The Flight

On January 2, 2008, the adventure began. I flew out of JFK in New York on Royal Jordanian Airlines with layovers in Amman, Jordan and Dubai City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Then on Emirates Air into Kolkata (Culcatta). The flight over the Atlantic was long and choppy, especially when the sun began to rise in the east and the outside temperatures began to change. On most long distance international flights that I've been on, the airline will display a series of animated maps and graphics showing where the plane is, altitude, distance to destination. The Royal Jordanian flight had this as well, but interestingly also would show a animated graphic of a top down view of the plane with a big arrow indicating the direction of Mecca. Pretty cool. Especially when you are taxiing and the arrow is frequently changing directions. What can I say, it was a long flight, I had to keep myself entertained somehow.
I took off out of JFK at about 11:00pm, so the majority of the flight over the Atlantic was in the pitch dark. After most of the night had passed with choppy turbulence occurring on and off, we suddenly entered into some really bad turbulence. The kind that makes you snug your seatbelt all the way down, hold onto your seat and start bargaining with a higher being that you will gladly go to the great beyond after your furlough is over but that it would be an injustice to die before the vacation starts. As things started getting really bad, the movie that was showing was shut off and up came that animated graphic showing the direction to Mecca. This, of course, made me wonder if the pilots knew something and were trying to get us ready for the worse. One of the flight attendants quickly moved about the cabin putting down all of the window shades. This added to the feeling of panic, at least for me. I was already distraught on who I should be praying to, Jesus because I had just left my family after Christmas, Muhammed because I was flying on Royal Jordanian Airlines or Brahma since my final destination was India. The last thing I needed was to now worry about why the window shades needed to be down. I, of course, couldn't keep mine down and kept peeking out to see if engine three was on fire. After a while I finally realized that the flight attendant had lowered the shade because the sun was rising and he didn't want it to wake some of the passengers. Yes, there were people who slept right through all of this drama and I hated them for it. And, needless to say, once the sun had risen and the temperature had stabilized, the turbulence ended.
The plane route took us right to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and over Israel and Palistine. The terrain far below appeared to be rolling desert, scrub brush hills. When we landed in Amman, it was so far outside the city that I could not see any buildings, just desert and farmland. I landed in Dubai in the middle of the night. It was an endless grid of city lights, reminding me of Los Angeles.
Now when I checked my baggage at JFK, I was told that in Dubai I would have to retrieve my bags and recheck them in, then get my boarding pass. This, I was told was necessary because I was changing airlines and also because it would be longer than 24 hours since I checked them in and the airline wasn't suppose to have bags that long. I know, it makes absolutely no sense. I looked at my itinerary and realized that I would have no more than 2 hours to do this. It was going to be tight.
Something I would like to point out about security and customs at the airports now a days. I noticed that at JFK and at Dubai there are separate lines for security coming into the airport and for customs leaving the airport for first class passengers. Now, I understand that if you spend the money on a first class ticket, the airline (a private company) lets you get on and off their plane first, feeds you better food and seats you in comfier chairs. But security and customs, at least in the United States, is run by the Federal Government and are Law Enforcement departments of the Federal Government. At what point is it OK for the Federal Government to tailor to private company wishes and set up first class security lines. Keep in mind, with budget restraints in the federal law enforcement programs, there are only a limited number of agents working an airport and now some of them are put aside to benefit people who buy first class tickets. I must admit, I was pissed off when I saw this as were the rest of the tax paying peasants in line.
So when I landed in Dubai, I got into the line to go through customs to get my backpack so I could check it back in. While standing there, it occurred to me that I did not have a visa to enter the United Arab Emirates. How was I suppose to get through customs? I jumped out of line and went to the information desk. The woman told me that I could not get through customs without a visa and that I should go talk to the representative at Emirates Air to find out what I should do. I went to the Emirates Air desk and the guy looked at his watch and said I had two choices. One would be to just go to the gate and get my boarding pass and ask them to send an employee out to get my backpack. Or he would write me a note that should get me through customs to get my backpack. I asked him what the chances were that the airline would actually send someone to get my backpack and that they'd even be able to find it. He took out a pad and said, "I better write you that note."
As I stood back in the customs line at Dubai airport, which by the way, is a huge airport, I unfolded the note and took a look at it. It was hand written and said to let me through custom so I could recheck a bag. It was then signed by the guy and had a little red stamp on it that said, "Emirates Air". Then I noticed that it wasn't even an Emirates Air piece of paper, it was actually one of those advertising post-its with a pharmaceutical company's logo on it. Great, guess I'll be spending the night in a Dubai jail for trying to sneak into the country.
Much t my surprise, it worked. I don't know if it was the post-it or if you actually don't need a visa, but it worked and I was in! I went and waited by baggage claim. I had an hour until my flight left. It would be a half hour later and my bag would still not be out. I started to weigh my options, should I abandon my backpack in Dubai and head to the gate in hopes that it gets forwarded on to India tomorrow. Or should I miss my flight, get a hotel room in Dubai and take to the night like a wild Caracal Lynx. Just when I was contemplating staying the night, my backpack came rolling out and off I went. I had to actually leave the airport building, walk about 100 yards down the sidewalk and re-enter to check in. I had about 20 minutes to get to my gate, but took my time walking under the clear Dubai night.
Once back on the plane things were relatively uneventful for the rest of the flight. The last plane I was on had little television screen on the backs of the seats so individuals could watch whatever movies they wanted. There was also a channel that showed the view outside the plane from a camera mounted pointing forward and another one pointing down. It was really cool, especially during take off and landing. We landed in Kolkata and you could see the thick layer of pollution as we descended through it. I stole the pillow I had been using on the plane so I'd have something to sleep on while in India.