Traffic for 2011 August 1

Before our flight last night we hit Lumphini Park in the rain, then did some shopping, had one last fix of good food (guacamole and chips!) then it was back to the airport. We rode the SkyTrain to the park and everyone is so polite and lets people get off the train before getting on, and people also helped us buy our tickets correctly. Friendly people; you don't see that on the subway in the Kong. Thailand confiscated our sunscreen and toothpaste, even though India let us bring it into the country. I'm not sure how all these different types of security procedures work. To leave America I have to take off my shoes and belt but to get back in I don't have to, for example. So what's the point? For whose benefit do I do all this?

We flew to Calcutta in clouds that thinned just as we hit the Mouth of the Ganges. It was beautiful. Calcutta required us to deplane, ride a shuttle 20 paces to the international terminal, get reinstated in India, go outside and walk 5 minutes in horrid humidity to the domestic terminal, check back in (they tried to take my Chicken Noodle soup but I held firm) only to take a shuttle back to the same plane I just got off of! Seriously! Our seats were the same row but opposite side of the plane. What an experience.

Calcutta wasn't as horrid an airport as I'd heard tell. It's nicer than Goa, but the fire alarm was going off the whole time we were there. Being on the same plane and all, the service changed as we were now on a "cheap" Kinfisher leg. So even though the first leg had blankets, pillows, wet wipes, and teevees, and it was the same plane, they discontinued all these for the cheap flight. What a joke.

We flew to Hyderabad for a 30-minute layover but stayed on the plane while the kids slept. Then home to Bangalore and went to bed around midnight.

It was night and day difference being back in India. Everyone on the plane was grabbing the kids and so they were screaming. And people on the airplane were pushing and shoving in line to get off the plane, not waiting for the seatbelt light to go off, pushing and shoving through immigration, etc. I've been told we value least what we have most, and since what India has most is people, there is no value in being polite on an airplane. It's an interesting culture.

Now it's busy season but we head to Kerala, the southern tip of India, for Susie's BD in Sept and then onto Dubai for Dalton's BD in October, then we'll be heading home. Time flies when you fly.