After working Friday morning Michelle picked me up at work and we stopped by the mall for some lunch and to look for an additional gift for the co-workers that I would be meeting in India in a couple of days. Lunch was Pei Wei and they actually nailed it this time — much better than what I had on my birthday for lunch just a week or two before. Quickly got back to the house to pack, clumsily tripping on the last step to the front door and slamming my shoulder into the wall of our home. Was legitimately worried I broke or cracked something, it really hurt. Spent the next hour or so packing. Addison came in from school just before we were to leave and opted to go to the airport with us and helped carry my luggage too — very nice to have him help and come along!
After a sad farewell to Michelle and Addison (I’d already said farewell to Genetta the day prior) I checked in, got my boarding passes, and checked my lone bag through to Pune. Security went fast and I hung out at the airport for the hour or two before my 6:05p flight to London, picking up a book about the Plantagenet dynasty of England (roughly 1100 – 1450). The flight to London, on American Airlines, was functional — no real surprises. It was a 767 so a bit smaller as far as planes go, but I had a exit row seat so that was super nice. While they did show two dud movies (“Fantastic Four” and “Annie” — both reboots) I was lucky that the lady across the aisle was watching “The Martian” on her laptop. Since I had seen it I didn’t need to hear it, thankfully. It was so funny when towards the end there’s this really tense part and she did this kind of moaning startled wail, waking up the people around her. It is a great movie, though. Didn’t get any sleep to speak of other than just nodding off. The guy next to me was very quiet and didn’t speak a word. The captain, however, did speak in a very distinct Boston accent and was even named O’something-or-other. We cruised at nearly 40,000 feet and had an airspeed of just north of 600mph. Humanity sure can do some amazing things.
Landed at Heathrow just past 6a. Took a few touristy pictures of a billboard with a Beefeater, gotta do that! They color code the path they want people doing various things (connecting flights, luggage claim, customs, etc.) so I followed the purple signs to get from Heathrow Terminal 3 to 4. Even the nice helper ladies wore purple blazers. Bought a couple of magnets and headed to the gate. Wasn’t able to find a place to change money, however. Near the gate was an observation deck two stories up that gave a nice view of the dawn sky, old-timey radar tower, and the planes bustling about the airport. Man, I want to go back to London / UK so bad.
Welcome to Heathrow
Heathrow at dawn
So many airlines you don’t see at home!
Tail of Etihad’s Airbus A380, my transport to Abu Dhabi — a double decker!
Flight on Etihad from London to Abu Dhabi left about 10a or so. Wow. That airline is amazing. I saw before I left that it was rated fourth best this year worldwide and it is easy to see why. Etihad is the official airline of the United Arab Emirates, the country of which Abu Dhabi is one kingdom, Dubai being the other well-known one. The stewards and stewardesses were all immaculately dressed and from all over the world, the plane (an Airbus A380 — think 747/787 — double decker) was HUGE (in a three-four-three seat configuration, at least in steerage). The jet way to get on the plane even split in two ways — one up to board the upper deck and one down for the rest of us. There was some amazing Arabian instrumental music playing (it legitimately felt like I was playing Diablo 2 Act II) and even the seat belts were folded crossed over each end just so. I had an amazing bulkhead seat and, since I had no seat in front of me, my screen was on an arm that folded out of the seat.
And what a screen it was! I could see exactly where the plane was, its pitch and yaw, etc., air and equivalent ground speed, altitude. They even had a camera on the tail (and beneath, but sadly not on) so I could see outside (as I was on the aisle)! Another interesting thing was that in addition to indicating the direction of travel on the compass (as well as distance to Abu Dhabi, estimated time of arrival, etc.) they had a separate indicator for where Mecca was to assist those wishing to pray. Speaking of direction — the flight went over central Europe and then the southern Black Sea / northern Turkey coast then just west of Iran and over northern Iraq and down to Basra (carefully avoiding Syria to the west, Iran to the right) then straight down the Persian Gulf to Abu Dhabi.
Tail camera view aboard the A380
Flight information and map aboard the A380 — note the indicator to Mecca
The food was excellent, much better than American’s (though honestly American’s wasn’t too bad and they were all varieties of chicken + veggies + cracker + cheese). The desert was a orange chocolate mousse that was very tasty. They were always offering drink and later in the flight we had a mozzarella roll with peppers — think Hot Pocket. I supplemented as necessary with Chex Mix. There was the cutest baby boy across the aisle and the stewardesses (one form Oxfordshire, the other from Germany) that sat across from me while landing and takeoff were captivated by him. Anyway, can’t say enough about Etihad, I’d fly them everywhere if I could (and luckily have a flight back with them from Abu Dhabi to New York at the end of the trip).
