USA 1998
As I stepped into my twenties, the summer of 1998 turned out to be quite a special one for me. I had completed a year in college and returned home for the summer break. My grandparents were in USA that time visiting my aunt just as they regularly used to do. They had always wanted me to join them on one of the visits but the critical 10th and 12th board exams delayed that for a few years. Now that the boards were out of the way and I was settled in college, this was the time. Sure enough it was decided. I was already in hostel for a year so was used to staying away from parents and home. Visa and tickets were done in no time and I was all set to embark on this very special journey. After all how many in my age group would be lucky enough to go on a US holiday and that too alone without parents. The thrill of an adventure all by yourself.
I was set to fly by Air India. Would hate to admit it but I was a bit relieved at that, as the transit and change of aircrafts would be at an Indian airport and not at some place alien to me back then. It was AI-101 which in those days would fly BOM-LHR-JFK (Mumbai – London – New York). A connecting flight would take care of the CCU-BOM sector. Hence, the change of aircrafts and transit would happen in Mumbai. Those days, there would be no direct flights to the USA and AI would always stop over at London. However, there would be no change of aircraft.
I boarded a late evening Air India flight from Calcutta to Mumbai. It was an Airbus A300 and used as a feeder flight for international destinations which mostly departed from Mumbai or Delhi in those days. Immigration took place at Calcutta itself and baggage was checked in through to New York.
This flight itself provided a wow factor for me. Flight travel was still not a norm and as a student, flights were few and far between. Perhaps during the occasional holiday with parents. So, an evening flight with a full meal surely felt grand. The flight was full, mostly consisting of people travelling to the middle-east for work. Like me, perhaps they would be taking connecting flights from Mumbai to destinations like Dubai, Bahrain and Riyadh.
We landed at Sahar International Airport (as it was known back then), Mumbai at around 11 PM and my flight to New York was at 6:30 AM. So, I had a full night to kill at the transit lounge of Sahar. For most, this would be an arduous thought. Not for me. I relished at the experience that lay ahead of me. More than the destination, the journey always fascinated me, be it by flight or by train. So many times when we had gone on holidays, I used to request my father to buy tickets where the train journey was longer and preferably two nights. This trait sowed the seeds of wanderlust and made me the travel blogger that I am today. Even today, the sight of those television screens showing the list of flights about to depart gives me goosebumps and sets the adrenalin flowing. For any travel enthusiast there can be few better sights.
This was my first international journey as an adult so even the modest looking airport looked grand to me as there was no previous benchmark set. The sight of the TV screens and the passengers moving about with their hand baggage looking for the departure gates set the tempo for a long and exciting journey ahead. First job was to inform my parents of my status. The presence of an STD/ISD booth ensured that. In the 90s these were the lifeline for many of us staying away from home. The transit lounge had a number of eateries and large number of easy chairs to put your feet up and lie down for a while. I knew I would not be able to sleep. (I should have been sent home if I had fallen asleep, when in a few hours I would be on a flight to New York). I whiled away by walking back and forth a few times and checking the duty free shops. Then after putting up my feet for a while decided to have a meal. I chose one of the eateries and ordered a chicken fry. Much to my shock, I was billed a whopping Rs.150. Then I used my common sense and realized that this is an international airport and the prices are expected to be higher than normal. The chicken fry was done away fast and soon in a few hours, it was time to proceed to our boarding gate. A flight to London and New York in the middle of summer holidays in India is expected to be jam-packed and it was rightly so. Very soon the area around the boarding gate was full of passengers and buzzing with excitement as I noticed the first signs of dawn and the gigantic Boeing 747-400 jumbo-jet parked outside the terminal building. The feel of boarding a long-haul international flight, walking down the aerobridge gives me a child-like thrill even today, so one can imagine what it felt like back then. Following the announcements, showing the boarding card at multiple points, I boarded the aircraft which was named ‘Ajanta’. The first impression was an absolute wow due to the sheer size of the interior just as you enter and it totally trumped the wow factor experienced the day before. The day-light probably made it look even more spacious. I have always loved travelling Air India and do so even now as I feel that warmth is not experienced anywhere else despite the imperfections. Probably the love-affair with Air India started off with this journey. Soon we were up in the clouds on a clear day. It was to be a long nine hour flight so after breakfast I dozed off for some much needed sleep. I even wrapped the blanked around me. I had a comfortable window seat and as I woke up after a few hours I was treated to the gorgeous sight of the two giant Rolls Royce engines sporting the AI logo with the clouds in the backdrop. I am an aviation lover as well and this was another sight to behold. Those days, one never had personal screens to enjoy the various entertainment channels. There would be just one movie playing on the screen located at various points of the aircraft for best viewing and one could listen to the audio using the headphones provided. They were showing a Bollywood movie which I watched for a while and then gave up as I thought the clouds were more interesting. I could even spot a number of aircrafts crisscrossing above and below us. After having a couple of more meals and a few glasses of my favorite