golddog goes for a ride
Inspired by chopstick's excellent thread, I'm going to try to keep one running as well.
Fair warning, though: I am neither as interesting nor as good a writer as chopstick.
Suggestions for a better title, are welcome. I was trying to think of a play on 'chasing the ball', which would be both golddog-ish and the ball representing the world, but I failed. Running around is something golddogs like to do too though.
I'll start a little bit with last week's trip to Costa Rica. I've traveled a fair amount over the past several years; if this becomes something people are interested in, I can try to recount some of these as well.
Both of those are on the tour I'm in. They sound interesting, but tigers #1.
Plus butter chicken and naan. I'm told they'll sell me a beer if I ask nice too.
The food is great. Eat with the right hand, though, because they don't believe in toilet paper and the left hand is used for other purposes.
I wasn't a drinker in those days, and India has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, but if you want a beer you'll find one.
Again, everything I'm saying is modulo a third of a century ago.
I read a lot. I even read all of Foucault's Pendulum and most of Harlot's Ghost, the latter on a two-day train journey from Trivandrum to Mumbai, going home. Don't remember a word of either of them, and don't remember much about the journey, except the slightly rancid smell of arriving at Mumbai in the morning, some Indians trying to con me out of my second-class bunk bed at the beginning, and that Fischer was playing Spassky in some sham rematch.
Ignore the trivia, just enjoy the moment.
Taoist.
Got notified of an itinerary change on the return trip.
Old: Delhi to Frankfurt, 03:30 to 08:30, leave Frankfurt at 11:10 AM.
New: Delhi to Munich, 02:00 to 06:25, Munich to Frankfurt 08:00 to 09:05, leave Frankfurt at 11:10.
Not sure what to think about this. On the one hand, an 02:00 departure seems better; probably just stay up for the airport transfer. OTOH, I wonder if that means I'll need to get through Euro customs & immigration due to the internal flight, which makes the layover pretty tight.
Plus, the more complicated transfer means a better chance of my checked bag getting lost. On the plus side, it's on the return, so NBD if my clothes get delayed for a few days.
sounds elite, you'll now how time to get a traditional bavarian breakfast
Concerned about the tight transfer times, so I looked on some flight history site (flightaware maybe?) to see what gates have been used.
Historically, arrive Munich gate M28, arrive Frankfurt gate Z29.
Of course, neither airport's map shows those gates. However, I found some info that makes me think those are just arrival gate numbers, and the departures are on another level in the same terminal.
I imagine it will be fine. The other thing I thought of is that I'm not in a hurry; if a connection is missed, NBD. I could spend some time in Munich or Frankfurt. Only problem would be a change of clothes, that will all be in my checked luggage which I don't imagine they could pull in such a quick turnaround.
It will be fine. Might be kinda tough to process info after such a long overnight flight, but I'll get through.
MUC airport tends to be better organized than FRA so you'll be fine probably. If delayed a plane to FRA goes at least once per hour or so. It only takes like 30 mins anyway. Not sure, but yep, probably arrival gate numbers, I think the departures in MUC are only up to H or K gates in Terminal 2 which you are probably talking about. But could be wrong, might not be up to date. MUC airport has an excellent Bavarian restaurant between the terminals (Airbräu) but only opens at 8 or 9am or something like that.
Thanks for the info, FWWM!
In other news, I learned today that the departure transfer is not included with my tour. NBD, they said I can arrange it with my Experience Officer (at least I think that's what EO stands for) on the tour.
A little disappointing; seems to me that basic structure of a tour is getting the customer from the arrival point, and getting them back to their departure point. No worries, we'll figure it out.
Chatted with somebody named Clinton at Lufthansa customer service. He told me the original Delhi .-> Frankfurt flight was cancelled. Also told me I'd have to get with United to look into further changes, as they changed the flight.
Both the original and rebooked flights are all Lufthansa. I don't understand what seems to be unnecessary complexity; who cares which partner airline rebooked, Lufthansa should be able to do things with Lufthansa flights.
Anyway, he also assured me that both layovers are ok times to get from one flight to the other, so that makes me feel a little better.
gd, if i don't see pics of you drinking a breakfast beer and white sausage with honey mustard and a pretzel from the munich airport i'm going to be very disapointed
No chance of honey mustard.
Layover in Munich 1:35. Assuming I'll go through customs, I imagine it will be a mad dash to the new gate. If there's time, though, the rest of that menu is on the table.
I mean, assuming that the Germans will sell me a beer at ~07:00. I like my chances there.
you can do this, that's plenty of time, i'm going to very upset if you don't do it
predicting you will have at least 45 minutes of free time if the flight is on schedule
assume the best, be aware of the worst, and adapt as you go
safe travels
A pretzel you will be able to get almost everywhere, and it won't cost 5$ like in the US, not even at the airport. For beers you may need to try a couple shops, since not every shops sells some or has a license, but it can be found.
