The Adventure Begins Anew – Part 2 The Flight

At the airport gate.  It’s always interesting watching people at the airport gate.  One man who I saw at the security checkpoint sat next to me and commented on the book I was reading.  I thought he had been with this rich lady who the minute she got through the checkpoint went to look at $100 purses “in case she saw one she liked.”  After that quick conversation the plane started to board. “Families with young children” was called and I laughed internally as nearly everyone who stood.  Anyone over the age of 50 went seeking attendants to bring them wheelchairs.  I’ve never seen so many people in wheelchairs before, especially since I observed that they were mostly all walking around just fine before boarding!

On the plane, my seat had been taken by one of these wheelchair couples. He was sitting in my aisle seat and she was in the middle.  He asked if I could take the window seat and I said emphatically, No.  He tried to say that they were a couple, which didn’t make any sense to me, but I still held out.  That was the seat I had reserved and for good reason too. I was not going to sit for 15 hours next to the window!

We landed in Dubai which reminds me of Las Vegas. I got on a train to head for platform B. On the train I observed a woman with a small child and a young boy.  She hit her head with the butt of her hand; her other young son had failed to follow along with all of them and so had been left behind. She asked how to get back and was told to get back on the train and it would return to the platform.  I hoped she found her son alright. I waited around to see if a second train might come with the boy alone on it, but there was only one train that moved back and forth between the two platforms.

At this airport they have shopping carts which do double duty as luggage carts. Everyone takes one to put their luggage in them and they are free to use (unlike the $5 charge in San Francisco). With 144 dhirans in my pocket, left over from my last trip, I proceeded to start shopping like everyone else.  There are only 2 things I actually buy, chocolates and movies. I didn’t see any Hindi films I wanted, so I purchased some duty free chocolate since I couldn’t take more in my luggage. After the little bit of shopping it was time to board the plane.  I had forgotten that I had used some frequent flyer miles to upgrade to business class.

What a difference from economy. I had plenty of space in the overhead bin for my luggage. I had a bigger screen tv, not that I needed that. The best part was the reclining seat.  I could stretch out and lay completely horizontal.  My meals were brought to me by an attendant who gave me his name and used my name.  He put a table cloth on my tray, took my dinner order, and refilled my water (they were giving out free alcohol too, but I didn’t take any) as much as I wanted. While the special treatment was nice, the bed seat was really the only important part and while I’ll use frequent flyer miles to upgrade anytime, I just can see paying those prices for business or first class tickets!

The plane landed in New Delhi at 2:45 am. The international airport is nice and I would have stuck around longer, but I had to get my bags. Once I got my bags, then I was forced out of the airport. I found a shuttle bus to the domestic airport. Here is where I waited in a hard plastic chair for about 7 hours before I could enter the domestic airport. After a hassle with baggage (I had to nearly pay for a second plane ticket to cover the cost of excess baggage), I sat down to wait for my plane to Patna. I tried filling up my water bottle at the drinking fountain, only to realize that unlike Dubai which had signs saying their water was filtered and sterilized, I probably shouldn’t drink the water here. 

This long wait and hassle with baggage almost made me wish not to visit here ever again. But the man in the fez must have truly given me some blessings, because the minute the plane set down in Patna, Bihar, I knew in my heart that I had arrived to the India that I have come to love.