Getting There... Written by Robin Pasall

I was not accustomed to how clean, sterile and quiet the aircraft was, I don’t recall any announcements interrupting the peace until well past lift off.  EVA airlines does things different. Cynthia and I had the pleasure of using real silverware to eat both, not one but two in flight meals. Everything about the flight felt clinical. Sleeping through most of the twelve hour flight gave the illusion that we arrived from Vancouver to Taipei in a flash a short turnaround and another short EVA flight on an equally pristine Jet made passage to Singapore a very smooth ordeal.

SIN airport is vast, our next connection would be an India Air flight.  Confusion about which gate it was departing from led us back and forth between terminal two and three several times, by bus, by skytrain, and by foot we became thoroughly acquainted with the process of transiting terminals.  Eventually we stowed our carry-on in a secure locker, and ventured into Shanghai by taxi bound for the Shanghai Zoo.

Traffic in Shanghai is intense, yet structured.  Cars drift between lanes at high speed, the taxi driver became frustrated with other drivers lack of experience, having the audacity to drive in ‘lane one’ while in his opinion the offending vehicle would be more appropriate in lane three or four, possibly even six.  The lanes were clearly labeled as such as we flew down the highway. I thought it novel that the driver favored a rubber band on the sun visor as a smartphone holder; he had customized the late model Reneau with black duct tape and disguised the vehicles manufacturers logos with the same.  

The approaches to the Shanghai Zoo had all the marvel and grandeur of Jurassic Park.  The grounds were enormous and meticulously maintained. While the captivity of animals is always controversial, I dare say the enormity and pedicure of the grounds from my inexperienced eye at face value appeared to be a wonderful place for near extinct, most amazing animals to pass their days.  

The zoo was well frequented, and busy with visitors.  I was most surprised at the amount of English both spoken and in signage.  So far from home we still felt very comfortable to be there. Our time was very short, so the zoo was viewed according to strict pace, which expediently had us back in a taxi, through customs and onto our final flight and destination into Mumbai for a midnight arrival.

Air India had a distinctly different flavor, the 787 dreamliner’s carpets were well worn.  Though the aircraft only came into production in 2009, they managed to get what must have been the last of the 1970’s style yellow, orange, and red, worn fabric seat covers which still made use of paper like head rest covers. The back of the headrest fitted with a now antiquated inflight entertainment system.  Most of the USB charging ports did not work and anything one attempted to plug in would simply fall out. The table trays, were splitting apart, smeared with old curry and grease. There were no window blinds, however the flight orientation video demonstrated the touch button 5 level window tint and blackening function feature.  I’d never seen that before except for old Knight Rider episodes from the eighties. The night flight however was not the ideal time to test this. The buttons even for this were well worn and mostly illegible. Air India’s seats were narrow and the seat cushion felt like a solid plank of wood. My misfortune had me in the middle seat.  The man to my left, would occasionally bark out orders to his large family sitting in seats and rows ahead. He played with his tablet continually jabbing my side unintentionally with his elbow. He was too big for this narrow seat and our shoulders would keep touching. It would be a very long 5 hour flight. As he put down the ipad, I thought finally he will take a rest.  It was then that the snoring began. I think he had sleep apnea, at the peak of his snoring his legs would twitch and his knees would bang together twice erratically. His legs then colliding with mine. I eventually placed the provided pillow to protect me from his jaring elbows, and thought i’d use my ear plugs to try and sleep. This plan quickly foiled as I dropped one of the ear plugs.  Cynthia helped me search the tight space, but it was impossible to find. Sleep was not going to happen. We eventually found it at the end of the painful flight.

As the door opened the cabin was filed with warm tropical smelling air that reminded me of childhood flights to Trinidad.  Steps off the dreamliner down onto the tarmac, were a trip through time as the passengers were crammed into a no standing room bus.  Signage reminded the driver to ‘be courteous’, and ‘pay attention’. Ironic humor as he drove the overloaded bus while texting and holding a walkie talkie to deliver us to the terminal.  

The grand arrival hall of BOM was truly spectacular.  We cleared customs and headed out into the wild, searching for our names as our host’s driver would be meeting us.  There were MANY drivers with names, we eventually found Noel who took us on a wild ride to the residence of our host.  The adventure has begun.

Robin Pascall