Coke (I was still a few years away from having alcohol), the pilot announced that we would be soon arriving at London Heathrow airport. Very soon from within the clouds would appear the gorgeous, green British countryside. This was my first sight of beautiful Britain where I would live for many years at a later stage of my life. I had transited through Heathrow airport as a child when I had once travelled to the USA with my parents so I was aware of its legendary status and that it was probably the airlines hub of the world. This was probably one city which connected every single country in the world. While we did not need to change aircrafts we had to mandatorily disembark with our hand baggage in order to enable the aircraft to be cleaned and sanitized to start afresh for the highly busy London – New York leg. This was a welcome break and another fascinating experience as part of the journey, even though there was not enough time to walk around Heathrow airport. Lot of faces around me changed as the London bound passengers disembarked and the New York bound passengers from London on-boarded. This would be a shorter seven hour flight. Almost the same routine was followed. Sleep-Eat-Coke and watch the clouds. As we approached the end of the journey excitement gave way to apprehension and anxiety as I would be now on a completely alien territory. The vast JFK airport. What if I am unable to locate my family? A lesser fear, what if my luggage does not arrive? And the most extreme, what if I am stopped by the immigration authorities and grilled in that American accent? None of these happened. Though it took me considerable amount of time to locate my luggage. In such a busy airport, someone will just take off your luggage from the belt after a few rounds as the belt probably needs to be cleared for the next arriving flight. This might have happened while I was at the immigration queue and hence it took a while to locate the luggage giving some anxious moments to my family members who had come to receive me. Much to mine and their relief, I spotted them as soon as I stepped out into the arrival hall. My aunt, uncle, grandparents and cousins were all there to welcome me.
My aunt (maasi) is settled for many years in the USA and is based in Albany which is around 150 miles north of New York, and also happens to be the capital of New York state. She is a professor in finance at the State University of New York (SUNY). Since, the family had driven down all the way from New York, we did not set-off for Albany straightaway, we drove to the nearby beach, walked around a bit followed by a bit of drive around the great city, after which we set-off for our three hour drive to Albany. By the time we reached we reached Albany, it was late evening. I had no signs of jet-lag or travel fatigue probably due to the excitement but the rest of the family members were surely tired and deserved a nice sleep.
Boston
The first weekend went away relaxing, walking around the locality and meeting up with a few of my aunt’s family friends. The touristy activities commenced the following weekend with a trip to the historic city of Boston, a three hour drive to the east. We set off on the Saturday, my aunt doing most of the driving as she was the only one who had a proper liscence. On our way we stopped at Springfield at a retail outlet where I shopped for a spring jacket to complement the one which I already had. We liked one of them so much that my aunt, uncle and myself all ended up buying one of the same color. Triplet-ing would not be far away, I thought. Loaded with jackets, we drove towards Boston and reached early evening. We were booked at the Boston Marriot. All sounded great and well set-up. Just that we booked one double room, while we were 5 adults and 2 children. Now you wonder why? No reason, just cheap thrills of a desi trying to pickpocket the Americans a bit. The official guests of the room were my grandfather and my elder cousin of 7 years, that’s a senior citizen and a child. The temptation to piggyback on them was too hard to resist. And just for a night it would surely be a bit of fun without too much inconvenience. Boston is truly a historic place with loads of places to visit. We went to the Quincy Market, Boston Tea Party, to the harbour from where we took a one hour cruise, followed by a visit to the iconic Harvard University where my elder cousin, who graciously allowed us to piggyback on him into the hotel room, would study many years later.
West Canada Creek
In the first week of my stay we made a trip to the neighboring small town of Schenectady. The reason, my aunt explained, was to check out a Residential Vehicle (RV) which we would possibly hire and go on a camping trip to the West Canada Creek. RV is nothing but a caravan where you have all the luxuries of a home, including a shower and a kitchen. The visit bore fruit and and our next trip was finalized. It would be a camping trip to West Canada creek on a RV. Surely, it was going to be one exciting experience for all. West Canada creek, unlike what the name sounds, was not in Canada. It was just around 100 miles west of Albany, which would be just a two hour drive. So, one need not be driving that massive vehicle for long.
We started off at around noon and reached the campsite late afternoon. As the spring set-in giving rise to sunny days, the camping ground was quite busy, mostly groups in their RVs. As the name of the place suggests the place was symbolized by the creek. Over the next couple of days, we had various campsite activities like kayaking, cycling and barbeque by the campfire. Kayaking was the best experience on a inflatable raft. All I needed to do was to float with a little bit of tapping the water with the plastic oar so as to control the direction. I even went on a trip with my elder cousin. While the RV had the arrangements for a toilet, we used the toilet at the campsite. The temperatures dropped at night and we needed to switch on the heater. The arrangement was there. Just that my uncle reversed the knob and he ended up switching on the air conditioner. We all froze through the night with the knowledge that the temperatures have dropped severely. Only later in the morning, I realized what had happened.
