Having visited as many places as I can count on my hands in India, I have now set my foot on American soil, albeit this won't be a visit for recreational purposes, ONLY, atleast so do I hope. :)
Well, to anyway comment or report on how things are here, or how I feel them to be, would definitely take more time. Having arrived 4 days back, and with a startling no one to see and talk to, apart from my room mates at the temporary accommodation I'm put up at, (really nice guys, i must say) i may find blogs, a nice medium to express my thoughts more. :)
Anyways, I thought the best thing to talk about would be my journey from Bengaluru. Ah.. feels so good to make a mention of that name! Bengaluru. :)
As I said earlier, one can count the number of places I've visited in India, and that doesn't include any place that I'd gone which required me to fly. Which means, this was my first flight. I don't know why, I wasn't EXCITED about going to US, or flying for the FIRST TIME or anything to a great extent. Nevertheless, I'd butterflies in my stomach, probably ten instead of hundred. :P
My flight from Bangalore was at 0955 hours on 4th morning. I'd booked a taxi, which arrived home half an hour before 0530 hours, the time I'd told him to come home. Mahindra Renault Logan. A very very spacious car, I must say. Fitted all my 3 suitcases with great ease. We left home at 0545, and thankfully, there was a very sparse traffic throughout. Bengaluru isn't that very active, thank my stars for that! The driver made an extremely good usage of his ability and the car's capacity, and put us at the airport at 0615. Some flyover, which I wonder was the trumpet(!!) near the airport, was exceptionally good and provided a fantastic view of the airport.
Went in, after admiring the architectural mastermind of providing some 70% natural light into the airport, at all times. This aspect was indeed, the way it has been talked about. As for the rest, i won't know. This was the first ever airport I saw, went inside and checked in, and had absolutely no problems. Wish they provided it with more coin booths for the people waiting outside though. Since it was early in the morning, there were not much people around, and it left me with enough time to critically examine the airport. It left me a little bored - the way they had not projected anything native about the state or the place. I mean, it was only structure and structure. A little more indianisation is what is required of it, I felt.
Anyways, having been told that an irritating ear pop would occur as the flight would take off, I made it a point to have hard boiled confectionaries in my pocket. I boarded the flight. SQ 501. Singapore Airlines. Sat there for some time that seemed like half an hour and the flight started reversing out of the apron. I, immediately put in a candy into my mouth and waited with bated breath for the flight to take off. It taxied and taxied, my god, it still taxied till the candy totally melted in my mouth. Put one more quickly. After all the taxiing, it took a brief moment to stop and then it sped. I clutched on my seat. It kept on speeding and I was constantly looking at the monitor that showed the flight statistics and the window, (oh, I'd a window seat! :)) and it sped till it touched a 200 km/hr and then it took off. It kept on climbing for a long time. The scene from the window was good. I thought of saying breathtaking, but no. It was good. A good 4 four and a half hours later, we landed at Singapore.
YES, YES, and YES, the airport is more than what everyone has told you about, and whatever you have heard about it is very true. In one word, its HUGE. H-U-G-E. What was breathtaking was this airport built a new terminal, and made train routes from the other terminalS to this, published a book on this new terminal, made everything from a swimming pool, to gardens, to theaters even to a live piano recital. You need to see it to believe it. Its beautiful. Unfortunately, the city tour registrations were closed and fortunately, i'd to spend my whole 9 hours at the airport. :)
Flight SQ62. 0215 hours. Singapore to Houston was one more journey I looked forward to, coz the flight would probably move through the airspaces of around 20 countries. This flight took a different route to Houston. It went over Moscow.
By the time SQ62 took off, it was night and a delight to look at Changi International Airport's night view. The journey however, was boring. My body and mind had by then accustomed itself to something banal, and the food, the TV, everything started to bore me. Moreover, it was the incomprehensible gibberish that was used as a medium of speaking that drove me crazy. Russians had like stormed the plane! I was hoping we would be able to beat the sun to the time zone change, and that never happened. :P
We flew over Bangladesh, north India, maybe Nepal or China, (had dozed off by then), the many 'ISTAN's we have beyond our borders, and finally entered Russia. Moscow took eternity to be visible and then eternity seemed close, but the airport didn't! Clouds. Rain. Heavy Rain. Braving all odds, our captain landed at Domodedovo International Airport at Moscow and though we were bound to Houston by the same flight, we were supposed to get down, and board back, looking at the airport, all in an hour and a half. The airport was full of flights. Flights that were operated by carriers that I'd never, ever heard of. I was fortunate that there were a couple of them that I could atleast read! The flight taxied for a very long time till it finally stopped. My impression was that the airport would be very big. Alas, it was disappointing. The ambience. People all over shouting, talking in a language that put German to shame. It had all the world's tongue twisters in it, and it was mixed with murderous, cynical looks, mostly the types Sir Hopkins gives. Welcome to Moscow. No other airport in the world, i guess, would send "TRANSIT" passengers through a cabin baggage check, atleast not after landing. (Hell, they didn't do that in Houston!! AMERICA!!) The lady made me remove my belt and thankfully, it was limited to only my belt!
We thought of taking some pictures of these dastardly looking creatures, but what if that is also an offence there? We asked for permission (!) (I found another Houston bound Bengaluruean in the flight) and the female looked at us with such disgrace and contempt that clearly said, "What in earth's name do you mean by wanting to take a photo? You have the slightest clue where you are? You even have it in you to ask such a question? Scamper off before I put you under interrogation and have you arrested". In short, the look, was, indeed, TERRIFYING.
Without bothering to give a boarding call to passengers traveling to Houston, the boarding had started. OK! I know where I'm. No complaints! There was an interview! In a language that i could comprehend! English! American English! The guy asked me what my purpose of travel was, and why i was there and whose bag i was carrying!! (?) You could call that a Pre-Immigration Check! :D
Clear to board the flight, we went up hoping if the air-hostesses would have a same menacing look, but no! We were disappointed. The pilot announced that thunderstorms were expected in Houston, by the time we land, and we took off from Domodedovo amidst heavy rain. This route was fun. I can say with pride and great pride that no one would ever have travelled, ever, in such a 'world-tour' route. From Moscow, we went over Finland, Norway, Sweden, touched Greenland, (well, almost), over Canada, and finally the US. Houston is at the south of US, so, we travelled over most of the states and finally landed at Houston, a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule. There was moderate rain, but nothing compared to what we saw in Moscow. What I didn't know was the amount of torque people back home, in three different time zones went through, when I was watching Iron man on TV somewhere over Norway.
Thunderstorm. With my sisters, one at California and the other at Phoenix, by brother at Canberra, and my mom back home, all over their computer screens, spanning over various time zones were scanning the map of the USA, wherein a thunderstorm, a tropical thunderstorm had hit Beaumont - the place I'd go to, later in the day, from Houston, to my University, and within no time hit Houston too. I felt nothing en route, though having a window seat, i sometimes saw the wing go missing in the clouds as we came close to Texas.
Having flown over many countries that a person would probably never, in a first flight that too, I'd say that this journey was fun only during the take off and landing. The rest of the journey was a bore. I couldn't even make out that the plane was moving! Forget the speed!!
With that said, I'd get back, maybe in few days time and say how it feels to see NO people around, NO familiar sounds, and how humid and how scorching the sun here is, and how it makes me wonder as to why the sun sets at 8 in the night.
