London looked beautiful at dawn; my favorite time of day to watch the interplay between light and shadows. The sun had just risen but the streets and buildings were still illuminated by light bulbs. Just before the plane landed, I saw buses orderly parked at the central bus station which conveniently connected the airport to the city and to the hotels near Heathrow. The highways (M4 and M25), running along two small lakes, were dotted with little cars that appeared stationary. Soon the runways appeared, the plane landed and I had officially arrived in a new country.

Photo: terminal5insider

A whiff of cold air swept through the jet bridge as the passengers walked from the aircraft to the terminal. It’s winter, there’s snow… I reminded myself. Soon I was inside the terminal chasing the ‘Flight connections’ sign that ended up at the massively crowded baggage and security check point. It took me about 30 minutes to clear the checks because (as usual) I happened to stand in the queue that was the slowest (I think).

Photo: Bryoz

Since there was no terminal change involved, I had almost two hours to kill in the passenger hallway. There was a duty free zone and an isle leading to a bunch of booths manned by female executives drenched in makeup and sporting a fake ear-to-ear smile that I only associate with toothpaste commercials. I imagined these were agencies booking reservations for the numerous hotels Heathrow was surrounded by or promising a holiday across the Atlantic by booking cheap flights to Orlando, Cancun or Caribbean and sun destinations.

I felt I was in some exotic place – everything was written in English and there were white people everywhere. The announcements were in an accent that I had previously heard only on BBC or back when I was learning English by watching sitcoms like Mind your Language and Yes, Minister.

Photo: .curt.

Soon my next flight was announced and I was off to the other side of Atlantic, watching the London eye and the Big Ben passing by through the corner of my window.

Which was the first foreign country that you visited or transited through?

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Aeroflot, the Russian airline, is infamous for many reasons ranging from customer service to flight safety. Here are some of my thoughts about it.

Screenshot from Aeroflot’s Website

One of the triggers for going to Russia last year was the cheap Toronto-Moscow-Mumbai flight. I’m glad I chose Aeroflot, the semi-privatised, profitable, one of the oldest and largest in the world, Russian national airline. The cultural acclimatization started soon after I bought the ticket. I had to call Aeroflot’s Customer service to request a one-day rescheduling. Usually airlines will do it as a courtesy although they are not required to. But I was asked to pay €250 even though the flight was half-empty.

Moscow’s Sheremetyevo-2 (SVO 2) airport

Aeroflot’s reputation

Aeroflot is known to be one of the most unfriendly airlines in the world. Although I didn’t have any problems personally, I could easily see why it has such a reputation.

• People have also told me that the flight attendants are rude. While that might be true when viewing from an external perspective, I think its simply cultural. The Russian flight crew doesn’t have the fake ear-to-ear smiling ladies on board, and that might be seen as being rude.
• People are still stuck in Soviet era of customer service. If you ask something they don’t have, you’ll simply be told ‘Nyet’ (No) without a smile or a hint of apology. If you are going to Russia, better get used to this! Again, I think this is simply cultural.
• I’ve heard from lots of Indians that Aeroflot refuses to serve them water. The thing is, Russians (from my experience) seldom drink normal water, definitely not on the scale as Indians do. They drink juices, teas, colas etc. Refusing someone a glass of water is blasphemous in Indian context.
• Another caveat is that Aeroflot’s flights are always delayed. After studying Aeroflot’s schedule for a month or so on the Toronto-Moscow-Mumbai routes, I couldn’t agree more. My flight was delayed by 5 hours twice, and what’s worse, the online system kept showing ‘on time’ until departure.
• Aeroflot’s flight safety record has significantly improved, but is still worse than many international airlines. Some friends teased me, ‘I hope the pilot finds the runway!’
• Other factors such as crappy airline food, unhelpful service desk, etc. are not unique to Aeroflot.

What pissed me off

Beef served in a Hindu Meal

You might know that I am pretty new to meat eating. The last thing I wanted was to have meat in the flight food. Aerofloat not only dishonored my preference for a ‘Hindu Vegetarian Meal’ but made it worse by adding beef to it.

Serving Beef to Hindus would be as ‘unholy’ as serving pork to Muslims or Jews. I innocently ate some of it and immediately felt a sharp taste that I had never tasted before (until then I had tried only Chicken, Pork, Alpaca and Llama).

