The trip to India and then to Mangalore

Anticipation! I'm back from the wedding, but so far I have only written up to the point of reaching Mangalore. Will continue later...

The trip thus far:

I spent the day working in Andover, MA. Somewhere in the middle, I heard my "India phone" buzz and voila! My friend Clarete had "recharged" it. That is, I have a prepaid phone with an Indian phone number which was nearly out of money, and Clarete did the magic in India to put some more money in the account. Somehow the phone system managed to find the phone in Andover to notify me. Amazing. Anyway, now we can arrange our meeting at the airport. Note to those with whom I have talked about this: Yes, I guess I have bought into using cell phones to make meeting arrangements at the last minute. Actually, it was not that bad. Clarete and husband Alol had told me that they would meet me at the airport at 6AM Saturday. But of course you can never quite tell how long it will take to get out, so I said I would text when I walked out of the airport. That way they could decide whether to park or just pull up in front.

Anyway, when I walked out of the Andover building a bit before 3PM, there was the airport shuttle van waiting for me. I was a bit nervous about leaving so late (3PM) but they assured me that was plenty of time; nonetheless, I was relieved to see it. He had another pickup, and that was more difficult...the driver thought he knew where it was, but the dispatcher kept giving him confusing directions. Eventually it turned out he was right. I was even more nervous, though because it was getting later. But...I should know a professional knows better about driving into Boston than I do...we pulled up to terminal E in PLENTY of time. (It was like 3:45, and the flight was at 6:10). There was zero line at the airline counter. There was a long line at security (lots of other flights leaving earlier than mine), but they really moved it right along. Say what you like about the TSA, they did a nice job. They were curteous, they are not (to me) intrusive, etc. No the full body scan was not in evidence, but no, they also did not pat me down. I emptied everything in my pockets and was Mr. Cooperative. It was just not a problem.

This time, since I'm going on my own, I also am freed from my company's restrictions. In some ways I can save more money (it seems), in other ways I am free to spend more. I chose to spend more and to go on British Airways rather than Lufthansa and to take their "economy plus" class. Their planes have 4 classes (economy, e+, business, and first). e+ is a bit more expensive, but there is enough room between rows so you don't feel claustrophobic, and there is a place to put my legs and feet. What I did not realize is that it is also very close to the door, so I was on last/off first. It was comfortable, but not decadent, which I like. I was on the aisle in the center section, so I got up a few times for the people in the middle to get out, but no big deal. The cabin is quite small, so there was plenty of room in the overhead bins. Since I could get my stuff easily, I decided not to put anything under my seat. That gave me a more legroom and was pretty nice.

This time I remembered all the food that they ply you with on these flights, so went on board hungary. Turned out to be a good move. We got both dinner (lasagna) and breakfast (...don't remember) within a couple hours of each other. This might be a good time to mention a habit I have gotten into that my family will think is totally weird (for me). When I have breakfast on a plane, most of the time, I drink black tea, not coffee. (Usually I tell people that tea seems like dirty water to me...) I guess usually the airplane coffee is terrible, and maybe I have sometimes eaten too much, and somehow black tea just seems like a better choice.

In London, I made my way into terminal 5 through all of the twisty turnys, the somewhat incomprehensible security (see earlier comments) and finally into the huge holding pen, ah waiting terminal. I had something like 6 or 8 hours to wait, so I got some real coffee (Starbucks, Gary!) and sat around. There is a place in this terminal that is pretty far from the crowds which has slightly more comfortable chairs and even places to put your feet up a bit. I went there, set my alarm, and read/dozed for a while till it was time to go back.

On the flight to Bangalore, I was sitting in that same e+ cabin and my seatmate was a man originally from India who was a US citizen. He lives around Washington DC and runs a scrap metal recycling business (maybe construction too?) Anyway, I told me how much business he gets from the US Government (he classifies as a minority owned business) and how many senators and congress people he knows. Interesting...I'm not completely sure how much to believe...he had a few scotches under his belt and seemed like a person who *could* exagerate a bit. He told me I should give him a call from Bangalore and he would put me in touch with "good people" there. What good people? Government ministry officials, ones you could trust, etc etc. I thanked him non-committally. Luckily he forgot to give me his card :-) I don't really know what this was all about...probably a combo of being a nice guy and a show-off. But I never would have made any of those call...who knows what it might have been. Anyway, he seems to have an interesting life story; I'm sure I did not get it all because he was very hard to understand (and I'm pretty good with a lot of Indian accents). He comes from a rural place in Karnataka south of Bangalore and north of Mysore. He grew up as a farmer, one of 12 kids. Now you know that dividing a farm 12 ways just does not work. So his father, who was uneducated, made sure that his kids got an education. (Here things are a little hazy since this guy also says he is uneducated). Anyway, his brother is a doctor in the US, and that gave him a way to emigrate. He worked for a scrap company loading car batteries, he says, and now he owns the company. Also became a citizen. Typical "American" success story.

