Expedition Chennai: Just Touched Down on an International Runway

Dulles to Doha: 12h 40m

Doha to Chennai: 4h 30m

"I'm just resting my eyes in between showings of Hop.

We may have experienced a sliver of day 2 when we changed planes in Doha, Qatar, but we lost most of it during eastward air travel. The first leg lasted 12 hours, during which we ate, watched movies, played video games, slept, ate again, and watched more movies. I believe that Nikhil watched Hop and Up twice each, while Vikram played chess against the Qatar Airways computer.

The flight path took us over the Atlantic (of course), across France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. I know this because I spent the whole flight looking at the in-flight map, which was alternately displayed in Arabic and English. Not really, I watched a few movies, including some that I'd rather forget.

We landed in Doha after sunset, when the temperature was a cool 38^o - Celsius! That’s 100 freakin’ degrees on the regular scale. And they want to play a World Cup here in 2022? Upon arrival, we were herded off the airplane and on to buses (side note: first class passengers board a limousine to the terminal). The new Doha airport will open in a couple of years, and (presumably), passengers will be able to walk off the airplane and into the terminal without melting. Transfer passengers (indicated by yellow tags on our carry-ons and yellow boarding pass folders) were taken to the transfer terminal, where we went through security. It was pretty clear that this wasn’t a western airport because passengers were cutting in line and going under the ropes to get ahead. The difference between this airport and American ones was also marked by the fact that we put our bags on the x-ray conveyor belt and walked through the metal detector without removing our shoes. On the other end, a man barked at us to pick up our bags.

Continuing the theme of supplying the Chennai flat, our first stop was the duty-free shop for liquor. Five adults = ten bottles of liquor. So we loaded up on scotch, vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and others. After that, we had just enough time to go upstairs to catch our connecting flight.

The Chennai-bound airplane sat on the tarmac with the engines running to keep the air conditioner blowing at full blast. We could see the mist as the cold, air from the vets hit the hot environment of the cabin. This aircraft was smaller than the Boeing 777 we previously enjoyed. Vikram’s first comment was annoyance that the seat-back screens were much smaller than the ones on the 777. Also, the “remote control” was fixed to the side of the arm rest, making movie selection difficult and video game play impossible.

Passports and Indian visa documents.

Four and a half hours later, at 3:30 AM local time (day three in calendar time), we were in Chennai. Funny, on an airplane full of Indian looking people, you’d think that most would go to the Indian citizen line at immigration. However, the “Foreign Passport Holders” line was quite long and full of Indo-American people like us. After a long wait, our visas were checked and our passports were stamped by the standard-issue passport-stamping officer behind a desk. Chad and Geetha (Indian-born) and Jay, Vikram, and Nikhil (children to Indian-born parents) hold permanent, multiple entry visas. The booklet incorrectly state "Overseas Citizen of India," but there is no dual citizenship involved.

We then headed to baggage claim to be reunited with all our bags.

Hail! Hail! The bags are all here.

To our great relief, all the bags arrived. We (we being the porters) gathered all the bags in three of those small smart cart things – you’d think that the porters would have large, wheeled platforms – and exited the airport. Valli was waiting for us (us being us the travelers) with a 12-passenger van and another micro van for the luggage. Given our experience in Maryland, I was concerned that these vans would not hold the luggage and passengers, but the experienced baggage handlers were able to cram all the suitcases in the microvan and on top of the passenger van.

We arrived at the Chennai flat about 6 AM. Unable to sleep, we began to unpack the suitcases and stock the flat. Pretty soon, the dishes were put away and the bedrooms were outfitted. Geetha’s design hand was evident in the appearance of several rooms.