Finally landed in Abu Dhabi after six hours at just past sunset. Had to go back through security (this surprised me — had to do it in Heathrow too) but that went fine. Walked to another terminal and bought a magnet. The shopping was pretty lame, honestly — pretty much all duty free perfume / chocolate / watches crapola. Went to the gate but the Jet Airways (an airline out of Mumbai) was delayed for about an hour. Turns out it wasn’t nearly that long.
Sign in the Abu Dhabi airport, love the geometric design on the right!
Got on the flight and it was much more like a domestic US flight size and space-wise. Single aisle with three seats on each side and fairly cramped leg room. They were playing Indian instrumental music before takeoff (we waited on the runway for quite some time for a departure slot) and during the flight the row in front of me and across the aisle had a screen playing a Bollywood movie — it was awesome. Basically drama with random elaborate dance numbers tossed in. The three hour flight wasn’t bad but I was exhausted. The food was decent — chicken curry with rice was the highlight.
Landed in Pune a bit later than planned, about 4a on Sunday. It was thankfully empty. After almost accidentally filling out the arrivals card for Indian nationals I got sorted and did the Foreign nationals card. I chose absolutely the slowest line possible for getting my passport stamped. The other agents were just breezing through but mine scrutinized each detail, taking forever. I remembered Indian Standard Time, however, and decided that nothing was to be done about it (I figured switching lines would be insulting or, worse, identify me as a Shifty Fellow) and it was better to just roll with it. Grabbed my luggage and stepped into the early morning Pune air.
Welcome to Pune! I think our alphabet just got owned
There was a driver from the Westin waiting for me. He had moved to Pune from Mumbai just five years ago and was so much happier in Pune because the traffic was much tamer. We fairly zipped along our route (it was about 5a on a Sunday, after all!) and said that in Mumbai even at that time it’d be wall-to-wall traffic. Also, Pune has the highest number of two-wheeled transportation in India. As I didn’t have INR yet I tipped him with a couple of US dollars on arrival. Every vehicle coming on to the hotel grounds has its underside checked as well as its trunk. I thought it was because the Indian Army Southern Command is in Pune (and shares the airport’s runways) but a couple of days later the car was similarly checked at a mall. Comforting level of security.
Checked in quickly, room 1019, looking east. Nice few from the window of the Mula Mutha river and the sprawling city to the north on the far bank. The river is wide and slow flowing with many rocky islets and lined with palms and other exotic (to me) trees. The sky was a bit hazy in the dawn but it was still really, really neat. The room itself was great — soft bed, nice work area, nice flat screen TV, US-compatible power plugs. The bathroom, though — wow! Separate tub from shower — and the shower has a rain drop head so the water comes down from above. Basin sink for washing. Tons of bottled water in both the bathroom and bedroom as well as stocked in the fridge. Finally a nice sofa rounded out the decor.
Westin Pune bedroom, my home for the next two weeks
Bath is an upgrade from my house!
Mula Mutha River at dawn, looking east from my window
I mainly stayed in the room all day. I was going to go to bed and wake up later but since it was already 5a and breakfast was at 6:30a I resolved to stay up. Had some hard-boiled eggs, bacon, roasted potatoes, and donut. Comfort food. I resolved to be adventurous for lunches and dinners but don’t mess with my breakfast! Got back to the room and struggled to get VPN to work — that was bad. I finally got it working and then set out to use the ATM. It was broken (and it would later turn out wouldn’t have let me withdraw cash anyhow) so I just changed $50 at the hotel desk for later use for tips and the like. Also tried to schedule a car but to no avail. I was having problems understanding the speech — while the English is perfectly fine it is spoken more rhythmically like say a French person would with words flowing from one to the other. My poor mind likes the more German way with hard stops and emphasized word boundaries. I did wander the hotel a bit and saw a large group of blue tents along the river just west and adjacent of the hotel — turns out it was a food fair.
Buildings on the north bank of the Mula Mutha
Afternoon view of the Mula Mutha from the room
Street food fair adjacent to the hotel
Love the light blue exterior of these buildings
Abandoned building adjacent to the hotel
Details of buildings across the river
Suburb east of Pune
Returned to the room. I was feeling really homesick and sort of like “what the heck have I done?!” and a FaceTime with the family didn’t really help that much in that regard. Resolved that I was here and that was that, make the best of it, and went to bed at 5p exhausted.