bus.  Turns out we had landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule, so they were not ready for us.

Once bus arrived, they let the business class out and then the bus took just us over to the terminal, which was quite a long drive in and round all the gates.

Once out, I stopped to use the restroom and then found myself in the immigration hall.

I looked for the signs on the lines and saw that I could use either foreign passport, or evisa lines, then noticed the two lines right next too me were for Business/First Class.  Much smaller lines.

Got into those, but while smaller, they also only had 2 agents working, so still slow.

While in line I got to talking with guy in front of me, and at some point documents came up and he asked if I had done the E-arrival form?

Not heard of this form.  Was not mentioned in my research, none of my emails from the airline mentioned it, they said nothing on the plane, no signs in the hallway or tables of forms were present either, yet it was a required form.

Ladies behind me said they had gotten to front and they sent them back out to find them, did not tell them where, just sent them away?

Like WTF?

So, I went off to see if I could find one, nothing.  The guy had mentioned he did it online, so I saw the kiosk to get the Wi-Fi code where you scan passport and it spits out a code for you.

Got online and did a quick search, found the official government page with the form and filled it out while still in line.

Just finished it before my turn came up.

Handed over my documents, showed him the health form I had completed that morning, then did the photo and fingerprints (had some issues with my thumbs and had to repeat the process 3 times).

Spent a bit of time talking as during the questions about what I planned to due, turned out the guy was from Siliguri which was my final stop that day.

He then asked to see the access form I had just completed in line, and then got my entry stamp and visa stamp in the passport.

Walked around the long hallway to exit the area into baggage claim (after walking through all the duty free shops).

I found my bag on the floor near the belt with many other bags from the flight and then went to exit customs where we had to run bags through another X-ray.

then stopped to buy some local currency, as I was not sure if I would need it to get to the other terminal, heard there might be a cost.

I then wandered around trying to find the shuttle that was supposed to go over there.

I eventually saw the domestic transfer terminals and asked the lady; she told me to go to the airline counter.

I stopped at the counter she took my info, and said she could not check the bag as it had to be checked in the other terminal, but did print me a boarding pass, that way I could use the shuttle for no cost.  Then told me where to find the shuttle.

Left the building and found the spot, stood in line for a bit and then the first shuttle filled up, but I was next in line, so got on the next one early.

That one did not pack full, so was nicer ride.

Took a few minutes to leave, then stopped by some traffic, then we got to Terminal 2, and had a few leave, then a much longer drive to Terminal 1.

Once there, got off the bus, stood aside to sort my bag and then went up the escalator.

I went in the wrong door at first, and found I was in the ticket purchasing area, so left and then found the terminal doors.

Had to have boarding pass scanned, then went inside and found the check in counter for Air India Express.

Lady there got the back checked in, and then printed me a new pass with the gate listed on it as well (other one was blank as it had not been assigned yet?)

I then wandered over to the security area, had pass scanned again, then started to unload onto security check area.

Pushed my bags and tubs of stuff into the machine, walked through the metal detector and got my pat down/wand scan, then went over to claim my stuff, and as expected, the bags had been pulled aside.

Had to pull out the electronics and open every single thing so they could see it, ended up unpacking 75% of my bag to get it all, then they had to scan bag again with all that out.

Then while looking in my GoPro bag, the found the small tool I have in there that had 2 screwdrivers and several Allen keys on it.  This was a small bicycle took, was barely 2 inches long, and with the tool unfolded was maybe 3 inches.

But they freaked out about it.

I asked why I had gone through 6 other checkpoints in several airports without an issue, but now suddenly this is on the not allowed list (excuse…it was a tool).

They called over a supervisor while I was trying to repack everything, and flatly told me I could not have it in the cabin.  They kept telling me I could put it in checked bags, but those bags were already gone into the system.

They said I should go back to the counter and have them get it back (yeah, sure they will do that), but then I would need to go through this security circus a second time.

Finally told them to just toss it, keep it (or shove it up there ass…at least I did not say that one) and left.

So right now, I cannot mount my phone holder to the bikes, but while annoying, not critical.

The tool itself was something I think I got for free someplace, or maybe bought for cheap, do not recall.  While pissed off that I lost it, I rarely use it anyway.

Just really get tired of the complete lack of consistency in these wasteful airport security shows.  They get bent over things that are not really that dangerous, while ignoring several things in my bag that I could use to hurt someone far worse than a 1 inch Allen key could cause (and let’s not even go into what I can do with my hands and feet).

