triptochina..............
Trip to CHINA...
started on 4th December night.....
LIFE'S FIRST TIME OVERSEAS TRAVEL
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Bangalore HAL Airport (4th dec 2006 , 2100 hrs)
Finishing my quick dinner with friends, I reached the International terminal of the Bangalore HAL airport along with my friends and packed luggage. It was the first time I was leaving my motherland.There was some sort of tickling excitement accruing on one side of my mind while the other side was getting simulated with the so called “First Time feeling” (FT) . But I was confident enough as always that everything would fall just the way I want them to.
Then came the parting time and left my friends and went in to the check-in lobby....2 boring hours gave me company till the Indian Airlines gaint winged body IC957 arrived at the gate of the terminal. Along with the co-passengers I was guided to the bus which took us to the Airbus A320.
The attendant near the flight checked my boarding pass.. with half of the boarding pass left in my hand I climbed the stairs of the flight. Experiencing my FT, I went past the business class in to the economy class, though I was having a business class boarding pass!!! With the help of the flight attendant, I figured out where my seat was in business class and to my luck it was a window seat.
My journey from Hyderabad to Bangalore in Kingfisher flight brought an eerie feeling as if my body was being left behind and the soul going with the flight.i went through all this while i was on my way to plunge into the big bad corporate world.I had the " THE TAKEOFF feeling " creeping in my mind once again.But surprisingly nothing happened this time...!!!! Thank god...
I just watched the twinkling lights of bangalore fade by,as the flight went roaring into the cold air....Had a look at my watch and the time was 0040. After supper i gradually went into the folds of sleep....
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Singapore airport (5th dec 2006 , 0730 hrs local time)
As I opened my eyes the first thing I did was to take a look at the watch, the short hand was reaching 5 and the long hand 12. Then heard the pilot saying “we will be landing in Singapore international airport in a few minutes and the local time is 0730 “. Surprised by the time shift which I never encountered, changed my watch to the local time. Landed in Singapore airport and through the passage that connects the airport and the flight came the sight of beautiful airport.
For the first time saw the "TRAVELATORs" ; don't get bewildered it is nothing but a flat form of escalators. Following the symbols and decoding them (like Robert Langdon ;-) ...) reached the transfer terminal, where people who has to go in onward flights has to report and got the boarding pass for the next flight Cathay Pacific flight CX 736. Then I was guided to the Cathay Pacific lounge in the airport from which there was a beautiful view of the whole airport and the flights landing and taking off. Reading the newspapers and magazines spent time till 0940 there. The announcement of the flight arrival was there when I moved with my bag to the gate specified and boarded the flight to HONGKONG. Cathay Pacific flight was one of the best flights I've seen. Unlike the Indian Airlines flight here I got an Aisle seat.After the takeoff I was given a headset and all the while I was watching a remote like thing in the groove of my seat wondering which purpose it has to serve.
The person adjacent to me moved the hand rest and there popped a small LCD screen TV in front of him. Following the same steps I looked at my own LCD TV in front of me in awe. Realising the remote's duty I removed it from the groove and checked all the keys it , finally halting at a movie channel which was screening "Pirates of Caribbean : The Dead Man's Chest " and till the flight reached Hongkong I was done with the movie. Meanwhile the food problem has started. The items they gave me were raw vegetables which I couldn't eat. Most of the time I was figuring out what each item is made of?
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Hong Kong International airport (5th dec 2006 , 1430 hrs local time)
Hong Kong International airport , an engineering wonder and the construction of which was aired on Discovery Channel as a part of "Extreme Engineering" , never dreamt that I'll be one day in the airport. Fascinated by this thought, looking around and sorting out where to go in the huge airport, again with the help of symbols as most of the information was in chinese , reached the transfer counter. Initially thought of looking around airport but was stuck up at the counter querying about the baggage whether it will be automatically transferred to my next flight or not? But thank god when I reached the gate where I had to board the flight, the officials there confirmed that baggage is onboard.
Finally boarded the Chinese Eastern Airlines flight MU 768 at 1805 hrs, which was headed to my destination NANJING. Looking around the Hong Kong airport for the last time through the window I was thinking of the next things to be encountered. Then the airhostess came with weird looking items in the dinner plate. Opened the packets and shocked to see an item like snake and just left everything as I feared what I will be eating. After 2 hours of flying ;I reached NANJING at around 2000 hrs. As soon as I was off the plane the cold air probably at a temperature of 2 degress indicating the difficulty I need to face in this cold country.