Friday, April 1, 2011

Back to my second home.

I had such a great time back in Australia over the summer that it was so hard to leave. I didn't realise how much I had missed it and we left Sydney just as the beach conditions were perfect… the clearest, warmest water with perfect rolling waves. I deliberately imprinted lots of visual and aural memories. It was the little things like the underwater sound of a wave rolling over you; the patterns the waves leave in these shallows at low tide and how that feels underfoot. I don't think I will ever take these small things for granted again. These were the things I thought of  to distract myself during the take-offs and landings on my flights back to Delhi (did I mention I hate flying).

The first stop on our way home was Melbourne, as our international flights were with Air Asia which don't depart Sydney (grrr). We had a great couple of days in Melbourne with the fam, just hanging about and gorging myself on foods that are scarcely available in Delhi… particularly sushi. I  just managed to cross the 60kg barrier during my last days in Australia.

Early February we flew out of Melbourne airport on an Air Asia flight bound for KL. It was our first Air Asia experience and I must say I was impressed. We managed to play our cards right and quickly snap up the only 2 empty rows on the entire plane. So all three of us managed to sleep most of the way to KL. A big thank-you to my experienced Air Asia traveler sister Julie, who bought us compressed shrink wrapped pillows which we gratefully popped open as soon as we boarded.

I was not up for exploring KL during our 8 hour transit so the kids and I pretty much spent the whole day in Starbucks making the most of free wifi and playing Greed.

I wish I could say that the flight into Delhi was as good as the one to KL, I admit exhaustion played a big factor in my moodiness. I was hoping to sleep much of the way but as it was a packed afternoon flight with no entertainment .The plane was so noisy with people chatting and wandering about. By the time we touched down in Delhi I was very grouchy and frustrated…. I did not want to be back here and I was not amused when about 20 people got out of their seats literally the second the plane hit the runway…. what did they think was going to happen…the doors would open midway down the runway and they could hop off  the moving plane much like they hop off moving buses in Delhi? The stewards went into panic mode yelling at everyone to sit down.

We managed to get through customs and collect out baggage in record time and I must say I was very pleased to get home and see my pillow that night.