Nearly every object made can be turned into a weapon, so why do we not just focus on the items that are actual weapons and have no other purpose.

Or they need to ban all carry on items and let nothing onto the plane.   Stupid theater of illusions that people think are making them safer and it actually doing very little in that regard.

I got out of the security area and stopped to fix my bags a bit, and now had about 2 hours to burn.

I got on the Wi-Fi with a new code as the old one did not work over in this terminal.

Eventually got up to use the restroom, and then my headache was getting me so bad I noticed a pharmacy and they had some stuff to help.

Bought a soda from shop next door and took one right away.

Then sat longer till it was close enough for my boarding.

Walked down the long building of gates till I found mine and had a seat.

Time ticked along and eventually we were supposed to start boarding, but slight issue, there was no plane to board.

They eventually called out that the flight was delayed 20 minutes due to our plane not yet arriving.

Around 20 minutes later a plane did pull up, but then nothing happened.

I went to use restroom and when I came out the line for the boarding was already full, so I guess the boarding zones mean nothing here.

I went ahead and got in line since it seems there is no order or procedure, just a free for all.

Finally got up and scanned through and then walked down the long hallway to the jetway and over to the plane.

Got on and my seat was in 2^nd row.  Put bag in overhead and they had to lean way over to keep from getting smacked by all the others walking through.

About half way, I had to get up and let 2 people in next to me, which ended up being a damn night mare.

They were with the 3 people on the other side of the aisle, and he kept talking over to them (and they were never paying attention, and also kept just reaching over me to hand stuff back and forth to them as well, quite rude and annoying).

Plane finally took off about an hour after it was supposed to leave.

Rough take off, pavement was very uneven and plane shook all over trying to move.

Once airborne, things smoothed out some, so I just played on my phone for a bit.

They served food to those that had pre-ordered or wanted anything, but nothing was free, had to pay for any meal.  I skipped as I was not going to fart around trying to pay for food on the plane, though by now I was hungry, and regretted not buying a small snack at the terminal.

I spent second half of the flight just zoned out, maybe even dozed a few minutes here and there, till the plane started to come in to land.

Once on the ground, was a short taxi to the terminal building.  They opened the door and soon let us out and down the stairs.

We then walked across the pavement to the entrance and went inside.

Asked one of the military guys standing around where the baggage would come as I could not see any signs, he said belt one, and only after I got closer do the belt, did I see the sign with our flight on it.

Waited a few minutes for it to start, and another 5 for my bag to show up.

I then walked outside and was hoping someone would have a sign with my name on it.

I had no signal here, and the airport did not appear to have Wi-Fi either, so no way to communicate with anyone.

I stood off to the side and played on my phone like I was using it, while a dozen guys on other side of the fence were all screaming about taxi services.

Finally, a guy got my attention and asked if this was me, while holding his phone up with my photo on it.

I had to walk over to see what was on the phone, but then yet, that was me, so this must be the guy I was waiting for.  Sad thing was that I did not even know what hotel I needed to go to, so couldn’t even take a taxi if I wanted too.

Guy grabbed my bags once I was out of the airport zone, and then took me to a car.

Took about 30 minutes in some crazy traffic, on some beat up roads to get to the hotel.

Got my bags and went to check in.

Got on the Wi-Fi here and let the tour people know I was here.

I then saw the messages about the hotel and the pick-up driver, but all came it after I had lost Wi-Fi at the airport in Delhi.   Beginning to think I should have bought a really cheap SIM card for these few days.

I got checked in, up to the room and then went to meet with Ben, the tour manager (and owner of the company).

He was finishing his dinner in the restaurant, so joined him, had a drink and then ordered some food as I was really hungry now.

We talked about bikes and rides and tour companies, and then we parted ways.

I came back to the room, unpacked a few small things, spent 10 minutes trying to get the power outlets to work with my power adaptor and then typed this up so I could get it done today.

I will put it online later though, too tired.

Tomorrow I will chill in the morning, then we will move hotels around noon, then I will see if I can find a shop in the area that can sell me a 3mm Allen key.

Otherwise, it’s just hanging out waiting for the other riders (there appear to be at least 7 on this ride) to show up.

I will also do some research, see if there is a SIM option that will cover both India and Bhutan. (My Nepal card supposedly has that ability, but must not be part of the plan I bought as it does not work.)

Catch ya down the road.