Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Back to Mother India





15 ½ hours to Dubai, watched Social Network, The American, Wall Street 2. Pretty tolerable for coach. Dubai airport arrivals is gigantic and empty, endless huge corridor rooms, like they’re waiting for some gigantic procession to arrive someday. Hotel Premier Inn was comfortable enough for the room and bed, v. clean, but the food was extremely limited, tasteless and unimaginative and expensive for what you get. Such a contrast to even mid-priced Bangkok hotels. And you are stuck unless you take a taxi somewhere.

Returning to the airport to fly on to Kolkata the next morning, still evident how empty this gigantic airport is. More attendants in the duty free stores than people shopping. Arriving in Kolkata is such a relatively smooth procedure these days, such a contrast from even a few years ago. And at least there is no flu scare as there was last year, where the flights were met by health “officials” wearing masks demanding that strange and useless forms be filled out before you could even go to immigration. Kolkata is now full of road and rail construction projects, blocking and tying up roads everywhere. No doubt it will all be for the better some day…

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