It took almost exactly 24 hours door-to-door and everything went smoothly.
I caught the train from Newton abbot station at 6.30am; arrived in Paddington at 9.00am.
Paddington station
I then took the Heathrow connection to the new terminal 5.
Heathrow terminal 5
It was a lovely clear day and saw lots of the ground across Europe before night fell ealy because we were flying away from the sun. I waved at Paul and Steffi in the Netherlands and I also passed quite close to Hanni's parents and Regina in Germany.
I love aeroplane food! all that fiddling around with little packets, containers and lids while juggling it all on your tray - it's like cmping, picnics and a dollies' tea party all rolled into one.
Somewhere in Europe - Leeuwarden maybe?
The flight to Chenni was 10 and a half hours, landing at 3.30am local time. Stupidly I was rather surprised at Heathrow that there were so many Indians on the flight!
Chennai domestic flights departure lounge.
But by the time got to the dometic departure lounge at Chennai, I was the only westerner waiting for that flight. Things were getting stanger my the hour. I landed at kochi at 8.00am and was met by a driver as arranged.
The drive from the airport to Kochi was the strangest driving experience I have ever had - shocking in a way, but strangly not frightening. Their system seems to work. The traffic on the road (in order of speediness) included goats, dogs, pedestrians, bicycles, tuk tuks, lorries, motorbikes, cars. The faster traffic just quite gently toots its horn and goes past the slower, so that at times we seemed to be at least 3 or four deep, with the traffic coming in the other direction doing the same. Add to that the dodging of pot holes and floods from the sudden downpours, it became an intricate version of 'strip the willow'!
Here is a picture I took at a particularly interesting moment.
We got to the place I am staying with only a small piece of trim hanging off the taxi, which the driver just asually pushed back into place.
Here's my abode for the first 3 nights - the Good Karma Inn. Not a bad name for a town that seems to name its hotels like we name catteries or children's nurseries - The Happy Stay and the Noah's Ark are just down the road.
Just need a small kip and then off to explore.
I caught the train from Newton abbot station at 6.30am; arrived in Paddington at 9.00am.
Paddington station
I then took the Heathrow connection to the new terminal 5.
It was a lovely clear day and saw lots of the ground across Europe before night fell ealy because we were flying away from the sun. I waved at Paul and Steffi in the Netherlands and I also passed quite close to Hanni's parents and Regina in Germany.
I love aeroplane food! all that fiddling around with little packets, containers and lids while juggling it all on your tray - it's like cmping, picnics and a dollies' tea party all rolled into one.
The flight to Chenni was 10 and a half hours, landing at 3.30am local time. Stupidly I was rather surprised at Heathrow that there were so many Indians on the flight!
But by the time got to the dometic departure lounge at Chennai, I was the only westerner waiting for that flight. Things were getting stanger my the hour. I landed at kochi at 8.00am and was met by a driver as arranged.
The drive from the airport to Kochi was the strangest driving experience I have ever had - shocking in a way, but strangly not frightening. Their system seems to work. The traffic on the road (in order of speediness) included goats, dogs, pedestrians, bicycles, tuk tuks, lorries, motorbikes, cars. The faster traffic just quite gently toots its horn and goes past the slower, so that at times we seemed to be at least 3 or four deep, with the traffic coming in the other direction doing the same. Add to that the dodging of pot holes and floods from the sudden downpours, it became an intricate version of 'strip the willow'!
Here is a picture I took at a particularly interesting moment.
We got to the place I am staying with only a small piece of trim hanging off the taxi, which the driver just asually pushed back into place.
Here's my abode for the first 3 nights - the Good Karma Inn. Not a bad name for a town that seems to name its hotels like we name catteries or children's nurseries - The Happy Stay and the Noah's Ark are just down the road.
Just need a small kip and then off to explore.
1 comment:
Wow Helen keep up this amount of info and photos will make it seem as if we are there with you every step of the way. Hope it is good Karma for you - we sang Peace White Dove for you on Thursday so glad your flying went well. Love Wendy x x
Post a Comment