Saturday February 13th 2010.
Finally at home and now in a bit of personal stress. Due to all the traveling during the past weeks and making arrangements, I had little time to actually pack.
- To stay a bit efficient I had set some small goals for the day:
- Packing my suitcases;
- A visit to my grand mom and taking my mother and sister out for a nice dinner;
- Last it seemed like a good idea to make some declarations for work;
Seeing as I had all these Visa trips and tickets, it seemed a good idea to do that before going to India.
At round 2:00am I went for bed. Not the best practice before going on a long journey.
Sunday February 14th 2010.
The next morning I needed to be at Schiphol (Amsterdam) round 08:00, so getting up early was mandatory . My kid sister Klarinda took me to the airport and get a cup of coffee. But once at the airport the boarding had already started and I needed to hurry. The boarding took forever.
Once everybody had boarded the pilot notified us that the plane was iced and therefore the plane needed to go through the airplane wash. After 2,5 hours we were finally airborne!
I was in flight KL6052 arranged by KLM, but the actual flight was executed by DELTA DL0252. I was in chair 20F in the middle row near the wings of the plain. It was shoulder to shoulder, but at least no problems with my knees. Besides the somewhat small chairs the flight was fine. I had a multimedia screen on which I could select all kinds of movies.
Due to tailwinds we gained some time, but due to a holding pattern round Mumbai airport we could not benefit from it.
After landing it all went quite fast. Just through customs, a stamp of arrival, getting the luggage and going to the exit. Even getting a bit of change for the road (€ 20,- to 800+ INR, so I was already getting ripped off but I was not aware at that time).
Once outside there was an overwhelming crowd of drivers. After searching for some time I called up Peter Vaz who had setup the pick-up. Apparently the driver had a sign of our client, not of me.
The driver did not know English so the travel was quiet. From Mumbai to Pune takes about 3 to 4 hours and during this travel I had so many impressions. After a quick stop getting Indians coffee we proceeded our drive. Within Pune we needed some directions (a couple of times) and finally reaching Magarpatta city.
With a warm welcome I again received some forms to fill… Loving the forms!
After the gentlemen left I unpacked a bit and took out the laptop. Installing the internet like a true NERD or IT specialist would do .
Round 07:00 on Monday morning I could finally get some sleep.