I was little excited and nervous when I started off from my office at 2PM. Most of the packing was done. Finally got a taxi and reached at the RGI airport, Hyderabad after an hour. I entered through the domestic terminal though it was not off much a difference. I was waiting for Sandy, my colleague and co-traveler to San Diego in the same flight . One good thing in any airport is - finding information is never difficult. On my first visit I could get information on what all things to be done. I did my luggage weighing and made sure that these are under the limit and finally all settled. I was waiting for Emirates counters to open. Sandy arrived in time. After all the formalities, like issuing boarding pass, luggage check, security check etc, were over we went to the waiting lounge. Finally at 9.15PM, it was time to get into the flight and that was a good experience. However, the best was the city view from the sky in night. On a black canvas, there were dazzling golden and diamonds arranges in pictorial manner…The roads were more like the golden necklace with the flood lights and the housing lights were, short off, like the glittering diamonds…it was such a wonderful picturesque scenery to remember. I did try to capture in my phone camera but in futile.
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| Hyderabad - at night - from the sky |
And, after 4 hours of journey, with some good food and drinks of Emirates, we neared the skies of Dubai. it was just approaching to be the new year 2011, and we witnessed all the fireworks from the sky. That was a great moment indeed – celebrating new year on the sky. We landed on time, 11.59PM, local time. It was quite a big air port with so much of dazzling shops advertizing “duty free”. The epitome of material luxuries all around, and citizens of all over world hovering here and there. Then the tragedy stuck, and it marred the happiness we had for some time. It was a three hour wait in the airport and my flight was at 3.15am. I couldn’t find a place to seat in the waiting lounge. But me, and Sandy settled somehow. At around, 2.15 AM the countered opened for the Emirates flight to Log Angeles. But Sandy was missing, and he came back around 2.45am. We proceeded to the check-in counter. I went first and sandy was following me. After I checked in and waiting for him, but he was stuck - he missed his passport! After a lot futile search we couldn’t find it. He quickly left in search of it, or for an announcement. It was then 3.05AM, the security staff advised me to proceed, and I did that. I was desperately waiting for him to come aboard before the flight took off, and I alone had to travel my longest flight journey.
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| In Dubai Airport |
I was already feeling tired for no sleep, and this nightmare, came jostling to aggravate it. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. As I got a window seat, I looked outside, and Dubai was asleep, yet it’s roads from the sky were all active. The garlands of lighting, on the black hovering city was just amazing. The towers were all silent after those crackers and lighting were vanished into the darkness of night. For it doesn’t know if that is of a new year or not! And, there I met my co-traveler from Uganda. He was travelling back to join his classes for his under graduate studies. We conversed for some time, and found that he was a national football player, and got a scholarship for his higher studies. One peculiar thing is, all the hours, it was just night. The journey was like 24 hours of night, and I travelled through the night zone as we are moving from east to west, with 12,000KM that we travelled, with three full movies that I watched (social networking, the wall street, Udaan)and scores of song to accompany, and only a few hours of sleep… 16 hours just seating in the same position was not a very comfortable thing, but thanks to the modern innovation, they provided the best that could provide some impetus - at least to meet such requirements.
Next challenge was making sure that whatever food served is vegetarian. Thankfully, they did serve Indian dishes. And, I had to make sure that none of them had egg flavor. It was really confusing, asian-veg-mean, Indian meal etc. I took, ample amount of waters, fruits, and fruit juices. I kept an eye on my watch, to find the Indian time. So finally, it dawned before we reach into Log Angeles. By then, it was mostly traveling on the pacific, and I could see nothing but the ocean, and on the horizon the purple colored sky was yawning. It was one hour more to go, and life was back in the flight. Everyone got back, as we had to fill those immigration forms. I was told to be careful of this. And I was. Finally, we landed in time, exactly at 7.15AM at L/A. I was amazed for the punctuality. I wondered, while comparing with Indian railways, they don’t have air stations or traffic problem in airways, that could be the reason for such punctuality!
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| In Dubai Airport |
Being the new year, it was rush hour in the airport. As it was the port of entry, there was a long queue for the immigration checking. I was little worried as my next connecting flight to San Diego was at 10AM, and I had to go through, emigration and baggage checking. I was asked few question like the purpose of the visit, and then stamped on the VISA. Followed on which, I had the find my baggage, and there was no security or checking to confirm that right bags are collected by the concerned owner. I carried the luggage to inspection counter, as I did tick that I had food items. Somehow it got cleared without much ado and checking. I rushed towards the domestic terminal which is 400 mts away. I had to leave my baggage in the connecting flight counter and rushed towards American Airlines terminal. Again one more security check, which off course, is an irritating process in any air port. Though it can’t be avoided, few of those newly added process were gifted by few persons of high desire and caliber – but for so called wrong reasons! And, finally I landed in San Diego after forty minutes. I had to wait to collect my baggage there, and finally at 12.45PM San Diego time (2.15AM Indian time), I have finally arrived at my destination, with so many unanswered questions - what happened to Sandy, to his passport and his luggage?
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| The Bird's eye view of Log Angeles in an early morning |
