Sam's missus Hannah had brought him, Steve and Nathan to Birmingham International. They were all waiting in the concourse around a pile of very handsome luggage. They mocked my red suitcase - a product of Springfield blagging as many as they could on Freecycle to go on the Multiply Nigeria trip, and having some spare. Beggars can't be choosers. Sam and Nathan staged an impromptu 'luggage jump' of the kind much beloved by motorcycle stunt riders. They then followed on with some swing-the-trolley-case-round-in-a-circle-while-someone-leaps-over-it. Schoolgirls with a skipping rope in the playground chanting, "Salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard..." came to my mind (but I didn't comment).
At check-in, disaster struck. To a man, our hand luggage was way too heavy. This was the product of my advice to 'keep your laptops with you at all times' in case the transfer baggage system failed on stopover flight. So we frantically repacked until the Emirates man was happy. And he managed to find us a block of four seats together.
As we negotiated our way through the duty free area we heard, "Hey, Jesus Army". It was the daughter of a one-time Coventry member, who was tempting travellers we free squirts of fragrance. Go on," she incited Nathan, and we all got dutifully drenched. Probably not a bad thing for four guys about to spend 24 hours before reaching the next wash basin.The flight wasn't full, and before long Nathan and Sam had spread out to nearby window seats to ooh and aah at Europe and beyond passing below. Apparently the purple sunset over Baghdad was amazing. The in-flight entertainment had a vast and bewildering selection. I suggested to Steve that he could do worse than watch Top Gear India, but the Hobbit had his attention. Quantum Leap on the Discovery Channel was the best value for my 30 minutes.
We reached Dubai at half-past-midnight, and the temperature was 34C. We had three hour to kill. Out of the air bridge, Steve realised he's lost his watch, so back-tracked to find it. At that moment Nathan, too, realised he'd left his money belt on his seat, containing Passport and all. I was found by a guy Nathan had got into a good conversation with - so he prayed with him and gave him his red cross. I'd warned the guys that that airport would be like one vast department store at Xmas. That barely does it justice. Steve had been impressed by the in-flight meal, but adrenalin burn calls for fuel. Nathan and Sam found a sushi emporium and Steve a more humble sandwich bar. Together they blew their day's dollar allowance on not much more than a snack. Tinsel-Town.
The onward flight to Bangalore found us too weary to attempt much more than doze. This Boeing 777 had an older entertainment system, but there was a camera on the aircraft nose displaying onto a large cabin screen. We were heading due east, and a spectacular dawn lit up.
Getting though customs was a nightmare. Our hand luggage was innocent, but now our main baggage was stuffed with electronic gadgetry. Nathan, Sam and all all had to disembowel our cases and bags until the officials - and my, doesn't India thrive on officials - were happy that we weren't a delinquent team of import busters.
Daniel G(rimmer) and Daniel E(dwin) met us at Arrivals. We piled into Daniel E's veteran Tata 4x4, and bumped swayed and honked our way into the city. He'd arranged for us all to stay in a vacant serviced apartment, Noah's Inn, that's run by a Christian. Daniel G will fit in here, too. He had some stuff to sort out, and left the guys snoring until lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment