Ahh...Its lovely to see the mercury rising in Belgium today.. I took a walk with the baby and went to the nearby park. As usual, I sat down and thought..thought...and thought about the month long vacation that flew by.
To be honest, this vacation to home in India was a chaotic mixture of good times and bad times. I felt so distant and disconnected from reality all throughtout. Strangely enough, I was so out of place in the country I called home.
People changed..places changed shape..new buildings and crowded streets were too much to bear with the humid atmosphere. Yet, it was comforting to meet family and friends and have the baby's baptism ceremony done.
We flew on Etihad airways (round trip) from Brussels to Cochin (Kerala, India) via Abudhabi. While the Brussels-Abudhabi flights were super comfortable and classy, I can't say the same about the Abudhabi-Cochin trips.
The aircraft was smaller and dingy for the Cochin flight. The waiting area of the Abudhabi airport for this flight was cramped and overflowing with people.
As for the food factor, I would say Etihad serves above average meals - menu card with three choices.
I can't forget the frenzied swine flu checking at Cochin International Airport. A hall full of people from the morning international flights were waiting to submit a declaration stating that they didn't have swine flu...
There were no temperature checks (not even manual) or body heat sensing cameras...just filling up the form and waiting (about 3 hours) in an endless line right out of long haul flights from around the world...beaurocracy at its best...
During the no swineflu declaration submission, I felt funny (as though anyone would willingly declare/diagnose that they have swineflu) and frustrated (imagine waiting with a baby battling the above 30 C temperatures for the first time in his life).
But I must give credit to the medical personnel at Abudhabi airport - they were using heat sensing cameras and screening all the passengers coming out of the flights...At least somebody knows what to do!!
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