The India Trip - November 2007

Leaving Sydney

10am. Checklist time….

Passport • Check

eTicket - Check

Travel Insurance • Check

Packed bag full of clothes - ……

Obviously what ensued was a day of frantic packing, and drying of clothes in the spare bedroom with the heater on full heat, but I did it; by 3.30ish I was packed, and ready to go, my first overseas trip awaited me. Pallavi & Kieran escorted me to Corrimal station, where I joined the a-l-l stations train up to Sydney & then the airport (surprisingly uneventful sadly).

As Sara & I were catching the same flight, I took a domestic flight up to Brisbane.

Somewhere over Newcastle

As we piled onboard what seemed like a reasonably sized plane to begin with, some sort of issue arose up the aisle where a woman was asked repeatedly to leave the plane as she was too drunk to fly. Of course she complied quite willingly when the security staff pulled her carry-on luggage out of the overhead storage and with equal consideration, lifted her up out of her seat.

Upon arriving at Brisbane Airport, I took great pleasure in writing about my adventures on the postcard I got from Sydney for my good friends back at work. Unfortunately, the stamp I had gotten in Sydney had disappeared somewhere in my wallet, and I could not find it for the life of me (oddly enough, it did appear some 3 months later, still in my wallet • I have no idea where it was the entire time I was in India!). I caught a cheap shuttle bus to International airport (much cheaper than their airlink train! • which doesn’t even run after 7pm!), found a stamp, sent my postcard and sidled up to whatever they call a bar up in queensland.

I drank my beer as I waited for Sara to turn up, until I had the sudden urge to go through Customs and look around the colourful duty-free area.

Now I’ve been drinking scotch for a good number of years now, and I am sure heaven has a bar just like what I saw when I came through the other side of customs. The range of years, and sizes, and promotions… I just stood there in awe and amazement until Sara eventually came through customs and found me unashamedly giddy and drooling.