13th August 2016, Saturday
Cab journey to Airport
Started from home at 5:50 AM. . There were lot of cabs available at that time. Went through cubbon metro station, GPO, Raj Bhavan, Fun world, Hebbal and then straight towards airport road. Just before the airport, there is a slight turning to the left, with no board, and that takes you to airport ( see below )
Reached airport at 6:45 AM. Our car was handpicked for SPECIAL security check. Took about 3 minutes. They check the bonet ( !! ), the dickey ( trunk of the car ) and also frisked the driver.
Trip details are below
Cost was Rs. 609.21
Inside the airport
At the first gate, they check your ticket and id card ( valid government ID card, I produced by Aadhar card ). Then you may be lucky enough for a special baggage check. And I was ! Foreigners are given special treatment, like the guy standing right in front of me ( double checking all the details of his ticket with his passport )
Then the next step is to collect the boarding pass. Since I had already did Web Check in (Third result in Google ) I had to just go to counter number 64 and pick up the tags and put it on my bag ( Moreover I didn’t have any extra luggage, which I had to weigh in )
Web Check in page
The details can be procured from the ticket as follows. Electronic ticket number is your ‘E-Ticket number’ and Flight number is on the left top corner ( highlighted in red, which is AI-583)
Web check in allows you to select the seat of your choice, window seat, aisle, anywhere on the plane ( in the front or at the rear ) as well as avoid the hassle of standing the queue to get your boarding pass ) After this, you can directly head on for security check.
At the security check
If you are at counter 64 ( Indian airlines counter) then go the left, take stairs and proceed to left ( domestic check-in). Here all the bags will go through security check. Keep mobile and wallet in the carry in bag. If you’re carrying laptop or laptop charger or mobile charger, keep that in the plastic tray. When you pass through the metal detector, make sure you do not have loose change, keys or cell phone with you. If you do, put that in the plastic tray as well.
Since it was a morning time, there was less crowd at the airport as well as small queues at the security check. The check was over in less than 5 minutes ( There were only 3 people in front of me ) and I was on my way to the lounge.
Lounge and the flight journey to Trivandrum
As per the display board, ( a small 32″ LCD screen ) placed after the security check ( top, left corner ) the lounge for this flight was counter 3, located 1 floor below. Escalator is located on the right side, after counter 2. As expected, the counter closes 30 minutes before departure, that is at 7:00 AM. I reached at 7:05 AM and luckily the final call, was still going on. I produced by Web Check in print out ( which I had taken at home ) and then boarded the bus which ferries passengers to the flight bay. Note that, if you have done web check in, other than at the lounge, nowhere do they have a time quote – that is, basically you need to be at the lounge 30 minutes, before departure, that’s all ( if you don’t have luggage other than carry baggage )
The bus started at 7:20 AM and we reached the flight at 7:25 AM and boarded the flight at 7:30 AM and by that time, all the passengers had already seated. I got my seat, next to a french couple. It was an Airbus A319
Some details about A319
The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus.The A319 carries up to 160 passengers. It is a narrow-body (single-aisle) aircraft with a retractable tricycle landing gear and is powered by two wing pylon-mounted turbofan engines. The direct Boeing competitor is the Boeing 737-700.
Although the specs looked great, the LCDs behind the seats do not work, and it made some weird sounds when we ascended and descended. The interior was clean, but you almost felt, you were on an age old carrier. The crew was young, energetic and very friendly. They served breakfast in the plane. Almost everyone seemed content with what was served. ( I didn’t prefer to have breakfast on board)
The sky was clear and the morning sun made the different hues of blues look so beautiful. The whole time I had my headphones on and looked outside the window. It was a great time for some mediation and contemplation. Other than slight discomfort in my ear, thanks to pressure variation, everything was perfectly fine. The seats were also okay ( not luxurious ) and the journey smooth.
Plane started at 8:00 am and reached at 8:47 am at Trivandrum. The whole time, sun was on the left . Flight charge was around 4,000
An interesting thing to note is that, Air India / Indian airlines, passengers come out of the international terminal, that is terminal 2 and not domestic terminal( like other flights). You have to remember this, when you disembark and would want to guide the driver. When I reached, there was a huge crowd of people waiting for expats from Gulf
Meeting Melvin
Melvin picked me up, 15 minutes after I reached outside ( he was waiting for me at the domestic terminal ) He came with a nice Honda Amaze car which belonged to his sister. The interiors were good as well as the sound system. Engine was too smooth but due to the light weight of the car, you could feel a little less grip on the road.
A little bit about Honda Amaze
Honda Amaze is a 4-door city car-class sedan produced by Honda. It is the sedan version of the Brio. Amaze is Honda’s first diesel offering in India. Honda provides a new India-specific 1.5 L (92 cu in) diesel engine in the Amaze. This engine gets the i-DTEC moniker and it is a derivative of the new 1.6 L (98 cu in) Civic diesel engine
On our way home, we stopped at our We reached his home in less than 30 minutes at Poojapura. His home is close to Pareeksha Bhawan and near to Poojapura Jail.
After that I freshened up, had breakfast and spoke to his dad for a long time. Melvin’s dad is very knowledgeble about all the things related to KSRTC where he worked for a long time and he also spoke about the importance of meeting friends and also to plan for a re-union. Till evening, me and Melvin talked about a lot of things, played music and then it was time to meet Divya and Remya.
The next day me and Melvin met Sini and went to see our home, sweeet home and then I headed back at night to Trichur