Yep, plenty of time, although you will need to go through the immigration counter for non-EU peeps. But you won't need to tell them the story of your life like sometimes in the US.
Yep, it will be fine. Even if immigration (or whatever) takes too long, I get to spend some time in Munich drinking beer and eating sausage, then reschedule the rest of the return for a day or two later.
A pretty good problem to have.
Normally, on these super-long return jaunts, I'll schedule a break in somewhere along the way, just not to be on a plane for 28 straight hours (or whatever). Maybe that will become the case anyway.
Started the process of seeing what immunizations I'll need. KP sent me a questionnaire to fill out about what I've had, where I'm going, et cetera, and scheduled a phone call for Monday to go over what I should need.
They have a facility ~ 5 miles from my house, so I imagine they'll have me come up sometime over the next couple months to get some shots or something. Probably pick up malaria pills.
Of course, I didn't think to ask what the # is they'll be calling from so I know not to swipe it away. I'd guess about a 25% chance I pick up Monday afternoon, and get a spam caller by mistake. Spam calls and texts have really been ramping up in the run-up to the election.
Started getting immunizations for the trip yesterday. HepB & MMR (mumps, measles, rubella). Turns out, the shingles vaccine I got a couple years ago was a 2-shot deal, which I didn't understand. #2 is coming in a few weeks.
A PSA for all you old folks. Turns out one of the two MMR vaccines that were developed in the 70s did not confer lifetime immunity. This was not expected, but was learned later.
Of course, record-keeping from those days is so poor, there's almost no way to know which one you got. There's a lab test to check if you have the antibodies, or you can just go ahead and get an updated vaccination.
Since a new shot is free under my health care plan, and no harm if I was already immune, got that yesterday too. Finish up that and HepB #2 in four weeks.
Checking email today, thought while I'm on I could start the process of getting a visa for India.
They have a nice attachment on the site which shows you screen shots of each of the eight (!) pages to fill out, so you'll know what to expect. Among them are a photo of yourself, and an image of your passport's info page.
The info page is limited to something like 300KB. It actually took a while to cut down the scan to get under that. Needless to say, I'm no good with image manipulation software.
OK, I've got everything I need, let's start!
On the first page, there's a few things to fill out. Toward the bottom is "expected date of arrival." Click on it, move forward to December, and the interface only allows selection through the 11th. Can't just type in the text box either.
Ah well, I guess I'll start later in the week. Sigh.
Got through the eVisa application process. Quite detailed; they asked for mom & dad's name, place of birth, stuff like that, in addition to the usual "why are you coming here?"-type questions.
This one's for Tom. Might upset some people, so I'll spoiler it.
Spoiler
Spoiler
Guess Don and Matt aren't going visit.
Later on, they wanted a scan of the photo page of my passport. I had scanned that in earlier, but didn't note they wanted a PDF, max 300KB (which is almost nothing in today's world).
Re-scanned to PDF, about 514 KB. Damn it.
Of course, the scanner fills an 8.5x11" page, not the size of the thing being scanned. Finally found and figured out some online PDF editing software which allowed me to crop it down, still too big, but found an option to compress. Hopefully it's readable and good enough for their purposes. Seemed pretty good to me, but I know what it's got printed.
If anyone wants a copy of my passport, I'm sure it's out there by now.
Anyway, submitted the form. Got to payment, they offered SBI, PayPal, and something else I didn't recognize. Couldn't figure out a CC-enabled method, so chose PayPal. $25.89 later, my application is in line and being looked at. Got an email that says it can take up to 72 hours, so plenty of time if there's something wrong. Not sure if the extra $0.89 is a PayPal fee, or their charge for using PayPal, but whatever.
LOL
If you bump into those two guys at the departure gate, they'll still be sitting there filling out the details of that form while you're fighting jet lag in India.
India visa approved, printed off a copy. Looks like I'm GTG. T-29 days.
Pray to the right gods and you are sure to have a great time. Have wads of ready cash for emergencies.
I'm just gonna stick with science and reason (well, the limited version of it that my brain allows).
Will have cash. Figure I'll exchange a few bucks upon arrival, then as needed. Indian rupees are non-convertible, which means you're not spoda take them in or out of the country.
Fortunately, the exchange in the airport is open 24/7. so I can do my first switch after getting through customs. Or maybe it's before. Hopefully I see it after a 14 hour flight.
Met with a friend this summer who's from India originally to get advice. Among those topics was how much money to bring. Astonished that he said a few hundred for the two weeks would be plenty. He was saying a tip might be "a few rupees", dinner like 1-200. $1USD=83INR.
I did notice on the visa its expiry is 15-Dec, and is good for 30 days from the date it's stamped upon arrival. I land the 14th. Hope the plane's not delayed.
