C-Flat

In the days leading up the trip, T and I went through a bunch of checklists that were crazy to say the least. The international traveler's dilemma - How much to pack? and How much is too much? As with all planned efforts of packing, I packed the night before leaving :) What? It's the best way to do it! People pack much better on instinct right?

Either way, I had a work from home day on Friday the 2nd of January so that I could get to the airport at 1 pm for my 3:15 flight. That morning it still felt surreal as I was doing last minute checks on the bags, my toiletries and travel documents. I guess it felt that way because a) I was going home after so long of just 'wanting' to go home.

I remember waking up and taking T to work that morning, then driving home and eating some breakfast. I hit the showers and started to get ready. I made sure I had all of my electronics cables for the camera, laptop and iPod in my trolley roller bag. I packed the camera into the roller bag as well since I didn't want to put it in the checked baggage.

At some point that week, KK had called and said that she was going to be in the Cities and would love to have lunch with us before I left so keeping that in mind, I called her at 10 and sure enough, KK was asleep. Which, if you know her, is nothing new! After a quick discussion on the merits of QDoba, I headed over to the Eden Prairie location and ordered lunch. I got a Naked Chicken Taco Salad, got T the same and got KK a Chicken Quesdilla with a couple of bags of chips and salsa and then headed to work.

For the uninitiated, T and I work together at the same company. She works just on the other side of the building from me so it's kinda cool that we see each other all the time ;) Although, I'm sure she'll say - "Please. I see enough of you already."

As I came into the break room, KK called for directions [as usual] and I guided her into the parking lot. When T came for lunch and we finally sat down, a couple of my co-workers saw me and were like "Aren't you supposed to be gone?" To which I replied "I'm just having lunch with my wife. I won't get to see her for a week man. Give me a break!"

We had a really nice lunch with KK and then Bhaya came to get me from work to go to the airport. Since it was an international flight and was fully booked, I thought it might be smart to get there earlier to account for the 'random' checking on the flight that I may encounter. On the drive over, Bhaya and I were just random chit chatting and playing with Nikhil who was confused at a) being out of school and b) driving with Chacha to some place he had no idea about.

As we pulled into the aiport and started to unload the bags, Nikhil got his usual 'WTF' look going. The boy gets worked up with suitcases because he thinks, bless his heart, that he's leaving again. Having been adopted, he isn't used to a change in his life easily yet. Once he saw my stuff loaded up on a cart, he then relaxed a little but was upset at the fact that I was leaving and I got no 'ummas' [kisses] while I was saying bye. As soon as I kissed his forehead and gave Bhaya a hug to go into the terminal, there was an immediate cooing from him - 'umma! umma! umma!' and I got three kisses as a goodbye. Heart wrenching let me tell you.

The check in line was short and I was checked in and in the security line within 10 minutes of being dropped off. As I snaked through the line, I pulled out my passport and green card for the TSA dude and lo and behold no 'random check' WoOt! Being an experienced traveler, I chose to forego style for comfort on this trip. I was wearing track pants, a kurta and my Keen sandals. So much for the metal detector - muahahaha! As I progressed into the shopping area of the mall, I decided to buy a travel pillow to match the blanket I had bought earlier in the week.

So after all that drama for the day, now began the hard part. I tried not to overhydrate since airplane bathrooms are the suck and I didn't know who would get stuck next to me in the aisle. I'm usually an aisle guy but I got the window in the hopes that I would be able to sleep on this leg and then stay awake from Amsterdam to quickly adjust to the timezones.

As I boarded, I saw this big guy sitting next to me and I thought to myself - 'Well shit.' However, to my pleasant surprise, I got a big smile from him and the chap in front of us and they both introduced themselves - Trond and Bruce. Yes. Trond. He's from Norway, those peeps have interesting names eh? Bruce was a pleasant chap from Manchester who, not surprisingly, was not a Manchester United fan.

We settled in and as the plane was taxiing and getting in line to take off, conversation moved towards towards Football - the real kind, not American Football. Bruce asked for some scores and we got into talking about the latest round of games etc. Trond had just gotten done visiting his girlfriend, who he met online [don't ask], and was returning home.

After takeoff and our first round of drinks/snacks, we got to talking about his work. The guy works for a Norway based oil drilling outfit based on the southwest coast of the country and they're pitching for business in the Midwest, in North Dakota of all places. A very interesting dude, he worked as a prison guard [showed] in between career changes from an accountant to doing quality control on guages and other cool stuff. Basically a really nice guy. He was kind enough to note that I had a fairly expensive camera and showed me his Canon SLR as well. As we got our nerd on, the flight was getting quieter since people were falling asleep.

We ended up working out a system where we would time bathroom breaks and watch each other's stuff since we were carrying a laptop and camera each. I ended up watching Eagle Eye on the plane and I Am Legend and Rambo on my iPod. At that point, I should have been sleeping but never managed to do so. So much for my grand idea to beat the time difference. I fell asleep for the last 3 hours of the 9 hour flight.

As the flight landed, I realized that I was maybe a tad undressed for the jetway. It was 42 degrees F outside in Amsterdam. Trond and I made our way to the food court/duty free are of Schiphol [ A shitty airport and whole another post for later. ]

We each had 3 hours between flights which after all the walking and looking for food turned into an hour and a half. We had breakfast and then just chit chatted about our work, our loved ones and our experiences. Definitely a guy who I would have a beer with. It's hard to find people who just are at peace with themselves and where they are in life you know?

As we exchanged business cards and went our seperate ways, I was very tempted to hit the showers at Schiphol airport but decided against it. Sure it's 30 dollars but I was short on time and it's a good thing too. I got to the gate and ended up in line to get checked into my flight. This time I was lucky and had the window and aisle both to myself so I just stretched out and basically slept for six hours and read for the other four. This flight was pretty uneventful except that I got into words with the desis behind me and not so politely told them to STFU.

As we were clearance to land into Bombay, I used the rest room pretty fast to avoid the rush later. The approach was smoggy at best :| Bombay's gotten more crowded as the years have gone by and it shows. I thought it was fog till I realized that there was no coverage over the water. As soon as we hit about 500 feet the stench of the city literally shot through the plane. I will be honest, I did go 'whooooaaa' in my head but trying to be a trooper.

The landing was pretty smooth and it was about 10 minutes till we got to a gate. We ended up getting a remote gate which meant buses to the terminal. Of course you know what this meant right? Every. Single. Person. on the plane stood up before it parked and the seat belt sign was turned off in the hopes to catch the first bus into immigration. I sat there and one guy looked at me like I was smoking crack and I looked back at him with a look that read somewhere between you're an idiot and you're a retard. I literally was one of the last 10 people to get off the plane and got a spot on the bus with 20 people instead of the usual 50-60 on a bus.

The drive into the terminal reinforced my opinion of goverment workers in India. Approximately twenty baggage handlers were sitting on their asses while only five were working on our luggage to get it on the conveyor belts. Figures. "It's not my job." syndrome is still rampant there. The actual immigration piece went really smooth and I was out of passport control within twenty minutes. They looked at my Green Card, my passport and stamp.. stamp.. done.

My bags took forever to get there but as soon as I got elbowed in the ribs about four times, I was able to take my bags out of customs and headed towards the exit. I saw my dad through the glass partition and after paying for the cab, I headed to greet them. I was in India. There was a week of work ahead of me but I was excited to be anywhere but the US at that time...

 Next up - Mumbai + Pune [Week 1 of trip]