I mentioned at the end of my last post that British Airways seemed past the turmoil of problems surrounding the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow.   30 minutes later I was watching ground crews unload all the bags from the hold and manually check them against a list.   That process took over an hour.   The delay in London added up to a 2 hour delay reaching LAX.   When we got to LAX we had to taxi for a very long time to the most remote part of the airport, instead of going right to the International Terminal.   Then, to make matters worse, the jetway operator couldn't get the walkway to line up to the airplane.  That meant about 10 minutes of pointless delay.   We finally got on buses to the terminal, customs was packed taking another 30 minutes.  Another 15 minutes looking everywhere for my suitcase lasted until 11:00 PM, 30 minutes after my connecting flight to Phoenix had departed. 

The last part of the fiasco:  Nobody staffing the Lost Baggage desk from British Airways.  That left more than a few very angry people.

Throughout the whole trip, I was calm.  I have learned that it rarely does any good to get angry.  And the people on the plane were very apologetic.  At one point the captain came out to explain the situation and said he could have shared the information from the cockpit, but wanted to face the disappointed passengers.   He and the other crew were obviously frustrated and embarrassed by things that were outside of their control.

I am frustrated and embarrassed by my profession.  From what I read, this is largely a failure of a complex software system and a larger project to operate Terminal 5.   BAA seems to have ignored, through ignorance or ego, a similar disaster from the new Denver Airport a few years ago.   They probably trusted the hype of IBM and the other vendors that their software would "just work" without comprehensive testing that simulated real world situations.

But I don't hold British Airways totally blameless.   I don't know the details of what they could have done better at a higher level, but at a personal level they messed things up at LAX by not having staff on hand when one of their main flights from Heathrow arrived.  There were only two BA staff to handle dozens of angry and frustrated  customers.   These same two had to work the baggage area and then rush up to man the lost baggage desk.   Second, they offered no compensation for my missed connection and subsequent overnight sleeping in the terminal.   They said it was because I didn't book the flight through them.   Very poor customer service.  

As for my missing luggage?   The xeroxed form letter they gave me said to expect it within 36 hours.  It is going on 72 and they don't have any update.

I am in London at Heathrow terminal 5 which seems to be over its many troubles from earlier in the week.  I am on expensive wifi and only have a few minutes which I will use to give you the real story, really quickly about our Bangalore trip.

No, Sarah is not going to Srinigar.  That was an April Fools joke,  although I did enjoy several conversations with very concerned people.

We had debated where to go on vacation for Spring Break for weeks.  We considered Kerala, Hong Kong, Dubai, stay home, Kanyakumari etc.   In the end we suffered from too many choices until there were only two choices left: stay home or go somewhere within driving distance. 

We reserved hotel rooms in Bangalore and Mysore.  We drove to Bangalore on Sunday afternoon and spent Monday sightseeing.   The highlight of the morning for the kids was finishing the historical sites (Tippu's Palace, Bull Temple, etc) and go to  McDonalds  for lunch.  I warned them not to expect the same food as they where used to in the US.   They ended up being very disappointed.   There was no beef, even though this was cosmopolitan Bangalore, famous for its beef.   The fries were the only thing close.

What we did enjoy, too much is the donut shop across the street.  Joshua kept coming up with excuses to go back.  The donuts in this shop were better than any donut I have ever had, including Krispy Kreme.   The best we have eaten in India, hands down.

The following morning we were supposed to drive to Mysore and wonderful town where we were booked into a palace that was turned into a luxury hotel.   But when we met our driver he was very nervous about going, saying that he wanted to get out of the state of Karnatika and back to our state of Tamil Nadu as soon as possible.  The reason was a news report of a water dispute between the two states.  Farmers in villages along the road between Bangalore and Mysore were stopping cars with Tamil Nadu plates (indicated  by the "TN" as the first part of the number) and beating the occupants and stoning the cars.

We considered the odds and risks, and with my work adding its ever present stress we decided to go home early.   The hostilities aside, it was a nice relaxing trip.  It was what I needed before a more stressful trip to Phoenix and LA.   I get to Phoenix late Saturday night and  stay until the following Sunday.  After that I have a few days in LA then back to India.

We took a quick trip to Bangalore and enjoyed some good food and cooler climate.  I will write about the trip in more detail later in the week.  We rushed home a few days early because Sarah is off to Srinigar to start an apprenticeship making Kashmiri rugs.

We were walking around the one of Bangalore's shopping districts and Sarah and Amy found a little Kashmiri store tucked away down a side street.   The man who runs the store with his Italian/Kashmiri daughter just adored Sarah and Sarah in turn just loved all of the Kashmiri products, especially the hand stitched rugs.  

Amy has been doing some sort of cross-stitch while we watch Alias on DVD, and Sarah has had a mild interest in that, but nothing compared to how much she fell in love with these Kashmiri rugs.

While Joshua, Max, Abby and myself were exploring a used book store across the street, Sarah and Amy arranged for Sarah to be enrolled in the "Kashmiri Cottage Crafts Apprenticeship Program" in Srinigar, the capital of Kashmir.  The program is an 8 week course that teaches all aspects of wool and silk weaving including materials preparation, dying and coloring, traditional and modern weaving techniques and finishing.  This nice man at the store kept calling Sarah "my daughter" and gave her a great deal on a rug.  He made a few calls and got Sarah into the program.  It is a really exclusive school and only had openings for the term that starts on April 1.   She will be a few days late, but should be able to catch up.  It will cost us some money, but not as much as her tuition at the American School, where we need to work out how to have this wonderful experience count for credit.

Amy was concerned that this was just a sweat-shop masquerading as a school, but I was more concerned with its proximity to the lawless Taliban and Al-Queda controlled areas just across the border in Pakistan.  Mr. Akbar assured us that all is fine and that we have nothing to worry about.   In fact, he will be escorting Sarah there himself.  I am leaving for the states in a couple of days and couldn't go myself, and Amy has to stay and take care of the little ones.   We will go up and see her during her mid-program break over the May-Day weekend.

As a result, Sarah will be offline for a while, but expect to get some really cool Kashmiri rugs for Christmas.  I am really excited for her.  Quite the adventure for an 11-year old.