12th August, 2012 – Day 1 – Part A

The cab dropped the 4 of us at the airport- me, Chitaranjan, Mithun and Rashmi- by around 3:30 AM. We were pretty sure we had exceeded the baggage limit and hence we had asked Mithun and Rashmi to stay back till we give the green signal. The cabwala, pretty sure of not managing to get any other business at that time of day (or do we call it night) and hence agreed to wait, somewhat indefinitely, free of charge (assuming he did not demand more on the way back! We made our way to the departures terminal. We did a mock-farewell, over a round of chai from a local vendor, as I was pretty confident that we would anyways be coming back to hand over the excess baggage. To that effect, I had even taken along an empty bag to stuff in the extras once I was turned away from the check-in counter. Rashmi, as is now quickly becoming a tradition (that I like), handed us both a bar of Snickers J Chitaranjan opened his there itself and we all shared it. I was sure I would be hungry quite soon, so held onto mine ;) I took out my wallet and saw that I had only around Rs. 400 on me, so I took out 300 and asked Chitaranjan to remove another 400 so as to pay the cab fare. So just for the record (as we shall come to these figures again ;), I was left with something like Rs. 140 on me (counting all the change) and Chitaranjan had another few hundereds. So basically we were traveling to a foreign country with around Rs.500 between the two of us. My mom would have kicked me if I had told her :p Well yes, we were not too worried because we did have some dollars that Sir had passed on to us for getting some stuff he wanted. We could always eat into that and then replenish it once our stock arrived… or so we thought J

This was Chitaranjans first trip abroad and hence I assume he was even more excited. But the sight of the international departures terminal was a downer for him, with people hanging about like at Kurla terminus, here and there and some even sleeping with makeshift pillows. We finally decided to move in and with all our luggage loaded onto trolleys. Chitaranjan was worried about not getting Indian food there and hence had got along quite a bit of rice, poha and other stuff. I on the other hand had no plans to eat anything Indian for quite some time ;) Our journey was split into two legs – Mumbai to Kuwait and then Kuwait to London – both on Kuwait Airways (as it was quite cheaper to the rest – interestingly Air India also had roughly the same price but with their repo in recent times, we didn’t bother to entertain it, and what can one say, the Air India flight on that day did get cancelled! :p) We were told of a check-in baggage limit of 20kg (I had always seen 23kg before) plus hand baggage and laptop bag. During my trip to Korea, again being overweight (both me and my baggage ;), I had stuffed quite a bit of clothes into my laptop bag as well :p … frankly I didn’t have any other option with 3/4^th of my bag being full of Indian spices, masala and other stuff to take over.

We moved over to the Kuwait Airways counter. There was a short queue so we waited. Finally both of us got called to two separate counters. I, nervously, picked up my baggage in one quick swing (trying to make it look effortless so that they didn’t realize it’s too heavy;  as if they didn’t have a weighing scale, but yeah that’s some of the stupid things one does when guilty! ;). I put it down on the conveyor belt and waited for the weighing scale to stabilize. Ah… it was only 21.6 kgs! J I was so sure it was going to go way over. I plastered a nice warm smile hoping she didn’t comment about the excess 1.6kgs; airlines seldom do for small exceeds but you never know when one of the attendants is having a bad day and decide to take it out on you! She went about doing some entry on the machine. I was relieved when she finally handed over my tickets and wished me a pleasant journey. I pushed the trolley back, with my hand luggage and laptop loaded on, to the back and waited for Chitaranjan. He took some more time and when he did finally appear he only had his laptop bag with him. In confusion, he accidentally checked-in his hand luggage as well which had all his official documents – except the ticket and passport obviously. We both had managed to get window seats for the second, and longer, leg of the journey. I asked him to wait with the trolley while I went back and handed over the empty bag to our friends waiting outside. I am sure they were as surprised as me when I passed on the bag with nothing inside. Last time around Mithun had to take back something like 7-8kgs worth of stuff. We bid bye with a final round of farewells.

I rejoined Chitaranjan and both of us moved ahead towards Gate #3 (if I recollect right). On our way we came across several foreign currency exchange centres. We approached the first one we saw, Thomas Cook. The conversion rates was showing something like Rs. 95 per pound or so. We were totally confused. Just before leaving it was hovering somewhere around 85-86,what happened during our cab ride ;) hehe … jokes apart, it didn’t seem worthwhile to exchange it there. We had a look at a few other forex centres and they were no better. We decided that as it was not too much of an emergency we shall let it be, and if need be get some dollars converted later.

We reached the immigration check where there was a long queue, despite having 6-7 counters working. Finally we got to the front and were assigned to a counter. One after another, counters started closing to our left and right. The queue by now had disappeared and for some reason our counter was at a standstill. Murphy’s law at work? Maybe. It seems an African guy, Nigerian if I start stereotyping, had got into some trouble there. From what he said to the officer and seeing the ticket in his hand, his flight was due in 15-20 mins; I wonder whether he finally made it or not. After a long wait, we finally got our things checked and passed through.

