lOOney dOOdle » Travel

The first Trans-Atlantic Voyage.

lOOney dOOdle — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:08:49 +0000

It was totally crazy. The shortest interview ever after the longest waiting time for an interview ever. Literally flying in to the city to pay for the interview on time only to find that the flight was late. The kind bank manager who not only accepted the fee late, but also somehow got it processed very quickly. Getting my finances ready in 2 days time. Booking a ticket in the mean time, taking a huge gamble. Getting all the shopping and packing done in 1 day.

And BAM!!! There we were at the airport, 6 kilo above the weight allowed. i was in quiet a fix when my family came through with a friend of ours – the head of International Cargo Operations at the airport. So, i got the 6kg excess for free and then a business class upgrade for the first half of my trip. Now that was sheer dumb luck!!!

A luxurious first leg from chennai to dubai in business class and a not so comfortable leg from Dubai to New York (I got to see the A380 parked right next to my aircraft in Dubai though). There i was sitting in JFK waiting for Ashwin and Danny to come pick me up. 2 hours and they were still in the subway apparently and i was in a fix cause i had to be in the univ in an hour to attend a mandatory session. So i took the taxi Forgot i didn’t have a key, then lugged my luggage along to the univ. Registered myself for classes and got the guys to come back around 6 in the evening to take me back home.

That is the story of my first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Loved it though. Absolutely great!!!

The great showdown with Air India

lOOney dOOdle — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:45:23 +0000

So i had to go to chennai as soon as possible today to pay my visa fees. Right after i came down from kodaikkanal early this morning, i did a quick search for the earliest flight to chennai and there it was, the airline with whom my flying began about 10 years ago. Little did i know that this was the last time i would be flying with them, to say the least.

For starters, the website does not work on anything other than Internet Explorer, all you firefox and opera lovers out there beware (not to forget the mac users, man!!! You guys have no chance at all. And yes i will convert to the mac in about a week). And then , if you do manage to go through the initial few steps you get to select the meal, like Ford said “I will give you a car of any color as long as it is black (Or something along those lines)” Indian Airlines says “You can select any meal type but we will give you only vegetarian (A bland mix of so called chapattis, some ‘fried’ rice, two ‘curries’ on either side of the rice, the salad – ‘ a mix of carrot, lettuce, capsicum and ONE , yeah ONE grapefruit’, but i will give it to them the mango pudding was good). What really told the passengers that AI is running out of money is that they replaced their logo engraved silverware with plastic spoons of some unheard of manufacturing company. And before i forget, those two tiny bottles of water.

So the flight which was supposed to depart at 13 40 hours, landed at the airport at 14 50 hours, immediately followed by the 14 30 (departure) paramount airways in a couple of minutes. It took the AI crew about 20 minutes to clear the Airbus A320 off the passengers and their luggage. In the mean time, the highly efficient crew and ground staff of the Paramount Airlines had completed their work. Those people got to board the flight before us too. And yes, they took off before we did. We left at 14 15 hours.

About a few minutes into the flight, the food came in (read bland stuff). When people asked for their choice of food, all they got was an indifferent “We have only vegetarian food on this route” and they just walked away. When a passenger confronted them all they said was that they would drop in a suggestion at the office and yeah, they walk away again. The older flight attendants showed even more attitude (read “They act as if they own the airplane”).

Only one thing they said was correct. They landed at Chennai airport in exactly one hour after we took off. After they did land, well the pilot got the GREATEST surprise of his life!!!! NO PARKING SPACE. So after two full laps around the airport and passing through the runway twice and waiting right behind an airplane to let it take off before the runway cleared for us to taxi across, we finally came to a stop. 15 mins after landing at the airport, we were still sitting in the place taxing around. At last, we walked out the airport at 16 00 hours (about an hour and a half late).

