Monday, December 03, 2007

Gracias ! Porfavore ! Agua ! - Part 1

As I embarked on a series of flights to Caracas( Venezuela), I was just hoping that the really short trip goes well.

Since I got to sit in 6 flights in 6 days, I was hoping that my travel as well would be good and uneventful. Let me describe the whole experience !!

Flight 1 : Bangalore to Mumbai - 90 mins - short and sweet. Never really realised how quickly the time passed by !! Good starting signs !

Mumbai has two of the most remarkable airports I have seen. What strikes me about the domestic airport is that its spick and span and its huge compared to some of the other domestic airports I have had the chance to see . ( Dont even think about the Bangalore airport !!)

The international airport is a really busy one as well and the service is very good and so is the speed at which things are done . At the immigration counter, they have 40 counters and one chap who directs you to which counter you should go !! Its incredibly fast . People are done with their immigration checks within a few mins , much much much ( much cube !) faster than say Heathrow or Sydney international airport !

However, there should definitely be a glitch somewhere right ? The inter airport shuttle sucks. Too many people and they are expected to stand in long lines ( one long line ! and I dont know how they can't/didn't apply the same logic of multiple servers for a single line like the other counters !! )

High time I move onto my next flight :

Flight 2 : Alitalia carrier from Mumbai to Milan . 9 hours or so. A highly uneventful flight as I was asleep for easily around 7-8 hours of the trip. Anyways, the concept of inflight entertainment is 100 years behind the current generation airlines !! Thankfully I didn't realise this on this flight !! Milan has a more traditional airport if I may say so but definitely matches upto international standards. What strikes you are the number of shops which
have the most expensive branded showrooms ! Well it was only then did I realise that Milan is pretty much the fashion capital of the world and hence the case !

Flight 3 : Alitalia again ( as it doesn't need to have transit visas !) but this time a 10.5 hour flight to Caracas. This journey made me realise the pain of travelling ! Firstly, I had a tetanus on my back a day back which began to pain , Secondly, the entertainment system wasn't great ( I fully realised it in this flight!), Thirdly, the turbulence was really high at times which did not exactly allow the passengers to peacefully sleep. There was one occasion where the flight shook and the height lowered and people in the flight , yelled out in anguish and shock .

The look on the old Arab lady on my left pretty much summarized the thoughts in the flight !

After a long arduos journey , during the course of which I felt this flight was going on and on and on , we finally landed to a thunderous applause from all the passengers !!

A painfully long immigration check later I landed up in a five star hotel in a taxi with a guy who did not know English ! I ofcourse did not know Spanish. We concluded that we were better off without communicating !!

Tired and feeling the pain of travelling so long, I crashed after a quick dinner ! More of Venezuela and the its beauty in part 2 !

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