Me: Извините, вы знаете, что это? (Excuse me, do you know what this is?)
Stewardess: Да, Это говядина. (Yes, its beef.)
Me: Но я хотел Hindu meal. (But I wanted Hindu Meal.) You serve beef in a Hindu meal?
Stewardess: [shrugging] не знаете. (I don’t know.) [and she left]

The matter ended there. I sent an email and a postal letter to Aeroflot’s office in Moscow. I haven’t heard from them except an email auto reply.

Survival tips

Problems exist everywhere but perhaps the following tips might help you survive Aeroflot.

• Aeroflot is one of the oldest airlines in the world and among the largest today. Thousands of people fly everyday. Keeping the bigger picture in mind will reduce your hesitation.
• Russians are NOT Americans. They are neither Western Europeans, nor Indians, nor Chinese,… etc. It’s a different culture, and it comes with different cultural norms. Embrace this experience as a new discovery, and if you’d rather not have it, simply choose an airline that you are comfortable with.
• Russians don’t speak English (generally) and even if they do, they’ll be shy using it. This is fairly common in most non-English speaking countries. Having a dictionary or a list of, say, 50 frequent airline words, will be useful.
• Russians, for a long time, have lived under imposed Soviet values where individualism, rights, customer service, etc. are alien and unheard. While this is rapidly changing, a little awareness of the history of the people will help.
• Plan in advance for delays and lack of information so that it doesn’t frustrate you when you actually face it.

Would I fly Aeroflot again?

Yes!

• I can practise my Russian further.
• The prices are cheap. At this point, that’s the most important thing for me!
• Their online-booking system is cool. Only a few airlines will allow you to book a multiple-stop flight (without going to a travel agent).
• They are as bad or as good as any other comparable airline.
• Having traveled once, the element of ‘surprise’ is lower.

Coffee, bread and a sugar stick

Finally, if you are wondering about the significance of the picture above, lemme tell you that it’s simply to highlight one of the many words that are common in Russian and Marathi. Word of the day is сахар-साखर (sugar).

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‘Toronto Tuesday‘ is a weekly photo feature about random stuff (landmarks, people, culture, seasons, etc.) in the city.

Earlier today I was hanging out at the Toronto ferry docks and the city’s small airport was nearby. It’s actually on an island few hundred meters from the coast. Smaller commercial flights and private planes operate from here.

Here are few pictures of airplanes. Unfortunately my camera only has 3x zoom.

That’s a Porter Airlines plane. It was gliding so slowly that I thought it was stationary.

Maroon-White airways. Oh sorry there is nothing like that.

Nice plane. I’d like to fly some day. Fly a plane not fly in a plane (I’ve done that)

This plane had no clue what to do. The place was very windy.

I think for such small planes they should allow landing in the direction of wind.

Oh wait, that’s not a plane, its a seagull!

Bro #1

Bro #2, coming right after, maybe they are twins or lovers or some planes were on sale.

Porter again!

I will be back to this place, when I have some money to buy a camera with a nice telephoto lens. Until then I will read your comments. These two are not related, but whatever.

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My plane too off the runway and as I watched the land of Israel from my window growing smaller and smaller, I inadvertently found saying to myself:
“येतो मी…” (yeto mee) – An informal ‘good bye’ in Marathi which roughly translates to ‘I shall return.’ *

Sounds melodramatic to me too but if my 20+ blog posts on different travel experiences in Israel were any indicators of how thoroughly I enjoyed that country, the actual feeling was many times more.

Israel is heavily Americanised (obviously) but their style of working is wayy more Eastern. I claim this after having worked with an Israeli company for five months and ofcourse you are welcome with insights. They have about the lowest city crime rates but extremely sensitive borders. The people appear to be rude but infact are simply straightforward. With Jewish immigrants from all over the world, one can never tell what an Israeli looks like. A traveler in Israel is often confused about what the country really is. The more time I spent, the more confused and curious I got

Exiting Israel is tedious. All non Jewish non Israelis are subject to questioning at the time of departure. I was interviewed for forty minutes straight. Repetitive questions are asked and someone had advised me to lie and not disclose details of my backpacking – esp going to West Bank. Thankfully I replied honestly because it is simply impossible to lie and lie again for that long! It is natural to have so much security given how much problems the country is subject to. Once the interrogation was done, they assigned a guy who bypassed all standard airport barriers and took me straight to the immigration. That was cool. The Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv is wi-fi enabled and okay comfortable.

