The Flight to Edmonton

Long flights in Economy class are not something to cheer about. Nevertheless, I do enjoy them given the vivid experiences and the various types of people I get to interact in the time. These more than nullify the tiresome, leg aching, back breaking and noisy journey.

Pre-boarding

The travel to airport took hardly an hour from Perambur and surprisingly there wasn't the usual crowd of young people going to obscure places in US, landing down in the airport with van loads of family members to see them off. Check in did not take much time too. In no time, I cleared the immigration and security.

The crowd inside the boarding area was mostly tourists and middle aged, spectacled, bald business travellers and there was a very visible drop in the number of youngsters and young mothers towing along their toddlers to join their husbands who got them a H1 visa. Exceptions being a tall pretty girl with her right nose pierced walking up and down to the mobile charging point to check her mobile, a group of three Sinhalese boys speaking something that was incomprehensible to me, and a mother with a toddler who kept pestering her with his curiosity. Perhaps, these are the visible signs of recession in US and global economic downturn. And that explains why given such a short notice the travel agent was able to throw up more options and better prices this time, while last year with a little longer notice period, I could not get better deals.

On board

Inside the plane I was in for more surprises and disappointments. The plane was just half full. It seemed I did not have had to check in online and blocked a window seat. There were plenty of seats free. I settled down in my seat and captured a couple of planes through the window on my mobile. There was a middle aged businessman in the seat in front, a fat young lady in black flaunting her i-phone on the central column, a young gentleman behind me and a lone middle aged white man on the central column and same row as that mine.

As the plane took off and we settled for a nice flight. The cyclone Nisha sent ripples high on the sky and we were asked to put on our seatbelts as there would be turbulences. I was served a vegan dinner - uppma, sambar, fruit salad and some sweet. The entertainment on board was't that good - the selection of Tamil and Hindi songs and movies was horrible. One nice thing about Lufthansa flight from Chennai is that at 1:50 am, you get to read the day's Hindu newspaper when whole of Chennai is in their deep sleep. I started to read for another 2 hours. I targetted my body clock to my destination time i.e, MT and started to adapt my activities accordingly, which meant I should try to stay awake till atleast 5 am IST which is 4:30 pm there.

Sleep? Ah! that was when I noticed that people on the central 4 seated rows, mostly alone, had lifted up the arm rests and made a nice berth out of the spare pillows and were sound asleep. I felt so bad to have settled for the 2 seated side row of seats. I could not squeze myself in the 80 cm odd side row. But pulled out a few spare pillows and shawls from empty seats and made a decent bed before sleep took over me.

Frankfurt
The plane landed on a dark, cold and snowy Frankfurt. (I have been on this blog for a very long time.. need to finish it ....) This was unexpected, I am seeing Frankfurt in snow for the first time. So, prpbably Canada must be colder at this time of year. Since the transit was not long, I decided to fetch a coffee and settle down with a newspaper.

The cluster of gates 52-57 resembled a mini India with people from Indian cities transiting to places in North America and way back. I refreshed with a cup of coffee and searched my Gate and settled to read the newspaper. There was a tall gentleman with a Canadian accent, perhaps a staff of Air Canada, getting the gate ready for boarding and spreading an aura of helpfullness that every passer by went up to him with their little doubts about gates, flights etc. I thought of clarifying my doubts on whehter my luggage will be checked all the way to Edmonton or I should have to pull it at Calgary for customs. Did not want to disturb this gentleman and went up to another lady who stood without anything to do. Bad luck!! she knew nothing and she directed me to this genleman. ("Bad luck buddy.. more troubles for you").

Meanwhile, a black elderly gentleman who had approached him couple of times earlier looking for his gate came again, unable to locate his gate. and this airport staff helped him out again.. "hmm.. this guy has lots of patience"

I was overhearing a three people behind me chatting in Indian English. All of them, turn out to be a people heading to India from US. One of them an automobile engineer with a disgusting Indo-American accent apparently from Chennai and working in DiamlerChrysler, a girl and a guy from south Tamilnadu. The automobile engineer did most of the talking - his experience with Mercedes Benz manufacturing, popular automobiles, his views and solutions to the US recession. The waiting area for my gate was opened and I rushed in, positioned myself near the glasses. With still another 45 minutes to go, I opened up my laptop and settled to do write down the blog.

