Sun Jan 13

At 430 I got up at to get ready to go to the airport and discovered that there was no water in my room. The toilet wasn't even running like usual. I went downstairs to ask the guys down there and they told me they printed newspapers next door at night so there was never any water until 515. Too late for me. They sent me to the bathrooms in the 1st floor restaurant, where the tap would give a trickle when coaxed, to brush my teeth and shave. Not a very auspicious start to the travel day.

My cab was waiting outside and it was no trouble getting to the airport. I guess that’s one of the advantages to leaving so early. When we pulled up to the airport, we were stopped at three separate police roadblocks. At the first, we were summarily waved through. At the second, one officer looked in the trunk and another checked my passport and ticket situation. At the third, one officer looked in the trunk and another in the hood. The cabbie dropped me off in front of the terminal. To get into the airport, I sent all my stuff through an x-ray machine, walked through a metal detector and was patted down. After checking in, an airline representative looked over my papers and sent me away. I went as if to go to my gate, and realized that 1) I didn't have a gate assignment and there were no departures screens with them listed and 2) there was no one at the passport control desks to get to the gates anyways. It was early anyways. While I was waiting, I found the document I had to fill out to clear passport control and filled it out. Eventually, a guard opened the sliding door to passport control and started ushering people through. After getting my visa stamped again I went through security screening. Same cocktail of X-ray. Metal detector and pat down. Once in the terminal, I set out unsuccessfully to find my gate. It was a small enough place, So I just sat down somewhere central and waited. About the time my flight was scheduled to board I found an airline representative and asked him where the gate was. He told me not to worry, that that's how things normally happened. He said there'd be an announcement when anything was settled. There was no announcement, but a flurry of activity by one gate made me suspect it was the one. The sign lit up with my flight number. As if by silent predetermined signal, people started to form a line, and, one again without any public address, started to board the plane. There were more security measures at boarding. An airline representative ripped my ticket, but handed me back both halves. A police officer collected my stub at the door to the jet way. Further down, there was a hand search of carry-on luggage and a final pat down before entering the plane. When I got to my seat, the sun was rising outside.