If the run up to the day of departure is any indication, this trip is going to be more eventful than we can stomach. The last day was reserved to pick up the most important things from Travel Bazaar at Jayanagar:
travel tickets, vouchers for the hotel stays at all places, confirmation for all the sight-seeing trips that were booked for us- just about everything regarding the trip.
Don't ask me why we were running so late. Saankhya's "stay permit/multiple entry" visa complications took close to three weeks to resolve. We were forced to scout for help at the "right" places. On our own, we would still be running in circles.
Blinding rain greeted us as we made our way to Jayanagar. It was accompanied by hail as well to add a new dimension to the problem. I complicated it further by promptly driving the car into a mud puddle so that the front wheels got stuck and just wouldn't budge. Thankfully, we were close to Travel Bazaar and could abandon the car for the time being. But there were no lights at Travel Bazaar and no backup power as well. All the tickets and vouchers had to be picked up under the light of the computer screen!
(Yes, did retrieve the car once the rain subsided).
News of Bin Laden was on every TV channel. We were even contemplating whether we could request for a change in the flight path. After all, we were flying Air Emirates first to Dubai and then through a major part of the Middle East enroute to Paris. Hence, our concerns, though bordering on paranoia all right, were natural.
Day 1:
Judging by the tall standards set by us the previous day, the flight to Dubai and then onto Paris was rather ordinary. I kept my record straight by managing to sleep before the plane took off. For a person generally racked by insomnia, this is quite an achievement.
As we approached Dubai, we could see an expanse of sand broken by sparse clumps of vegetation (which Saankhya mistook for human beings!) and pockets of human habitation. Ribbons of roads occasionally cut through this landscape.
After a wait for a couple of hours at Dubai, we took off for Paris.The flight cuts through Iran, goes alongside the Caspian Sea, over the Black Sea onto Europe, over Romania, Hungary, Germany and finally onto France.
The drive from the Charles De Gaule airport to our Hotel at Villieres (North West part of Paris) was straight forward. During our last trip to Paris 14 years ago, Usha and I didn't recall taking any freeway at all. But now, the route to the hotel is entirely over the freeway. All the sign boards are of course in French.
We took exits at Rouen and Asnieres if my memory serves me right.
The Hotel Pavillon (Pavi-yon) Monceau (Mon-so) was not particularly inviting. The room was really tiny and once we had brought our oversized baggage in, there was no room for the rest of us. The carpet was not particularly clean either. The combination of a wooden floor and carpet invariably exudes a damp, musty smell taking us back to those years spent in Canada.
(Thankfully, we got our room changed for the next couple of days at the same hotel (after the Disneyland trip) and that worked out very well.)
But sleep is not so finicky as some of our eclectic tastes and overpowers us easily.
travel tickets, vouchers for the hotel stays at all places, confirmation for all the sight-seeing trips that were booked for us- just about everything regarding the trip.
Don't ask me why we were running so late. Saankhya's "stay permit/multiple entry" visa complications took close to three weeks to resolve. We were forced to scout for help at the "right" places. On our own, we would still be running in circles.
Blinding rain greeted us as we made our way to Jayanagar. It was accompanied by hail as well to add a new dimension to the problem. I complicated it further by promptly driving the car into a mud puddle so that the front wheels got stuck and just wouldn't budge. Thankfully, we were close to Travel Bazaar and could abandon the car for the time being. But there were no lights at Travel Bazaar and no backup power as well. All the tickets and vouchers had to be picked up under the light of the computer screen!
(Yes, did retrieve the car once the rain subsided).
News of Bin Laden was on every TV channel. We were even contemplating whether we could request for a change in the flight path. After all, we were flying Air Emirates first to Dubai and then through a major part of the Middle East enroute to Paris. Hence, our concerns, though bordering on paranoia all right, were natural.
Day 1:
Judging by the tall standards set by us the previous day, the flight to Dubai and then onto Paris was rather ordinary. I kept my record straight by managing to sleep before the plane took off. For a person generally racked by insomnia, this is quite an achievement.
As we approached Dubai, we could see an expanse of sand broken by sparse clumps of vegetation (which Saankhya mistook for human beings!) and pockets of human habitation. Ribbons of roads occasionally cut through this landscape.
After a wait for a couple of hours at Dubai, we took off for Paris.The flight cuts through Iran, goes alongside the Caspian Sea, over the Black Sea onto Europe, over Romania, Hungary, Germany and finally onto France.
The drive from the Charles De Gaule airport to our Hotel at Villieres (North West part of Paris) was straight forward. During our last trip to Paris 14 years ago, Usha and I didn't recall taking any freeway at all. But now, the route to the hotel is entirely over the freeway. All the sign boards are of course in French.
We took exits at Rouen and Asnieres if my memory serves me right.
The Hotel Pavillon (Pavi-yon) Monceau (Mon-so) was not particularly inviting. The room was really tiny and once we had brought our oversized baggage in, there was no room for the rest of us. The carpet was not particularly clean either. The combination of a wooden floor and carpet invariably exudes a damp, musty smell taking us back to those years spent in Canada.
(Thankfully, we got our room changed for the next couple of days at the same hotel (after the Disneyland trip) and that worked out very well.)
But sleep is not so finicky as some of our eclectic tastes and overpowers us easily.
This might not be the appropriate place to tell this but whenever I need to drive, I somehow search for non-freeway routes and that reminds me of you :)) I know it because Deepti told me ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Vidya for sharing this. That is one of the reasons Shankar crosses my mind, every time i am trying to merge on to a busy freeway.
ReplyDeleteShankar, me learning French now-a-days. So your pronunciation help on those words was indeed helpful.
-Deepti.