Hello from Kingsport!

Hello! I am finally done with my travel. Reached here yesterday afternoon at around 3.30 PM almost 15 mins ahead of time. Three of my colleagues had come down to the airport to pick me up. The entire travel was pretty much on schedule, but a lengthy one.

Started off from Mangalore on Friday afternoon to Mumbai via Jet Airways flight no 9W 432. The flight was pretty much ok….reached Mumbai at around 5 PM. Found that there was one more colleague of mine traveling along with me upto Detroit. We got along and moved to the international airport. By around 6 PM we were there.

My next flight was at 1.20 AM to Amsterdam on Saturday. NW 41, i.e., Northwest Airlines. The north west counter at the airport opens only at around 8.30 PM. So, we had to wait. By around 9 PM, the NW counters were all open and we checked in at around 9.30 PM, followed by immigration check. After which me moved to the international departure lounge. It was pretty good with comfortable seats on which we could almost sleep. I got a nice small power nap. Slept till around 12 PM. By then, they had started security checks prior boarding to our flight. So, at around 12.30 AM, we went in, and at around 1.30 AM or so, we took off.

The Mumbai to Amsterdam flight was not that great. But I managed to get some bits of sleep. Landed in Amsterdam at around 6.45 AM, local time. i.e., around 10.15 AM Saturday India time. The Schipol airport at Amserdam is pretty big, but luckily, our connecting flight was parked at the adjacent gate. So, we quickly moved to the next gate, since we just had a 1hr 20 min stopover at Amsterdam.

The next flight was NW 39 to Detroit. This flight was much better, with some cool in-flight entertainment consoles for individual users. And it was more comfortable compared to the previous flight. We took off sharp at around 8 AM Amsterdam local time. This time I had a window seat. But after reaching cursing altitude of 38k feet, nothing much was visible outside, except for the clouds. This flight was for a duration of around 8 hrs, and I fell a sleep for the first two hours or so. After getting up, I played around with the in-flight entertainment console, did some R&D, and time pass. After that I filled up the forms one needs to fill up before entering the United States (I94 etc). Soon we reached Detroit. Around 15 mins ahead of schedule. i.e., around 9.45 AM EST.

Did my immigration and customs clearance, and then checked in my luggage back to the next flight. We had around 3 hrs with us to explore the Detroit airport. Its pretty cool, with an express tram and all that. Me and one more colleague of mine went around the entire length of the airport, and had some snacks at McDonalds

Detroit Airport - Click to Zoom in

At around 12.15 PM or so, I moved towards my departure gate, where I had to catch my next flight to my final destination, Kingsport. The last flight was a pretty small one…. 34 seater aircraft. Propeller driven :). It had only 6 people including me on board. The flight was for an hour and a half, and I slept for nearly an hour!. Touched down at Kingsport at around 15.30 hrs EST. My colleagues were very helpful, and helped me with luggage etc. Currently I am staying with one of my friends at his apartment. I would be soon moving to a separate apartment in a couple of days.

Here are some snaps of the appartment complex that I am going to stay at….

Allandale Appartment Complex

Will post more later!

4 comments | January 30th, 2006 at 04:21am