Chapter 2: Take-Off & Touch-Down (MUM-CMB-SGP)

December 29, 2007 – Its 5:30 AM local time in Singapore and I finally got the time to write a post after almost 96 hours of leaving home. Now I’m not sure when I’m going to publish this coz Internet (WiFi) in my room is @ $ 10 SGP for an hour, ya that’s right, that’s 300 bucks INR (also its tiring to come back from a trip and start publishing posts) and therein I want to highlight to all you aspiring Travellers, please save from your skins from wherever you are, coz Singapore does not give you this high class standard of living for cheap

Allright, so here we go, I’m going to keep this section tight coz Travelling is one strenuous activity (sorry, if you think otherwise, you must be Spider-Man) and Travelling overseas is multiplying that by 3 times. Mumbai Airport was pretty much like the film “I am Legend”, New Years eve and hell no people, just some labor crowd heading to Pakistan, Dubai etc…The Immigration, Customs and Security (ICS) clearance took like 20 Mins. Now comes the hard part, thanks to the miserable arrangement of having to alight in Sri Lanka for a transit, I had to end up doing ICS 4 times one way, I’m preparing myself for the pain for the remaining 4 rounds when I head back. Please carry your own pen coz you have to keep filing what is called an Embarkment or Disembarkment Form for the Immigration officials. Every time you board a plane to another country, you fill an Embarkment and every time you land in another country or your own (from another destination) you fill a Disembarkment Form. If you know English, filing these forms and answering ICS official’s questions is simple and easy. Now point to be noted, you also have to read and keep yourself updated on ICS rules and regulations, again for 3 different countries in my case. Phew!! Check out the one for India here.

First stop, Sri Lanka, man do they have a Duty-Free Shop or what??? Anything under the sun and mostly SPIRITS is freaking cheap but that aint gonna help completely coz our dear ICS is waiting to see what you get so they can rip in the name of law back home but still you can get something. 1 INR = 2.7 SR that means Indians can buy more than twice the stuff for the same price

Now yes I did get the facility of Night Stop that I had mentioned earlier in my posts courtesy Sri Lankan Airlines. It was a 30 Min drive to place called Browns Beach. It was dark by 6:00 PM in Sri Lanka and we couldn’t see a thing and the airlines guy said it was a beach resort. That we knew was true when we stepped the in the lobby and wow… we were treated to some cool fresh beach air. The resort is fabulous and every room faces the beach. The rooms are tidy and have sufficient facilities for a pit stop. Dinner was complimentary for us so we helped ourselves but just couldn’t sleep or rest enough. Had a shower and was ready to be picked by the airlines for my night flight. While we were strolling on the beach, my mom called up to check on us and gave me what I thought was a very very sad news for the world over, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. I was shocked but like every one else I knew it was coming to her, you just cant keep playing with death and expect to win. Now that news triggered had its effects and boy, the roads in Sri Lanka had paramilitary troops checking every vehicle and Security at the Airport was very tight, removed our shoes too. What a timing to get a world leader bumped off, I said to myself.

Flight take-off was delayed by an hour and we finally took off. By the way, the flight time from Mumbai to Colombo is 2H.30M and Sri Lanka to Singapore is 3H.40M. The plane from Mumbai is an Airbus 320 and nothing great to talk about but the one from Colombo was an Airbus 340 and apart from all the frills like In-Flight entertainment, it had 2 camera (underneath the plane) views for passengers to see. It was amazing to experience the sky, clouds, sunrise, taking-off and landing from those views. Yea, I know boys what you want to hear when someone flies on an airline, the cabin crew was a combination of uncle+aunt types and then the my-kinda-girl types. They wear the saree in a slightly unusual way but they look pretty. Menu on both planes has something that you can relate to back home. Personally, I’m not a big fan of airplane food.

Allright baby, we touch down at the Changai International Airport (Singapore). It is really overwhelming to see this airport in such grandeur for someone who just saw the reasonable (coz now I know…J) back home. Once again the fabulous choice of good to purchase from the Duty-Free shops. But here nothing is cheap. You can count on me. Stepped out of the airport and got the first shock of my life, the taxis lined up are Mercedes, Toyota Camrys, Luxury SUVs and Vans. What? Are you sure that’s a taxi? I seem to ask myself. We had a large-size Toyota Van for the ride ahead. Let me take a sojourn here and tell you that the Travel Agents claims of a group (Approx 25) going together for this trip fell flat on the face and the only other people accompanying us through the trip was a father-daughter duo.

The city life now starts to sink in slowly, we had a nice taxi guide who kept us informed all the way to the Hotel. And while he was speaking, I got everything around me on my handycam. There was not a single speed-breaker and something else caught my eye, the Toll points, not a single soul, just drive underneath it and a credit-card size card installed in every car automatically gets charged. Whoa!!. I saw every sports car you can recall and every 500+ CC bikes zooming past us. Besides custom made cars, kinda like 2 Fast and Furious – Tokyo Drift.

We were put up at the Golden Landmark Hotel on Victoria Street. Closest railway/bus station is Bugis. Singapore, here I come...

Pictures of Mumbai to Singapore Transit via Sri Lanka: