| | The flight from IAH to Dubai was the longest, but the easier of the two flights to take to Kochin. It is an approximate 16 hour flight but the seats are comfortable, and I had an empty seat next to me, so in my book that almost qualifies as first class. (At least as close as I will come to it). We then have a two hour layover in Dubai airport where Raju has to make a stop in the duty free shop for candy. Now I know some of you are thinking, well of course he does, but really the candy is for the kids. (Mostly) |
The next flight is about a 4 hour trip and of course I have the middle seat between two Indian gentlemen. They were really nice, but the middle seat is the middle seat. We have inflight movies on the touch screen on the seat in front of you and I thought at least I can watch a movie. I start the movie “Passengers” and the fellow in front of me starts stretching out his hand behind his head and of course touches the touch screen which messes up my movie. I tap his hand, and resume the movie and about 5 minutes later he does it again. This goes on pretty much throughout the flight, but I eventually made it through the mediocre movie.
We arrive in Kochin around 03:00, and when we get ready to go through customs I get to the counter and the fellow there tells me I have to go over to another section because I have an electronic visa. They ask me to take a seat and wait so I sit at the desk and Raju has a seat on a couch. At first I am the only one in the section as Raju was able to go through regularly, and then Raju is joined by an Indian man who is apparently a US Citizen also. This guy starts asking about why we are visiting Kerala and if I liked to drink liquor. This must be the thing in Kerala these days. I guess that the electronic visa is a pretty new thing as it looked like they were trying to figure it out themselves. After some discussion about why I am visiting (tourism), they take my fingerprints and we are on our way.
We get our luggage with no problems and right outside the door we are met by Abhilash and his wife Lindsey. They immediately take our luggage away from us and will not let us handle it ourselves. (I am soon to discover that this is going to happen a lot).
We arrive at Windsor Castle Hotel around 05:30 to check in and although I have been awake at this time for about 30 hours, I don’t want to go to sleep because if I do I will never be able to recover from the jet lag. So I unpack and freshen up with some water to the face, fiddle around with facebook for a bit, and then meet Raju for breakfast at 09:00.
After breakfast I can’t take it any longer so I lay down for a couple of hours to nap. This is usually a bad idea, but it was unavoidable. Raju went to Elsie’s house to see his family and would catch up with us at the restaurant. He was able to sleep on the first flight so he was much fresher than I was. Any way at 13:00 Abhilash picks me up and we head out to have lunch with the boys and staff from Home of Hope orphanage at the Hotel Arcadia Restaurant.
I get the chance to meet the boys and the staff from Home of Hope and even though I am really exhausted and the only thing I want to do is relax, the boys want to talk. They ask me lots of questions about myself and family, as well as where I am from etc. They then take it upon themselves to try to teach me some Malayalam. I am a hopeless case for this especially in my state. But they have a good time trying. We wrap up lunch around 2:30 and head back to the hotel where I crash at about 4:00 and sleep until the next morning around 5:30.
We arrive in Kochin around 03:00, and when we get ready to go through customs I get to the counter and the fellow there tells me I have to go over to another section because I have an electronic visa. They ask me to take a seat and wait so I sit at the desk and Raju has a seat on a couch. At first I am the only one in the section as Raju was able to go through regularly, and then Raju is joined by an Indian man who is apparently a US Citizen also. This guy starts asking about why we are visiting Kerala and if I liked to drink liquor. This must be the thing in Kerala these days. I guess that the electronic visa is a pretty new thing as it looked like they were trying to figure it out themselves. After some discussion about why I am visiting (tourism), they take my fingerprints and we are on our way.
We get our luggage with no problems and right outside the door we are met by Abhilash and his wife Lindsey. They immediately take our luggage away from us and will not let us handle it ourselves. (I am soon to discover that this is going to happen a lot).
We arrive at Windsor Castle Hotel around 05:30 to check in and although I have been awake at this time for about 30 hours, I don’t want to go to sleep because if I do I will never be able to recover from the jet lag. So I unpack and freshen up with some water to the face, fiddle around with facebook for a bit, and then meet Raju for breakfast at 09:00.
After breakfast I can’t take it any longer so I lay down for a couple of hours to nap. This is usually a bad idea, but it was unavoidable. Raju went to Elsie’s house to see his family and would catch up with us at the restaurant. He was able to sleep on the first flight so he was much fresher than I was. Any way at 13:00 Abhilash picks me up and we head out to have lunch with the boys and staff from Home of Hope orphanage at the Hotel Arcadia Restaurant.
I get the chance to meet the boys and the staff from Home of Hope and even though I am really exhausted and the only thing I want to do is relax, the boys want to talk. They ask me lots of questions about myself and family, as well as where I am from etc. They then take it upon themselves to try to teach me some Malayalam. I am a hopeless case for this especially in my state. But they have a good time trying. We wrap up lunch around 2:30 and head back to the hotel where I crash at about 4:00 and sleep until the next morning around 5:30.
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