My First International Trip

Its not new to everyone , but new to me :).

So wrote to share with friends.

( its my first inter national trip after working for 6 years exp, God has made me to wait for 6 years because when I was fresher, When I came to know that 6 years exp my Colleague dint go for onsite, I thought how people can stay for so long without going onsite. But realised that despiite having very strong techniical skills you need LUCK FACTOR as well).

After so many things that happened in my personal life last week, the time atlast came for my first international trip to UK( Birmingham ) on Sunday Morning. My flight was at 4.15 AM , My packing finished at 11pm, so left home at 11.45pm on Saturday. Family came for sendoff. Took photos in airport and said bye to all. While checking in , I came to know my baggage weighed 3 kgs more than the allowed limit . But managed to escape from it. My flight was to Birmingham through Dubai. So I needed to change the flight in Dubai. In baggage checkin, I got only Dubai boarding pass. They told me to collect the next flight boarding pass in Dubai. I said ok. After security check, I went for immigration check. As I expected, they asked the office ID. I forgot where I had kept my office ID, but I was sure I had kept it somewhere. But other docs were proper , so everything was cleared. By 2 AM, everything was over and waiting for the boarding. I met one friend there, he didn't recognise me as I had mush. His also first internatioal tip. I asked there again for boarding pass. The girl at boarding reception told me to wait till all passengers board and she would then give the boarding pass.Seeing her, I didnt feel like arguing. :) So stood infront of her. But internally had some tension, 'saala muje hi kyu hota hian'. All passengers boarded, this girl told that I need to collect it in Dubai itself. I was the last person to board the flight.

I was searching for my seat when I happened to see the guy I met at baggage checkin. He had my pass. I got the pass. All hatrack were full, I kept my handbag down, near my legs. Near my seat, guy from Gulbarga was travelling and I came to know its also his first trip. We had nice jokes, came to know that he is freind of my old company collegue. I was listening to songs and slept. But in between, meal guy came and disturbed, I dint like the meal also. So time came for first international landing. Gulbarga guy was afriad of safe landing as I told hin so many people travelling for first time, we remebered "Final destination" movie.

Dubai Airport is very biggg and amazing. One of the best international airports. I had only 1 hour for next flight. Difficult to find out rest rooms. Mine was gate 226. In finding the gate 226, I spent half an hour, full of shops, it was more than 1km i walked . So big airport. After entering the boarding hall, suddenly all new fair skinned faces. I took a pause and found out one Indian. So directly went and talked to him. He was very soft coz he is doctor by profession from 7 years in UK. He talked how Indian doctors struggle there because of new rules. From him, I came to know that several flights cancelled coz of weather condition. I was lucky, I had no clue about it. we got into the flight, pilot announced the birmingham temp is -15. It was different exp compared to domestic travel, all english airhostess, good. I got middle seat, that also
between 2 guys :( one side japanese ( first i thought he is chinese) and other dubai. I obsereved headset connection has 2 pins. Dubai time 9, it started. One more same lunch came, while I was sleeping again. Cant eat yaar!! I saw SALT movie, Angelina Jolie gave company :)

First I thought, why talk to this Chinese. Then thought to talk as its new exp. He is a teacher, did PhD in UK, staying in UK from several years. He knew Chinese too. Conversation went on the topic of education and economy. I told so much about India , hw India is developing from last 10 years. How parents try to give education to children, as education is real asset for the future of thier and country. He told, U were telling different India that he read by some old author. I told Japan is nothing, its depending on US for thier market.Talk went for 4 hours, I impressed him so much, he will take PR in India :). He started teaching me japanese and told how to do shopping in Birmingham, wats the timing to go. It was good , frindly conversation. at the end he told me to collect Landing Card before getting out of flight.

I landed to Birmingham, the temperature that time around -9. Went to immigration check where he asked hw many months stay , company name. it got cleared. Collected the baggage and took 196 (4 pounds for commission) pounds by exchanging 200pounds traveler cheque. Came out of airport and looked for Taxi. Got a big taxi to Burton, I never imagined that I will get such a big taxi. Driver was an Englishman, very nice chap. He told me about Engalnd and its weather. I also told talked about cricket, commom wealth games, supporting England in Ashes. 72 pounds for 40 km. :P

It was very nice travel to Burton, full of snow , trees. roads and taxis are covered with snow. Old typical buildings. I just recalling what I used to see in TV. I could see sun also, very nice scene.

He dropped me to Hotel where I checked in and got a room. Called the hotel guy two times as I could not open the lock. I called my colleague, who is staying nearby. Got freshed up and went to his room for dinner. its around 500mts from hotel. after 10 meters, I started shivering, my gloves become Life saver. 500 meters walk is like sitting in fridge for 5 mins. he gave me Maggie to start with, prepared rice and samabar. I ate nicely and he again dropped me back to Hotel. I came back, switch on the TV. but no Indian channels. Siwtched on Laptop as free wi-fi is avaialble. Just thinking about how challenging it will be in these weather conditions. Got sleep.

