माझा अमेरिका प्रवास!

This is the mail I had sent on my first US visit(असं म्हटल की उगाच नेहमी US ला जाऊन येउन असल्या सारख वाटत ना :D )

Anyways, आता त्याच इतकं काही अप्रूप राहील नाही, पण पहिल्या गोष्टींचा आनंद वेगळाच असतो ना! Just putting it on blog for archive :)

Hello Friends,

A very good morning to all of u!

I've reached here safely, and settling down here.

Since already some people are here from our project, at the same hotel – there was not much pain.

And thankfully I'm feeling ok, and not that much Jet lag (Thanks to BA flight timings! :) )

As this was my first air travel I was quite excited and I really got a nice experience. So u may skip the mail from now if you feel its going to be boring ;-)

So here we go :) .

We were inside Chhatrapati Shivaji Intnl Airport Mumbai at around 10:30pm, went through Luggage screening and the Group checkin for 4 of us then immigration check and the security checking! Then there was a long waiting from around 12:30am to 2:00 am, and we moved ahead to the plane – the entrance to the plane is like a duct, and we suddenly were in the plane – hey guyz, finally I was in – for my first ever Air trip :)

It was a British Airways Boeing 747 plane, and fortunately I got the seat where there was no seat in front of me, so more legspace :)

As the plane was about to take off, I was little nervous – but I was watching/listening to the instructions and the plane took off – there was change in the air pressure – so I felt somewhat uneasy.

Now, though I didn't have the window seat, I could see the top view of the Mumbai – it was really awesome to look from the plane. Chhote chhote lights disat hote - divyanchya maalach disat hotya :)

The BA experience was quite good(!) the service was very nice; even the food was good! The flight which originated from Mumbai had Indian food and Indian Air hostesses too ;-). Haan, there was KRISSH screening on one of the channels there :)

Since there was a connecting flight – we had to get down at London Heathrow(which we heard it's the busiest airport.) We could experience that the security is very strict here, and how big it is. We hardly had 1 and half hour between the flights, so after the security check we had to literally run to the departure terminal! A bus carried us to the plane, and this time there was "ladder" to get into the plane so I could get this experience too, direct jaminivarun plane madhye :)  

Then we entered into Boeing 777 – this was comparatively smaller one. Since we had not given our seat preferences – our seats were scattered, so I got aisle seat, fortunately! (no connection of this expression to next stmt) Beside me were two blonde girls ;-)

Service here was better! Non veg menu was Chicken Curry and I got good Indian veg food. They call it – Asian Vegetarian :)

Journey from London was more attractive as there was sunlight throughout journey – and many things were exciting for me – like traveling at 12000+m sometimes and the temperature outside being -65 degree C!!!!!!!!

vimaanatun khoopach sahi drushya disat hote – aata paryant jyani jyani mala "gelaas DHAGAAT" ase mhatle hote - tyanchi icchha purna jhali :) Dhaganmadhun jaanare vimaan, aani tyachya madhunach disanaari chhoti chhoti ghare(rather towns) – it was amazing! Dhangamadhun jaatana tar kahi dhag ase chhan kaapus pinjun thevalyasarkhe disayche, tar kahi velela barphachhadit (jara jastach jhale ka :) ) shikharansarkhe door door pasarlele dhag! Atlantic warun jaatana tar nusate paanich paani chohikade ashi awastha hoti, pan khoopach sahi watat hote…. amhi baryach welela plane madhyech ikade tikade phirat hoto :-) The good thing abt BA crew is that they wont miss out anything u asked, no matter how small is the thing nor how busy they are - they'll revert back definitely! (And they'll take utmost care of the children and disabled)

And finally we were near the Newark Airport, NJ. But the landing this time was not smooth - barech dhakke basat hote, aani height pan drastically change hota hoti - all this was told to me later, also that this was risky, but I was really enjoying that :)

Warun sagale kahi aakhiv rekheev disat hote – saare kaahi ekdam planned :)

Mag finally ekdache aamhi Airport war utarlo – "Welcome to USA" cha board swaagatasathi hota – pan security aani immigration waale – kashaala kadmadlaa aahat ithe ase mhanat khau ki gilu asha aavirbhaavat chaukashi karat hote – but this was experienced by one of the black US guy too.

But when we moved to collect the luggage – jiska humein dar tha wohi ho gaya :-D

 - 2 of my friends could not get their one bag each! So they enquired at the counter there and we were assured to send the baggage at the hotel. And we got it finally today morning with all the things in place! But they had broken the number lock (teva jaata jaata ek phukatcha salla – its better not to get the bags with the number locks, rather don't lock ur bags :) )

So we had to wait one more hour there to complete all these things and unsuccessful attempts to make a call to the hotel, from coin box :)

Meanwhile, we were standing in front of the gate – so whenever someone was opening it, then we were reminded that – we are in US now, coz it was freezing experience! When we went out with the bags, it was really very cold! We hired a taxi and moved to the hotel! Amazing roads, cars at the amazing speeds (Yessssssssss, aamhala ithlya rastyawar pan patchwork kelele saapadlae - now i'm searching for the "khadda" ;-) )

But I tell u, its reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cold here - today afternoon we were just out to buy some things - pan aamchi full waat laagali hoti!!!!!!!!!! aaj sakaali thodasach snow fall pan jhala - temperature arnd 2-3 degree c asel :-(

Its expected to improve the situation here - lets see :-)

Hmmmm, so its quite interesting... Its good to see new place (arey, u wont see the ppl out here - :) ) More no of cars than people - so when we were walking - many ppl were looking at us strangely :)

So i'm looking forward to the trip (!) with some work too, if possible :-D

So guyz, I know - all of u are happy - of course - 3 mahine ka toh chhutkara mil gaya!

But I'll keep u all troubling - tase evdha motha mail lihun baraach taap dilach aahe ;-)

So BFN, take care and have a wonderful week ahead! Will keep u updated :-)

Cheers,

-Sachin