We proceeded towards Gate #3, passing several food stalls, all teasingly tempting us.  We reached our gate and with loads of time in hand we decided to please our taste buds. Samosas for Rs.120 and VadaPavs for Rs.80 left a bad taste in the mouth, without even tasting them, and so we left. Chitaranjan decided to wait with the baggage at the lounge and I took the opportunity to roam around, I accept looking for quick cheap bite – yes that’s me with Rs. 140 left in the pocket J

I roam around and don’t find anything too pleasing. A few of the more appealing ones, though heavy on the wallet under present circumstances, were just closing down. That actually helped in not having to convince myself to move on. I came across a counter which was selling International sim cards. That was certainly something we needed! And the best part was it was free! Plus already having some talktime preloaded and with call rates to India as low as 1p/min! That’s better than some local call rates here! We just needed to show our passport and boarding tickets, that’s it. I asked for a sim card for UK. He said that we would have to go to the other counter for UK sims and directed me towards it. I went there and after some searching he apologetically informed that they had run out of stock on UK sims and asked me to inquire at the earlier counter. The offer being too good I decided to ask, if by the odd chance, they had one hidden somewhere. But no luck there as well. Anyways not a big deal, certainly should be easy to get one once we reach; maybe at the airport itself with some better offers possibly. I did loiter around a few more food stalls, checking out the rate cards before deciding against it. On the way back I was passing by another waiting lounge where I spotted a kinda expensive Nokia mobile lying on one of the seats with no one around anywhere nearby. I saw a couple of people look at me and I pointed at the mobile, asking whether they had any idea. I decided against picking it up; safer option is most circumstances. But obviously didn’t think it would return to the owner if I left it there. There was no security guard or staff anywhere in sight whom I could approach. I saw that a line had been formed for boarding one of the flights. It seemed most likely that it would belong to one of them. I went upto the airline official who was managing the queue and informed him of the mobile. He seemed a bit reluctant, amidst his work, but said that the most he can do is to inform the guard via intercom. I told him that he should. I walked off a distance, just to ensure that he didn’t have me babysitting the mobile but all the while keeping an eye on it and the official. Finally I saw him inform the guards about it and soon one of the airline officials came along and collected it. I felt my moral obligation ended there. During my whole roaming around, from time to time I could hear announcements and people with intercoms running to and fro searching for Mr. Khan (naah not one from Bollywood :p) who was already quite late for boarding his flight. I wondered whether the airlines actually do that for each passenger who fails to show up on time. I decided against taking it and quickly walked back to my lounge. Oh I forgot to mention, I did have a look around for ATM machines – one reason being able to afford one of the numerous dishes being displayed and secondly, it seemed a good idea to carry some cash while going abroad ;) Rs. 140 was something I was also starting to feel ashamed about :p But there were none on that floor and so my wallet remained light.

Soon we were allowed to make our way into the aircraft. We got in and first saw the nice comfy seats, obviously business class. Further down, behind a curtain, we reached the aam aadmi ka section (what Shashi Tharoor famously called cattle class J). Yupp there was just enough space for me to manoeuvre towards my seat. As always I went about going through all the magazines and papers that they provide; it is more of a compulsive disorder than anything else. The flight took off after some time. I tried on the headset and connected it into the socket. The display screens were so damn small… I bet my mobile was just slightly smaller. And once it came on, there was no doubt, my mobile was way better! They had some 7-8 channels, of which around 2 of them were operational, of which one showed me the altitude and temperature and the route the flight would take. As if I was really bothered where it decided to take a turn or go up or down – as long as it wasn’t too way up, but then that they would anyways not be putting up for display.  I put it back down and went about reading a book that I had borrowed from my 14-year old nephew – Diary of a Wimpy Kid, in case you haven’t heard of it, do catch the movie it’s a fun watch. My mind soon drifted towards the food that would be served soon :p That’s one of the highlights for me when travelling via air. On trains you have vendors who bring stuff and you decide whether to buy that or not or wait for something else. But in flight, the food seems free (as you have already royally shelled out money for it!) as you don’t have to make any (further) payment, and more importantly, you don’t have to choose what you will have. So it feels something like being a food critic and they brining you some stuff which you shall taste and comment upon (obviously to yourself and in this case to Chitaranjan later ;). So alaa… after some time they start distributing it. I wait for them to approach my row, hoping for them to move faster. And once they approach close you start to look around, continue reading the book, etc and not make it too obvious that you are maniac. At long last they reach my seat and ask me veg/non-veg. What a stupid question, I tell myself, and more politely ask for the meaty version. I go about unwrapping everything. Even fruits seem so exciting when they are nicely packed and presented hehe. But the main course was horrible! I am sure my mess food, at times, was better than that :p hehe (for the record, hostel 8 mess food has gone down – atleast that’s what I hear, I hardly eat there anymore :p). But this was bad! Trust me Air India was way better. They have better food, though Indian style whereas I generally prefer to try different stuff, and also the entertainment system is incomparably better (Kuwait Airlines has really lowered the bar for me!). But obviously I did finish off every last morsel on the plate. They offered juices; I went for orange. The tray, as always, had sachets for milk and sugar. I have always wondered whether it is not weird to have cold juices/soft drinks followed immediately by a hot tea or coffee, and who might actually do so. Anyways as it was provided I didn’t want to disappoint them, so I followed up the juice with a cup of coffee. I wondered whether they would let me have one more glass of juice, I did manage to get it on Air Indian before. I was a bit hesitant to ask lest I be turned down and made to appear a hungry jerk. I was quite sleepy from the long long days (virtually non-existent nights) in the build-up to this trip. I dozed in an out of sleep several times. Finally a after a few hours, we were to land in Kuwait. To be continued… J