Amritsar trip

I am writing this blog after long time. I wanted to write as I enjoyed it very well.

I am there in Delhi for the last 5 months with project mates, since from last 5 months, I had dream to go to Amritsar. I was planning all the time, because of project pressure, I dint get the opportunity to go. But one day night, i.e. on wednesday 4th th august, we thought to go to Amritsar. Suddenly I took initiative and asked all whether they are ready? everybpdy agreed, then I called train agent to book to train. The plan was to book tickets for 9 people for 2 days. (Going on friday and come back on Monday) . We booked the Chattisgarh express to go from Faridabad( 7.15pm friday) and amritsar express( 9.30 pm Sunday) to come back.

6th August :
2pm - Agent gave tickets and he took 150 rs extra charge for each ticket on tatkal. Everything was good till that time. But as the time progressed, wickets started falling.

5pm - Out of 9, 4 wickets fell, 5 people came out of office including me.

we went to Faridabad railway station around 6.30pm , train in at 7.15pm. But train came 1hr late. Faridabad railway station speakers are so horrible that we could not make out
what they are saying. Train came at 8.10pm, the whole compartment is ours as we had 9 tickets booked for us.

7th August:

10pm: We reached Amritsar, first we thought we will go to temple direcly and take rooms in the temple if avaiable. BUt as soon we came out of Station, we met with one auto driver. He had good offer.5 people , 550rs, the whole day in amritsar raoming in richsaw. He only helped in getting the lodge. we took loddge in Samrat Hotel, 300rs / room.
11 pm: After freshup, we we directly went to Durgaih Tirath temple. Temple is very big and very old temple. Spent a good amount time. We had channa puri there itself. Hot Puri with channa, and paneer chutny combination was great taste.

12.30: After this we went to Jalian Walian Bhag. When I saw that I remembered my school social studies book. After entering to it, realised how our freedom fighters sturggled to give us independence. So many people were killed by ruthless General Dyer here. Still we can see the bullet marks. The well were people jumped into it and died. there is Amar Jyothi which is shraddhanjali for for the people who died. We saw the museum and small video in Jalianwalia Bhag. When coming out the mind was thinking so many people sacrificed themselves for the country.

2.30: We went "Big Brother Dabha" , it is AC hotel. We ordered punjabi special thaali hoping that we will get real Parantha. BUt food was not at all good. Parantha was not at all good.

3.00: We went to one more temple "Vaishno temple" , this temple is miniature kind of actual Vaishno Devi .

3.30pm: From there we started to go to Wagah Border, it is around 30km from Amritsar. This border seperarates our contry with neighbour country. It was huge crowd there. At 6pm the military parade happens from both side, Border Gate opens of both countries and flag hosting also happens. We reached there at 4pm itself. It was sunny day , temp is around 40 degree . But nobody is bothered out there. I think, all Indians who come there will be full josh, that moment everybody ready to die for the country. The whole crowd was chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', 'Vande Mataram' without stop. Ohh that was great moments, one officer of BSF was motivating us to shout more loud, so it should get heard to across the border. Indian Border side , all stands were more than full, but the other side of the border, stands were empty. All my energy went there itself, but you dont feel that,because patroitism will be its peak. You will realize only when you come out there. we took pictures and videos.


7.30 pm: After lot of satisfaction, we moved to Golden temple. We wanted to see the Night view of temple. around 8.30 we reached the temple. Temple was really well organized. Shoe Counters and baggage counters all are very systematic, No security check as much as we find in other temples. The moment we enetered, we saw the Golden temple in the night. It was amazing man!! I was so happy to see as it was my long back dream. Inside the temple also , you find huge crowd, but it is well organized. you dont find any problem. We took pics and spend around one hour as we were planning to come next day morning again for Darshan.

The auto guy dropped us to one more restaurant, where we had dinner I ordered veg birayani, it was toooo spicy , I managed to eat half with 2 full raitha. :)

11.30pm: we came back to hotel and slept.


8th august:

10.00am: we checked out the room, and went to 'Kundan restuarant'. Here Actual Pujbabi style parotha we got. Very good parotha with side dishes with them. At the end Full glass lussy made our breakfast complete.

11am: We came to GOlden Temple, the day was sunday. It is fully crowded. Still we manaeged to put our luggage in cloak room. After that I took dip in holy water.
We stood in the queue around 12. Got darshan at at 4pm. It was very nice be there in temple. After Darshan, we were listening Bhajan of Sikhs. We listened it for half an hour, the instrument musics are so good, u will really like that.



Around 4pm we went to 'Bharwan Da Dhaba', here food was excellent. Then we roamed around Lawrence road and Kapda market. Lawrence road is having shopping complexes and in Kapda market, you mainly find the clothes for gals.

7 pm: We were tired, so we took rest in the park which is exaclty opposite to Golden Temple.

9.15 pm: we were in station and got into the Amritsar Express Train to back to Faridabad.

2 days of trip went very well. People say Amritsar can be covered in one day. But I strongly recommend two days to enjoy fully. So that you can spend time without tension thinking about time.