I had wanted to visit Andy in Thailand ever since he went there to work just over 2 yrs ago. Finally it was beginning to look like I could afford it for a couple of weeks. I had tentatively earmarked a fortnight in Nov, when my luck began to change rapidly. The first thing was work, took off madly. It meant that taking time off in Nov or Dec would not be possible, so I began to look at Jan. With the work, it would mean I could definitely afford it. Then an amazing stoke of luck involving auctioning something a friend was throwing out brought in enough income to double my holiday fund. I decided to spend longer in Thailand, and to go even further to Australia and New Zealand where I had friends and relatives.
Finally Dec 30th arrived, departure date. Work and Christmas meant I hadnt had time to work myself up into a panic attack of excitement. Half an hour before the taxi came to take me to Heathrow James and I were still doing a repack of my case to shed weight that would put me over allowance. Somehow we lost another 5 kgs and everything was fine. I had gone to town buying gifts, which was a mistake but we didnt have to sacrifice them.
My Air India flight via New Dehli was delayed by over an hour, but it didnt seem to matter to me, excitement was setting in and I was on my way. Unfortunately the plane was packed, and I had a screaming child in front of me clearly distressed about the ear discomfort she had. I had to feel sorry for her. The one thing that was really worrying me was that the last time I flew was 2 1/2 yrs earlier on a trip back from Spain. (This trip had been extended by 10 days due to a volcano with an unpronounceable name in Iceland closing EU airspace with fallout ash. Totally irrelevant to this story!) On that trip both my eardrums ruptured and permanently damaged my already compromised ears. I had been banned from flying by the hospital until late summer of 2012 as a result.
I was sat next to a distinguished looking Sikh gent who didnt have a word of English to his name, so didnt have a conversation companion. He did however, feel free to help himself to my wet wipes anytime he wanted to freshen up!! Another distinguished person on the flight (in first class tho') looked a lot like Noel Feilding, with 2 female companions one of which might have passed for Courtney Love. I thoroughly enjoyed my inflight meal of Chicken tikka massala, but I had to wonder if 80% of the flight found it a little disappointing as they were all sub continental ethnicity. The tea they served was truly wonderful - Brit style, well brewed with milk. Theres nothing like a cuppa English tea, unless of course its Indian.
After about 8 hrs I found that New Dehli transit arrangements were a shambles. We had made up the lost time and arrived on time. This meant we had 2 hrs 5 mins to get the connection. It wasnt enough, and they had to delay the departure 40 mins to get us all on. We got off the inbound flight and instead of being directed to the transit area, had to wait until the plane was empty and we were then escorted to the transit area where we had to queue to go through security again. Everyone went through the inductive loop gateway, was patted down and scanned with a had held device. Ladies had to go into a tent for this, men were done in the open, such is the delicacy of such things in India. Personally I would not have minded being patted down in full view of everyone to have speeded up the procedure. So several hundred passengers arrived at security at the same time for this. had we been allowed to make our own way the 500 yards along the walkways from arrival point to security rather than going in one mass, we could have saved at least 15 mins, probably longer.
Visibility was poor across the tarmac due to fog, so I cant comment on anything I saw of India.
Once on board the flight went well. I again enjoyed my meal - vegetarian rice with dahl this time, and settled down to snooze. We made up lost time and 3 1/2 hrs later touched down bang on time. I had arrived in Bangkok on New Years Even 2012 at 7.33pm.
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