Frankfurt - Calgary
The flight was full, unlike the earlier one. A young man of Chinese descent occupied the seat near me. "Poor guy, I wonder how many times you are going to woken up from sleep during my frequent visits to the washrooms and for picking up drinks". There was nothing to see through the window, I made a poor selection again. The left side of the plane faced harsh sun for most part of the flight. The heat and light was so unbearable that all the windows had to be closed for most part of the flight. Sadly, the plane flew over the Greenland this time also, but it happened to be on the right side of the plane. (Poor me, given the rate at which the snow in Greenland is melting, I doubt if I can see it the next time I fly over it)

The lunch was served - special meals first. The Sikh family on the nearby row was served some steaming Indian vegetarian food. It tickled my nose and stomach and I waited eagerly for my special Vegan meal.

The flight attendant came up to me and apologised profoundly with a wide smile "I am sorry sir, we have run out of your special meal, you will have to choose between beef and chicken for lunch"

"What the heck? I fought with my travel agent for a special meal and this lady comes up to me and says I have to chose between chicken and beef"

"Nothing doing, I had booked a special meal and I cannot take nonvegetarain" I said.

"Ok, I will look into business class menu and see if I can bring something vegetarian"

Having said that she came up with a large tray with among other things a large circular china dish with a sort of bread soaked in a tomato, spinach and spices gravy. Needless to mention it tasted wonderful ("Hmm.. truely business class").

With nothing much to watch on the TV (to be frank overwhelmed by the options, and ended up wathing only the flight map). But, I did sneak watch some funny Jackie Chan movie twice, one on my neighbour's screen and another on the old lady's screen in the row in front.

During the second lunch, the same act repeated with the attendant asking if I wanted a "vegetarian" pasta or chicken. I checked if that pasta had eggs in it. She checked and said they do have it. I revolted, expecting the business class story to repeat (does this remind the woodcutter and the angel story?). She went to the pantry area and came up with a small (??) tray of what looked like tiny white beans (perhaps quinoa) and usual stuff. (the woodcutter cannot be always smart)

An hour before the flight began its final descent to Calgary, the vast, flat Saskatchewen province unfolded up, with its extraordinarily long roads with not a single curve in sight.

"So those jokes about its flatness and straight roads are true" I realised.

Odd enough, there was no sign of snow, given that Frankfurt was covered with snow. The display showed the temperature at destination as 9 deg. The only traces of snow was on the distant Rocky mountains on the horizon, that shone golden in the evening sun.

Last Leg - to Edmonton
The customs and immigration at Calgary were very friendly. There wasn't much crowd here unlike Toronto. There were minutes of tension collecting my luggage, a policeman with a dog caught up some box and piecred it open when the dog smelt something in it. I was worried if the dog will sniff my masala and all the powders in my luggage. Luckily, even as my bags came down the conveyor, he dragged the dog away saying "good job baby, lets move"

The first thing I did was to locate a Tim Hortons. Funnily enough it was difficult to locate it. There was a Starbucks, then Second Cup - all American, and it took a while till I found out the truely Canadian - Tim Hortons. Picked up a coffee and began by stay in Canada.

The airport was filled with youngsters selling some American Express / Aeroplan credit cards and promising airmiles on purchasing one. But none of them could answer if the current journey is in Aeroplan card.

The guy at the check in was quite friendly too, cracking a few PJs. As I waited for the flight onwards, the Sikh family who travelled with me, came to the same area. They are travelling to Edmonton too. There was an old lady, who immediately took up her notebook and started sketching a guy on the opposite row with a hat and a laptop. She had a great collection of such sketches of people she sketched at public places.. Amazing!!

Luckily, I got the front row in this little plane, a Bombardier Dash 8, but it happened to be aisle seat. I exchanged it for a window seat of a nice elderly gentleman.

The view from this little plane was fantastic, with a cruising altitude of around 5000 metres, even cars on the Queen Elizabeth Highway were visible. It was wonderful - lakes, woods, little towns. The flight finally touched down at Edmonton.

It was a pleasant 9 deg Celcius. I was the first person to get down the plane. I ran out towards the terminal without the coat on.