to IXE

12:00 AM: The Boeing 747 jet swooned low over the city, right by the roads and the apartments, and there was a difference, yea it was the lack of skyscrapers unlike most of the US cities and international stopovers. There we were at Bangalore 'international' airport.

Disembarkation was a short smart process. Once outside of the immigration zone, you get a true feeling of being in India. Haphazard crowds waiting for their baggage, no indication whatsoever of which one of the conveyor belts we needed to be at, when we did find the right conveyor belt for our baggage, we were pointed to a few pieces of luggage strewn over the floor near the belt, don't know how it ended up on the floor... After a long wait for the luggage… yea the bags did travel long from IAH to FRA and then to BLR! and amidst the typical Indian scenes of an official on the conveyor belt and after testing my kannada with the porters who seemed to think I wouldn't be able to push around a trolley with my luggage on, it was to the customs, just walked right through.

Based on advice which turned out to be invaluable, I decided to wait out 6 of those 8 hours in the sitting area within the departure terminal itself. An 8 hour wait for a 30 minute flight! With my Toshiba gigabeat and its excellent battery life and Mary Jane Clark's 'Hide yourself away' to keep me company I still can't say the 8 hours felt like 2 hours!!

It is a virtual pounding once outside the departure terminal, 'Taxi, Madam'...'Auto, Madam' I wonder at the sanity of that statement, would I have been able to fit my entire luggage into an auto?

The domestic terminal is okay, almost good…anyway my flight was advanced by half an hour and I had to check the additional luggage in!, Indian flight standards… allowing only one handbag!

We had to walk to the airline… I've always loved walking to the plane, triggering memories of all the times as kids when we walked to the board the flight at bajpe.

Jet Airways, BLR- IXE : Despite us boarding on time, we ended up waiting on the runway as a number of flights were queued up to take off. A drink and breakfast later, that's all this short flight has time for, we could see the familiar plains of Mangalore... The landing awesome as always, amidst the elevation almost as if into a gorge... Jet Airways, no complains almost always...

Mangalore international airport, yes, in this one year it has been elevated to international status and the signage looked welcoming.

03/28/07 3:25 PM CST to 03/30/07 9:30 AM IST
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