From Bangalore to Valley Forge

Finally, my 2nd international official trip, after a gap of four years and a half!!
Thanks our travel desk's policy of having to reach the airport 3 hours in advance, and to the maniacal driving of the cab driver (even though he was 50+!!!), I arrived at the airport 3 hours and 10 minutes before departure. I had no problem in checking in, with my check-in luggage weighing 11 kgs (and my laptop bag, around 4 kgs). I finished the emmigration formalities early, as there wasn't much crowd (especially because arrangements are such in BIAL). I had 2 hours to wait for the flight. The only timepass was to get into every duty-free shop at BIAL. But the problem there is, a saleman immediately comes and asks you what do you want. Next time, I think i'll wear a t-shirt that reads, "no, I am just looking around".. Whatever it is, Johnny Walker Blue Label costs only 146$ in BIAL (some 7500 rs i think) what costs over 17k in retail shops in karnataka!!
The Air France flight departed on time. Fortunately, I had got an aisle seat. It was in the last row (after watching Air Crash Investigations, I know that last row is the safest place in a plane!!). I was happy that I chose Air France over Lufthansa, because Air France offers tv for individual seats. The food was also nice, but there was only one kind of beer available, heineken. So I had only one can of it for the whole trip :-D. I started watching the movie 'I Love you, Man', but fell asleep as the movie went on. When I woke up, we were flying over Pakistan. I did not watch that movie any further. Instead, I watched 'yes man'.
The plane landed in Paris at 8.30 AM local time. And moving from that exit terminal to my boarding terminal was a bad experience. I wonder why they force people to go through all the checks again!! But I was done with these formalities within an hour. I had 4 more hours to do nothing, with no euros in my hand. I withdrew 20 euros from my forex card, and spent almost all of it on beer and food. Not enough, I withdrew another twenty euros from my indian atm card (just to try) and spent all that too on beer and food. Food and beer are so expensive there. A pint of budweiser, which costs 45 Rs, costs 5 euros. That's a whopping 300 Rs!!! Friggin' no other choice. Even the choice of beer is poor. In all the shops, I could only see budweiser and heineken.
Then I took a stroll along the corridor of the duty-free shops, visiting some of the shops. Here blue label costs 135 euros. That's more than 146$, isn't it? So booze is expensive in paris duty-free compared to bangalore duty-free!!!
It was quite boring to sit there, and I was afraid to sleep, lest I might miss the plane. Even the internet seems very expensive at 5 euros an hour. Wi Fi costs twice as much.
Finally, it was time to board the US bound flight. A racist security officer stopped me and examined all the things I had. He even squeezed my shoes and twisted them. Then he opened my laptop, even my pringles chips box and when he opened my laptop bag's pocket, he saw my prayer book. Then he opened my passport, saw my name, and simply let me go. Bastard, f*cking racist. I wish I could kick his nuts right there.
This time, I took a nap as soon as I was on my seat. Sadly, I was seated between two other guys and the space was cramped. When I woke up, we were flying over England. I had food and heineken and watched 'rab ne banadi jodi' and then 'the international'. Some time pass. Sleep was elusive, mostly because I could not relax my body at all. So I would go to the back of the plane and stand there, drinking soft drinks once in a while from the self-service cart.
The last half an hour of the flight was quite eventful. Soon after the captain announced descent, the plane started rumbling and then shaking more. I switched my tv to flight details and could see that the plane was losing altitude suddenly (which was more evident when I got the feeling that the ground under me was collapsing) and then climbing a bit and then descending at normal pace. And everyone in the plane seemed tense. Now I knew what it means to travel by Air France!! I had never had this kinda experience in a plane before this (although I had pissed all over the toilet once in a JetLite, when the plane went into turbulence as I was peeing). The last 2000 feet or so were the most horrid, with the plane shaking too much and turning in both directions. I wasn't sure at that time if this happens usually. I was sure that it doesn't happen usually when all the people clapped once the plane landed!!!
Then I passed through emmigration (silly americans ask too many questions before granting stay). When I went to the cab area, a guy came and asked me if I wanted taxi. I nodded and he took me to his car. As we were walking, he said he will charge me the same amount as normal taxi, 85$. It seemed a bit more than what I was told, 75$. But then he went on to mention that he had come to pick up a passenger who had cancelled his trip, so he had to go back empty. I was confused until I saw the car, a Lincoln Limousine. Whew!!!!!! Sitting in the car gives such a majestic feeling. Luxury is abundant inside the car. The driver was friendly too, although his grammar was very poor. I thought all americans spoke english well. And he could not understand some of the words I used, 'afraid', 'confident' etc... Quite strange!!!!!!!
I arrived at my hotel, Embassy Suites, which is owned by Hilton. Reminds me of a Shivanand joke, "wow man, you are going to paris and then to hilton". The room isn't very spacious, but good enough for 2 people. And I am alone. No cooking area, just a microwave and a coffee maker and a fridge. The convenience store down there has some microwaveable burgers, and with the restaurant (http://www.ebarlounge.com/) in the hotel serving nice food, I should have no trouble.
But I did, when I went to the restaurant. Again, not much of a choice of beer. I had corona. Without knowing the quantity, I ordered calamari (squid) and caesar salad. I could eat only about three-fourth from each plate, that too after a real struggle. That when I was terribly hungry. Now I know how much I should order.
Then I went to sleep at 9 PM. When I woke up, it was 4 AM, and I wasn't sleepy or tired anymore. After passing time on the laptop for 3 hours, it was time for breakfast. The buffet place was pretty crowded, that being a Sunday morning. I tried my best to control my calories, gobbling green melon and water melon as much as possible, still I could not stop myself from having an omelet with mushrooms and cheese.
By 10 or so, Saravana (a colleague from Bangalore, who is staying not-so-closeby) dropped by. He is familiar with the area, so we walked towards a small shopping centre.. err.. center... We reached there by 11.30. The place isn't pedestrian friendly. There are only trees and lawns by the road side. No footpaths. People don't seem to walk at all. We only saw one lady with her dog. We had to walk on the lawn most of the times and when we could not, we had to get down on the road (and bear the fear inside us for being fined by the cops for jay-walking).
The pub in that area, Dylan's pub, hadn't opened yet, so we took a stroll around a park there and came to the shopping centre.. oops sorry, same mistake.. center... at 12. The pub hadnt opened yet. So we went to the asian restaurant on the right of it. Saravana wanted to lunch at an indian restaurant on the left of the pub. But I managed to convince him not to have the food one gets in India everyday. We had some nice south east asian food, and then we shopped at the supermarket and walked back to the hotel.
After a while, Saravana realised that he had not much money for the next few days. So another trip to the shopping center.. damn, i got the spelling right this time... now the pub had opened, so I drank a pint of miller lite, while saravana had only water. Then we bought 2 six-packs of beer for ourselves. Saravana preferred budweiser and i could not convince him to go for beers that aren't available in india. I guess that's ok, because he doesn't get to drink that often in india. I took guinness and we walked back to the hotel. The Guinness is lying in the fridge, and I am controlling my urge to drink some. All because I don't want to take too many calories in one day....