India Visit Nov-Dec 2007 : Part 1 - The Journey

With a visit to me real Home, my online home lay orphaned for about 6 weeks. I must say that I am glad to be back taking care of my online home, but at the same time I miss, very badly, my real home.

My 5 week holiday was the longest I have had in about 4 years. This holiday, like most, was filled with family functions, visiting relatives and friends, travelling in India, shopping, a bit of relaxing, a lot of pampering and more. In the next few posts on this blog, I propose to relive the moments from my trip with the twin aim of sharing it with you and creating a holiday-log of sorts. In this post I will focus on the flight in and the journey.

Flights to India always seem longer than they actually are. Especially because I am ever so restless to get home. This time the feeling was no different, and thanks to Malaysian Airlines, they also made the journey longer than expected. I landed in KL only to realise that my ongoing flight was not displayed on any of the information monitors. I smelt a problem. I walked up to the Transit counter and my suspicions were confirmed when the counter officer handed me a few dinner coupons and told me that my flight was delayed by 12 hours. WHAT!!!!!!!! I bumped into 2 other passengers who had the same exclamation on their face. Being in the company of someone is not a bad idea, especially when in a sitaution like this. The 2 men turned out to be great company.

After dinner and after going through immigration, we assembled at a particular spot, as advised. A whole lot of confusion ensued and at last we were on a coach to a Hotel. The KL Intl Airport is about 70 kms from the city and we figured that the ride to the Hotel would be a long one. It turned out to be an hours drive even though it was close to midnight. We had to contend with long queues at the Hotel and being at the end of it, we were requested to share rooms. There was a unanimous outcry and the Hotel staff succumbed and started handing out deluxe suites to individuals. I was one of the lucky ones to get a Deluxe suite. It was a plush suite, but Hell I would have preferred reaching Home on time for "MY Bed" is a million times better than any other in the world.

It was 1am when I tucked myself into bed and managed to get some sleep - disturbed though. I was woken up at 3:30 AM by a phone ring. I picked and I heard a recorded message that said "This is your courtesy call". Strange!!! I had not asked for any courtesy from anyone. Infact all I wanted was to get home to Bangalore ASAP. I went back to sleep assuming it was an alarm set by the previous occupant of the suite. A few mins later, I decided not to take any chances and called Reception to find out what it was about. Thankfully I did. I was informed that it was a call to tell me that I should be ready to leave for the airport at 4:30 AM. Well - "Courtesy call" = "Be ready at 4:30" did not make any sense, But I am glad I called them to find out. I went down to hand in the keys and Check-out when I was handed a bill for the one phone call I had made to inform my folks about the delay. I told them to bill it to malaysian Airlines when the counter officer told me that I was allowed calls worth 6 Ringgits and anything above that I would have to bear. Ah well no point fighting over a few ringgits, even if 5 Star calling rates means that with 6 Ringets I hardly get to say HELLO.

We had an early brekkie and then were driven to the airport. My 2 new friends were again great company as we were talking about a lot of things. They were both Indians returning from Japan and we had extended discussions about cultural differences between India, Australia and Japan. At the airport there was a further delay of an hour before we actually took off. The plane soon was circling over Bangalore waiting for a landing clearance and the sight of Utility building told me that I was indeed home. Immigration was slow and the baggage handling "forces" had offloaded my baggage from the carousel even before I got there. Obliviious to the fact, I waited and waited and waited and waited. After a good 30 mins, a Malaysian airlines official announced that all bags from the KL flight have been offloaded. Phew!!! luckily my bags were not lost in transit. UC I was in India and I had started seeing the positive side of everything :D:D:D:D

Reaching India was more a sense of Relief, than anything else, after spending over a day in travel.

Keep tabs on this space for more on my holiday!!!!!!

My latest Passion

Until about 5 years ago, going on a plane was a novelty for me. I had done it only a few times then and cherished each flight. Now, it is a more a thing of routine.

In the last few weeks i have developed a passion for flying planes, thanks largely to my housemate who is a qualified pilot. Thanks again to him that he has a pilots joystick and the Microsoft Flight Simulator on his Lappy. He has been teaching me to fly and I am loving it.

I started off with a Cessna (proppelor driven) 2 seater aircraft. While taking off was quite easy, landing was the difficult bit. After a few crashes and some bad landings, i have started landing smoothly and the confidence in flying is really high. Although the Simulator is nothing more than a Simulator, i hear that the real thing is not very different, except for the fact that we are flying along too and life is at stake :D:D:D.

Chennai to Tambaram and back has been my regular route on my practice runs. After gaining confidence in handling the aircraft, I have taken off from various locations in the world including Melbourne and New York. At New york, i took off on an amphibious aircraft from the water and flew low under a bridge at about 200 ft, which is a manouvre I am proud of :D:D:D:D The other exciting thing i did was to fly at night and look for a runway and land safely!!!!

Yesterday we decided to do some landmark searching and I took off from Agra in search of the Taj Mahal. We flew alongside what we assumed to be the Yamuna but just couldnt spot anything like the Taj. Nevertheless it was a great experience.

A week or so ago, i dared to fly a Learjet and surprised myself with a great landing. The Jets are sooper fast in comparison to the Cessna and the handling was much much steadier.

Upping the ante, I am looking fwd to flying in bad weather and flying based on direction and communication from the ATC. I am getting there!!! When i have the time and the money I sure will fly a real plane!!! For now, Simulator rocks!!!!

If you wondered about why I havent blogged in a while, I have been busy flying over Melbourne or Chennai, or under a bridge in New York!!!!!