The other side of the world
I left on a 6-day trip on New Year's day -- a fairly typical trip for the JFK based -- Paris (24 hr layover), Chennai (24 hr layover), back to Paris (24 hrs again) and then back to NY. As another pilot once commented: You really feel like you've gone somewhere when you get home! Here's a picture from the cockpit of the parking coordinates at our gate in Chennai :
(Photo fixed by Balloon Pirate -- thanks!)
While in Chennai (the city formerly known as Madras), I explored the city a bit with the other 2 pilots. Two of the Indian flight attendants showed us around and helped us with transportation. This is what we rode in:
These things are really cool! I would love to have one. The 2 guys in the brown shirts were our drivers -- we needed both since there were 5 of us. It's pretty crazy on the roads -- lots of beeping horns and weaving around -- luckily we weren't going very fast so it didn't seem as scary as the Van Wyck in NY! We paid each of these drivers to drive us and wait during our stops for lunch and shopping. Total cost for each: 300 rupees ($7) for 5 hours. We gave them each a 50 rupee tip and they were ecstatic.
Had a great lunch sampling a variety of indian dishes. I looked through a window at the cooks and they were working incredibly hard in a hot and steamy room. To make the bread they toss it like pizza dough and then put it on a rock and into the oven. One of the Indians told me the cooks have no hair on their forearms from that job. Wish I had taken a picture...
When I got back to the hotel, I noticed some repairs being done to the roof. This "ramp" for the workers looked to me like something from Gilligan's Island:
The pick up time for our flight back to Paris was scheduled for 12:45 am so I had to take a nap in the evening. But before hitting the hay I found an internet cafe. It was interesting also -- it was a Mailboxes Etc. type place -- with a few computers in the back. When I walked in there was only one man on a computer and he didn't acknowledge me so I started to leave. He called to me and said I could take any computer -- he had just been very involved in a computer game. I don't know why I was surprised, but he was playing computer cricket. I stayed for an hour and paid 30 rupees (75 cents) -- what a deal!
Our drive to the airport was uneventful -- not much traffic at that hour. There are a lot of idols in the airport terminal. I wish I could write an educational paragraph on this topic but I need to research it some more. Here's a picture of the departure board with an idol below it:
Passengers were looking at me as I played "tourist" to take this picture but I couldn't resist. Our flight is the one to New York, and yes, we left at 02:50!
The flight to Paris was long -- 10.5 hours -- and dark all the way. Ahh, it's great to be home. I definitely feel like I've been somewhere!
(Photo fixed by Balloon Pirate -- thanks!)
While in Chennai (the city formerly known as Madras), I explored the city a bit with the other 2 pilots. Two of the Indian flight attendants showed us around and helped us with transportation. This is what we rode in:
These things are really cool! I would love to have one. The 2 guys in the brown shirts were our drivers -- we needed both since there were 5 of us. It's pretty crazy on the roads -- lots of beeping horns and weaving around -- luckily we weren't going very fast so it didn't seem as scary as the Van Wyck in NY! We paid each of these drivers to drive us and wait during our stops for lunch and shopping. Total cost for each: 300 rupees ($7) for 5 hours. We gave them each a 50 rupee tip and they were ecstatic.
Had a great lunch sampling a variety of indian dishes. I looked through a window at the cooks and they were working incredibly hard in a hot and steamy room. To make the bread they toss it like pizza dough and then put it on a rock and into the oven. One of the Indians told me the cooks have no hair on their forearms from that job. Wish I had taken a picture...
When I got back to the hotel, I noticed some repairs being done to the roof. This "ramp" for the workers looked to me like something from Gilligan's Island:
The pick up time for our flight back to Paris was scheduled for 12:45 am so I had to take a nap in the evening. But before hitting the hay I found an internet cafe. It was interesting also -- it was a Mailboxes Etc. type place -- with a few computers in the back. When I walked in there was only one man on a computer and he didn't acknowledge me so I started to leave. He called to me and said I could take any computer -- he had just been very involved in a computer game. I don't know why I was surprised, but he was playing computer cricket. I stayed for an hour and paid 30 rupees (75 cents) -- what a deal!
Our drive to the airport was uneventful -- not much traffic at that hour. There are a lot of idols in the airport terminal. I wish I could write an educational paragraph on this topic but I need to research it some more. Here's a picture of the departure board with an idol below it:
Passengers were looking at me as I played "tourist" to take this picture but I couldn't resist. Our flight is the one to New York, and yes, we left at 02:50!
The flight to Paris was long -- 10.5 hours -- and dark all the way. Ahh, it's great to be home. I definitely feel like I've been somewhere!
posted by Notsocranky Yankee at 1:30 PM
4 Comments:
wow...what a trip! i'd love to go to india.
There are a lot of idols in the airport terminal. I wish I could write an educational paragraph on this topic but I need to research it some more. Here's a picture of the departure board with an idol below it:
The first time i read that, I transposed the word 'idiot' for 'idol' in my mind. I spent a minute trying to find the idiot in the picture.
Turns out the idiot was looking at the picture.
Yeharr
BP:
*lol*
I can see how you might have made that error -- there are a lot of idiots at airports worldwide.
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