India, the big wait

Arrival in Kolkata. The Silkair flight attendant handed out immigration forms during the flight, so one could assume that efficiency can be expected.  It did not work out that way.

The immigration counters were divided into two sections. One for Indian nationals and one for foreigner. The foreigner section was again divided into two sections, e-visa and others (health e-visa, special assistance counter, etc. ).

I had an e-visa, so obviously i went to the e-visa section with 4 counters, but only one was manned, and had a line of 12 people waiting. In 10 minutes the line had not moved, the guy in the front desperately tried to use the obviously faulty fingerprint reader for the 20th  time. 

I then was waived to the other counter by an official. There it was absolutely chaotic, with an advisor sending people first to this counter, than to that counter etc. Instead of helping he was creating chaos. None of the fingerprint scanners worked well either. After almost an hour it was finally my turn.

Finally through immigration i wanted to change some money before i would be expelled through the airport gates to the jungle of Kolkata. There was a guy already doing business at the money changer counter, he was soon finished and then blocked the counter with his body while recounting the money with all the time of this world. And recounting it. And recounting it again. Grrrr. 

Finding the hotel driver representative was easy. Getting to the car too. Then at the booth where the driver had to pay the airport road fee, a car was blocking our way. The driver had a shouting fight about whatever with the guy from the booth, it went on for minutes before the bloody car cleared the passage and we were free to go. 

When i finally arrived in the hotel my estimated sleeping time had been reduced by half before i had to get up at 3:30 to get on the next flight to Assam. One and a half hours time to sleep.

How much time of my life do I waste waiting?

PS. Leaving Bhubaneswar. At the airport. Not much waiting time at luggage scan or check in despite the international hockey competition starting today. But then at the security check. People completely unorderly. Some jumping line. Some not putting their electronics in the tray and then having to come back, cutting in the line also. The xray guy working only sporadically. Then they send me to another line. Turns out that that is for crew only, so there the people over there send me back to where I had lined up to start with. I have to start at the end of the line again. Damn. Mor people cutting in again. Damn. 

The whole thing is so terribly inefficient. And nobody seems to bother.