Our first night in INDIA!

We're here! 8 AM Mumbai time Wednesday morning, 7:30 PM Tuesday night back home.
We left Abbotsford Monday morning shortly after 8AM, catching a ride with Loree's parents who were heading home to Portland. The car was packed with their bags, our bags, four people and a dog. All went well, we arrived in Seattle with lots of time for some lunch. I remembered belatedly that I was going to phone my credit card company to warn them my card would be used in India for 3 weeks. I barely completed that as we walked down the gangway to board. Loree will have to contact the bank about my debit card Tuesday as they were closed for Easter Monday. Liftoff was 2 PM.
There were lots of empty seats which was fortunate as the LCD at my assigned seat was broken. Air France has a camera mounted up front so you can get a pilot's view of takeoff and landing - very cool. The first round of drinks served were normal except champagne was also an option - how very French. :-) Shortly after that (3PM) a meal was served - my choice chicken. I guess this is the evening meal already. I can not remember the last time I had a hot meal on a plane - perhaps my last trip to India in 1986. As soon as we tookoff the plane turned north straight to Canada, arcing across north of Edmonton. One of the TV channel options is to watch the progress of the plane on a map. Within 5 hours we were almost to Greenland - that is at least what it takes to get to Toronto but this seems like it whould be a lot further. By 11:20 PM home time we landed in Paris, a hazy Tuesday morning where it is now 8:20 AM. I'm not at all impressed by this airport. We got off on the tarmac, caught a fairly lengthy shuttle bus to the(a) terminal, got off, caught another shuttle to another terminal, had to go through security again even though we had never left the secured area, and then had 90 minutes to kill in this hot and congested terminal building. I guess I have to start getting used to the hot but the congestion surprised me. It wasn't that it was really crowded, just really poor design. The public walkways were only wide enough for 3 maybe 4 people. Crazy. And is it ever expensive. I saw a bottle of Pepsi in one store for 4.5 Euros which by my calculations is CDN$6.75. Taxes extra! Boarding was getting on yet another shuttle for a much longer shuttle ride to our plane which was just sitting way out by itself. The good new was the plane we less than half full. Merv & I split up again for more space. By 11 AM we were off again. Side note - my Sony noise cancelling headphones are awesome! It cuts that plane hum to nothing and it is like sitting at home with headphones on. I must have looked like an idiot grinning away the first time I tried them - it was great! Flying time to Mumbai was just over 8 hours but then we circled for about an hour before finally landing - just 21 hours after we left Seattle. I could not help but compare it to the first time I came to India in 1959 when it was a journey of multiple weeks. Just the trip across Canada by train in those days was a week. (Actually I guess a train ride across Canada would still be a week if they did it anymore. Pathetic trains.) It's too bad I was only 4 for that original journey and have no memory of it. And of course no video - maybe some moldy slides buried in a box somewehere at Mom&Dads. Even as we sat on the tarmac edging toward the gate the air began to smell different coming in the ventilation system - smell is definitely part of the India experience. Close to midnight and the temperature has cooled down to 32C. Wow!
Koshy, Phil and James were waiting for us outside the airport and from there it was a fairly quick drive to his place for a cup of tea (yum!) and off to bed. Traffic was light, but James mentioned how the daytime driving was kinda like a thrill ride for him. Time for breakfast!