India Trip - Travel

I had a driver pick me up at my parent's house at 3PM, he was a little early and departed shortly afterwards. We needed to make one stop to pickup another co-worker, then off to Newark. We arrived at Newark airport around 5:30. Going through the security check, I was alerted that I had liquids which were unacceptable. I took three tiny containers of Gatorade to keep my stomach settled on the flight. They confiscated those items pretty quickly and everything else was pretty uneventful. We waited in the president's lounge. That was pretty nice, comfy chairs, football game, drinks, and crackers and cheese. We tired the Airborne cocktail, glass of water and one Airborne tablet. I reminded me of Alka-seltzer, but tasted like gator aid. We left for the gate around 7:30, we needed to check-in again and soon after boarded the plane.

Seats were big and comfortable, I say they had a special plug for the electric, which I had planned to watch DVDs, that was quickly changed. Seats allowed for automated leg rest, leg rest extension, seats to go back and a back arch setting...very comfortable. We were given a choice between a number of papers to read and the game each of us a package of socks, eye covers, tooth paste, tooth brush, mints, and head phone to name a few. I started drinking plenty of water as I always get dehydrated on the plane. I was a smooth take off and they estimated 12.5 of flight time. The flight route was up the coast, over Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean, below Greenland, over Russia and into India.

Meals: first course was assorted nuts and an Indian mix of nuts, dried fruit and spices. That was different in that it was sweet and spicy, chewy and hard. Not something I would eat on a regular basis. The second course was breads, wine and water. The third round consisted of appetizers, beans in a tomato or shrimp and lobster. Then was the salad, which I was getting stuffed. Then the main course followed by a hot-fudge ice-cream sundae.

Flight was pretty smooth, some bumpy areas but overall good. I saw parts of three movies, 3:10 to Yuma, The Heartbreak kid and the Gameplan. Nothing really exciting but passed the time. I sleep for 3-4 over Russia. They gave out hot wet towels before each meal, very refreshing.

Breakfast or Dinner: Started with a hot wet towel, then OJ and juices, rolls and sticky buns, ending with cereal or omelets.....Another multi-course meal.

We touched down around 8:45PM India Time, ahead of schedule.