Mr. Biswas trying to cool himself down using a newspaper inside Air-India's Airbus A320 (IC 672)

Bottomline, You will find yourself doing what Mr. Biswas (a fellow passenger) did if you travel with AI. Yeah, use the newspaper for ventilation. For a more graphic explanation look at the photograph above.

To sum it up, i am going to rate the airline out of ten in the following categories

AIRPLANE – 6 / 10
CREW – 2 / 10
CLEANLINESS – 7 / 10
FLIGHT EXPERIENCE – -1 / 10 (yes that is a negative)
AIRLINE PERFORMANCE – 2 / 10

To sum it up - 16 / 50
Bottom line – This airline does not deserve the 2 star rating it has got from the official rating club. This is the last time i am flying with AI (What about you ??? ).

Singapora!!! Part 2 – Day 0

lOOney dOOdle — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:24:28 +0000

After a lot of speculation and a lot of time waiting for Gana to receive his passport, we were all set to apply for our visa.

A WEEK BEFORE WE HAD TO FLY

In the mean time, we were busy taking care of other details. Speculating about the time we would spend there and the cash we would be carrying and the general rants and raves. It turned out we couldnt get the malaysian visa here. TOO BAD. Cause of Gana’s Passport coming in late and me misplacing the visa photos and the general traffic situation in chennai.

Well, there we were in college. Completely oblivious to the fact that we were going to be flying to Singapore later that night. It was like any other day in college, nothing special. Except a couple of leers from Kulla Karthi and a lot smiles and half a dozen teachers not being allowed to teach at our expense. Nothing out of the ordinary.

On we went to the airport that night and through the baggage check, we were 5 kilos over the limit. Off came the coat and on it went on me. Gana reshuffled some of his luggage and voila, we were just 3 kilos over. The good guy behind the counter decided to overlook the extra. Turned out only half the flight was full. After the busy immigration and the security checks and double checking if TIGER AIR really did exist, well our fears were out to rest on seeing the Airbus A3xx standing proudly on the tarmac. Ah, BLISS!!!

After taking in the Airbus and calling up my mom and confirming that the airline existed, we prepare for the long journey ahead. A security check later, we were walking down the ramp to the plane. We walk in to find cute lookin hostesses who gracefully help us to our seat. After helping a couple of people with their luggage, we settle down in your seats. A little cramped but we found the best position within seconds and started looking at each other and everyone else. At last the doors shut and the briefing began. The usual stuff about seat belts and life jackets.

They told us to switch off phone and electrical stuff saying it would interfere with their communications. I knew for a fact that it wouldn’t so we did not bother. In fact we were talking away and clicking away during the take off. Gana was a little apprehensive cause this was his first flight. I love the feeling you get when the flight accelerates to take off . And take off we did.

Singapora!!! – Part 1

lOOney dOOdle — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:15:14 +0000

One fine day, ganesh calls me and says, “Machan, paper selected da , Athuvum moonu conference la !!!” and immediately we do the oohing and aahhing gig (Well, not exactly). We were in cloud number nine faced with a dilemna , WHERE SHOULD WE GO?

a) Moscow

b) Singapore

c) (I forgot)

d) Dont go.

we thought and thought and thought and then thought some more, finally, Singapore it was (Moscow turned out to be toooo expensive). So the options became :

a) Moscow

b) Singapore

c) (I forgot)

d) Dont go.

That was november 2008, we went to college the next day and found out every single detail about how to get the sponsorship at college. Must have spoken to atleast 20 – 25 teachers about it, not to mention the seniors we called up . Turned out ours was the only international paper accepted to be presented in this year, Oh La La!!!

After a month of toiling around , running back and forth between the HOD, the review panel and the principal, we finally got them to accept sponsorship for one person.

So there we were, January 2009 – with 50,000 INR from college as funding.

Two weeks ago we realized we had a problem, a small one actually… Ganesh did not have a passport.

Yeah, you read it right, GANESH DID NOT HAVE A PASSPORT!!!