A once in a lifetime experience, first with the RV and then with the camping itself.
New York
It was now time for the biggest trip of them all. The visit to the ‘big apple’ New York City. A visit to NYC would have anyways been part of the plan but here an added necessity was that myself and my uncle had to get our Canadian visas stamped. The reason being that the following week we planed to go for a trip of Montreal and Ottawa.
This trip was without grandparents as they needed some rest after successive weekends of travelling. Despite our best attempts to start early, we could not do so. However, we got the main job done, that of getting our passports stamped with the Canadian visa. So the rest of the time could be spent in enjoying New York City. We were put up in Hotel Pennsylvania right in the heart of Manhattan opposite Madison Square garden. Needless to say, we checked into one room only, this time just five of us including two kids, so I am sure that is acceptable for just a night. Being my first visit (and only till date), my eyes popped out at the sight of those giant skyscrapers. I lived in many cities later in my life but I suppose no commercial area can ever come close to Manhattan in sheer size and grandeur. The evening was spent in walking around Manhattan and of course visiting the iconic Times Square. It all felt like a dream. The place was probably the financial hub of the world. Anyone sneezes here, the tremors are felt from London to Mumbai to Sydney.
The next day was a proper day for sight-seeing and we duly did so, driving through the lanes passing by the Empire State building and of course the iconic twin towers of the World Trade center, three years before its sad end. We then took a ferry to Staten Island, with our car of course. The magic of this ferry ride was the magnificent view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, which symbolized New York City, the twin towers dominating the view. We drove out of the ferry in Staten Island and after driving around a bit we boarded back and returned to Manhattan, once again enjoying the gorgeous view of Manhattan. While preparing for the drive back to Albany, my uncle realized that his wallet was missing. We all guessed the obvious. That it was a case of getting mugged at NYC, neither the first one or the last one to have such an experience. Hence, fretting over it was really not an option. Thus, my aunt and uncle took the practical steps to block all cards after which we started off on our drive back to Albany. We maximized our time at the ‘big apple’ and set-off quite late so much so that we had to stop on the way where my aunt caught up on some much needed nap. We reached back quite late when grand-parents were fast asleep.
The next day we were greeted by a surprise call. It was a Pakistani cab driver Javed who informed that he was in possession of my uncle’s wallet. That he found it on the road outside the Empire State Building. I then recalled that my uncle had just opened the car door and tried to view the top of the building. In the process, the wallet might have slipped out. So, indeed we did not get mugged as thankfully, the wallet fell into the hands of an honest Asian cab driver. The cab driver probably found a contact number inside and informed us and also gave his address in NYC from where we could collect it. We eventually did so when we travelled to New York for my departure back to India.
Montreal and Ottawa
It was now time to utilize the Canadian visa. As planned we set off for Montreal which is 221 miles north of Albany. My uncle’s brother had also joined us for this trip. After a couple of breaks in order to stretch our legs, we reached Montreal around late afternoon. We did not intend to stay at Montreal. The plan was to stay for a few hours and drive westwards towards Ottawa where we would be spending two nights. We reached Montreal late afternoon and parked the car in the Montreal Mall. And soon enough we strolled around in the mall. I even caught a glimpse of the underground train which was on rubber wheels. I guess that was to provide a noise-free experience. I was told that all the malls, offices and public places out there was connected through underground passages so that when the severe winter sets in, the citizens do not need to step out into the cold. Also, I noticed that everything i.e. all sign-boards etc. was written in French. When asked, I learnt that Montreal was in the state of Quebec which is predominantly French. Its also called French Canada. Since Montreal was not our final destination for the day, we set-off after a while but not before visiting the street upstairs once. Our destination was now the capital city of Ottawa.
We were booked at a ‘Bed n Breakfast’ at Ottawa. So this time no piggy-backing like we do in hotels. The term ‘Bed n Breakfast’ or simply ‘BnB’ struck me, as I heard of such a term for the first time. And in the years to come this would be such a commonly used term. In those it simply meant that one would get a room in someone’s house along with breakfast in the morning. Our hostess was an elegant looking old lady who was beautiful in her youth as some of the pictures at her home showed. And I guess she still was which was evident by the fact that my grandfather ended up taking three helpings of the breakfast the following morning.
We spent the next one and a half days in Ottawa. It was a beautiful, planned and a compact city. We visited the various landmarks like the Parliament, Canadian War Museum, Byward Market and the Royal Canadian Mint. The mint was quite interesting as it had quite a few unique coins on display. We even purchased a couple of souvenirs from there which is still adorning the walls of my grandparents home.
After all this, we then made our long drive back to Albany.