After a long wait, and much teeth gnashing and hair greying, Willy and I finally started our journey to Bangalore on Friday.  The visas came in on wednesday, and this made for a wee bit more scrambling to the week, we were glad for the forward progress.  We even got to start a day earlier than anticipated!  

At first I did not realize how this trip was very much a dry run for us, but the very process of getting there brought this point home for us.  Some discoveries were pleasant surprises, like the number of services that are offered on long haul international flights.  Services that are a far distant memory in North American travel. Food. Free booze. Pillows. Blankets. Real cutlery. Services that made us feel downright spoiled in comparison to the closer to home travel that we have done recently. All in all I learned some valuable lessons, that will serve us well on our return trip with the lils in a few short weeks, and noted that I made some pretty rookie mistakes. Some lessons learned…

My first mistake was to fail on charging my iPad during the first flight.  Always charge your devices while you can.  If not, you are sure to find your self in an airport where North American style plugs are rare or taken, your converter is in a checked bag, and then *gasp*, you find your self on a plane that doesn’t have plugs at every seat.  Or any seat.

I also didn’t bring enough to entertain me.  Nine hours is a long time for anyone to be stuck in one place, let alone one with slight attention deficit tendencies. It doesn’t matter how many movies there are playing in the seat back tv if you end up on a plane without them. I might have asked “are we there yet?” about 1568 times.

Curse USB and their 80 million options.  Make sure that the damn e-books get on your reader before you leave the house, or at least bring the correct cable.  Because the one that is the right shape, but apparently a smidge undersized?  Will not let you download no matter how you wiggle it.  Plan B is to install on my iPad and read there, but I really, really like my reader, and would have liked to read on the plane.  The next one has wi-fi. 

Order the vegetarian meal, or any special meal, actually.  If you are lucky it will have paneer in it, and it will come much faster than every one else’s. Except maybe those in first class.  They pretty much eat what ever and when ever they want.  

If your butter is too firm, place it under the hot meal tray to soften it up.  Don’t leave it too long though, or you end up with a puddle of clarified butter all over your tray, right Willy?

Row 53 is not the last row in the plane. There are in fact three rows behind it!

Be a better plane sleeper, use drugs if you must.  Otherwise you will get stuck between much better plane sleepers on an older plane.  Watching soccer on a small screen at the front of your section. Sleeping approximately 2hours over the course of two long days of flying will make you delirious.  The bed, when you reach it, is heaven.  I slept 10 and a half hours!