This flight was really pretty ok. I think I must have slept quite a lot because it did not seem very long. Our route this time went over Lebanon as I recall, but missed Iran/Iraq. We went across the Saudi boot and over the Arabian Sea at Muskat, I think. (Need to look at a map) and then onto the Indian subcontinent around Mangalore (let me out! That's where I'm going!) and landed without incident at the new Bangalore International Airport. Going through immigration I had a slightly scary incident. Or it could have been except that the immigration officer was subtly helpful. I have a 10-year visa to go to India, so I did not think much about it. I also don't find it generally a good policy to lie on official forms, and yet they are never quite able to cover the circumstances. You just need to know that magic (but still truthful) word. What did not occur to me is that I had a business visa, and on the landing card I had marked that I was doing tourism and visiting friends (perfectly truthful). Of course, I am going to work while I am here, but I was not sent here for that purpose. I also know that "working" is a trigger word; it means you are trying to get an Indian job and you need yet more paperwork for that. So the immigration officer looked at me and the landing card and the visa and said, "What company do you work for". I told him. So you are here for business? No, I am mainly here going to a wedding. But you are here for business too? Well, I'm going to go into the office for a while. You have a business visa! (Ah! Light dawns!) Yes, I am here for business too! OUt comes the stamp, and I'm through in seconds after determining the correct magic word. The officer was really pretty helpful in "leading me" to say the right thing.

Even after that delay, I had to wait for a while for my bag to arrive, but when it did I went out through customs (Wait a second sir...you have to fill in this form...a little scrap of paper that the immigration officer had put into my passport). And then I'M IN! I immediately headed for...Cafe Coffee Day to get some good coffee. Then outside, text to Clarete, exchange of phone calls. We agreed where to meet, and then there they are! It was wonderful to see them again! The nice thing about friends is the shared experiences, and knowing each other well enough to joke around a little. She joked a bit about the size (small) of my suitecase (referring to the time that I picked her up at Logan and were were barely able to fit her suitcase in my car). Alol and I talked about ham radio (we both had been thinking for a long time about getting a license) and baseball and cricket. And of course work.

Alol and Clarete (hereinafter C&A or A&C) took me to their home so I could take a shower and get a little rest and repack my suitcase a little. We decided that my wedding gift was better given at the reception in Bangalore rather than the wedding, so I left it at their house, giving me a bit more space). Clarete made a delicious breakfast. I have to ask her the name...the main thing was a dish made of noodles (really more like short pieces of pasta) stir fried with peppers, onions, and other delicious spices. She had also made some cake. Yum!

Then back to the car for the trip to Mangalore. It is, I think, around 300Kms, but they expected it to take about 8 hours. Alol wanted to leave by 10 in order to cross "the ghats" while it was light. What the heck are the ghats, I asked? Turns out it is a word used mainly in India with several different meangings, but in this case, it means the mountains between the Deccan plateau (where Bangalore is and which extends through a lot of south central India and the coast. The D.P. is at about 3000 feet (which is why Bangalore is not as miserably hot and humid as you might expect for the lattitude) and of course the coast is at 0 feet. Wow...what a trip. I think I have mentioned long-distance travel in past years and this is no exception. Rather than send you back, I'll say that most roads are multi-use in India. They have cars, buses, trucks, auto-rickshaws, sometimes bullock carts, etc all sharing the road and going at their own speed. When there are only two lanes or less, you can imagine there is a lot of passing, and if you have never been in a car passing a huge truck on one side and seeing a giant truck bearing down on you, I don't recommended it. If you must to so, I recommend blind trust in the driver. So now add switchback down 3000 feet of mountain, and you can see the excitement. Plus this road was being "4-laned"--expanded to 4 lanes--so there was constant construction. They tend not to give miles of warning of a "diversion" (detour)...they just do it.

Anyway, we got there and I was taken to the GOldfinch Hotel in Mangalore. It was perfectly good, and I slept very well, woke up refreshed and ready to go...