An average Israeli is extremely aware about India. But then don’t forget – there are more Israelis in India than in Israel itself. hahaha, I’m kidding ofcourse. There are very few travelers who travel to Israel on an Indian passport and time and again the security guards simply let me pass without checking, ‘Oh you are from India?’. They added a comment like ‘I am going to India next year’ or ‘Goa is very beautiful’ or ‘Namaste’ etc.

So much still to do in Israel:
- Golan heights: See Syria from the forested mountain top
- Negev Desert: Camp in the beautiful sand and natural formations
- Eilat: It’s more of a romantic place so I won’t go alone
- West Bank: Explore more cities
- Gaza: Whenever possible…

All this shall be done soon *

At Mount of Olives, with Dome of the Rock in the background, Old city of Jerusalem.

°   Here is the link to all travelogs on Israel.
°   Here is the link to the Photo Gallery.

I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing this travel series. Your comments/critique is solicited and greatly appreciated. I am sure there will be bits and pieces that I will keep writing about.

cheers,
Priyank.

* I will be going back to Israel in the Fall of 2009 for a whole semester at Tel-Aviv University!

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The flight last night was a long but entertaining one thanks to my neighbor, i.e. person sitting next to me in the flight. A herbologist (I never met one before) from BC, she was hilarious and kept me and everyone around us entertained, but I think others didn’t appreciate it much because they chose to sleep instead. It was interesting to note that she traveled from Vancouver to Toronto to Lima (almost double time) just because she wanted to avoid the ‘evil’ (quoting her) US customs. On a previous occasion, the US customs had opened her personal journal and started questioning her opinions on world matters. She swore never to travel there again.

The flight landed in Lima around midnight and as I stepped outside the plane, there was this whiff of stale salty humid air, something that you feel when you go to coastal cities. Being very different from the air in Toronto, I was excited at the very first moment. For some reason the noise, smells and crowds reminded me of Mumbai. “Welcome to Peru”, the signboard said. Indeed

One of the few wise things I did before coming here was to book a taxi from airport to my hostel – Home Peru. I did not want to be stranded at the airport in a risky city just after midnight, trying to navigate my way through non-English speaking public. But what compelled me to pre-book the taxi was the terrible nightmare I had 3 days back: I landed in Lima, went out on my own at 2 am, got mugged and attacked, and was left helpless. The first thing I did next morning even before brushing my teeth was to ask the hostel to send a taxi. Phew! It was a nice feeling to see someone holding a plaque with my name – I felt important

The taxi driver was a young guy and rattled something in Spanish, which was mostly “Welcome to Peru.” Then he asked me -
“Español (एस्पँन्योल i.e. Spanish)?”
“No”, I said… “English?” I asked him back.
“No”
So we spent the next 30 minutes driving through Lima (लीमा), Miraflores (मीराफ्लोरेस) and other neighborhoods, but not talking to each other!

I was ushered into my hostel, shown my bed, and after wishing ‘buenos notches’ (ब्वीनोस नोचेस – Good night) to my hosts I snuggled up inside the sheets at 2 am to sweet dreams and anticipation.

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Finally I start narrating the story

20 December: Canada to Israel

Someone told me that El Al (एल आल) terminals are always located at the end of the airport, because they need elaborate security arrangements. El Al is the national carrier of Israel and being a direct flight (12 hours), I preferred it. Indeed, being the only non-Jewish, non-Canadian passenger on the plane, I was given a special treatment (expectedly). They took away ALL my baggage including my laptop and didn’t return it until the plane started to board. Since I was left for 2 hours only with my passport, boarding pass and the e-ticket, I dutifully read all of them at least thrice and then started watching people. Later the security person scanned my body in such detail, touching me in places I never knew existed on my body (it was difficult to control giggling and other body reactions)

Have you seen the guy that falls asleep on chairs or at some obscure corners of the airport? I’m usually that guy, but I spent 33 hours almost without any sleep. The El Al seats are designed for maximum discomfort, aided by the firm and thick pillows, the usefulness of which is still a puzzle for me. There were so many kids on the plane, and since I hate kids, a nasty application of those pillows crossed my mind but then the cute attendant served some wine and things were okay. The movie “Darjeeling Limited” on the big central screen was interesting enough. My neighbor had plenty of questions and I attempted to answer them, but then I gave up because the movie was too stereotypical of India (snake charmers and elephants, you know)

21 December: Israel

I reached Ben Gurion (बेन गुरीयन) airport after a journey of 12 hours. The landing was really jerky (and my neighbor snorted phew, how typical Israeli) but the passport control and entry was surprisingly fast. My passport has been stamped by Israeli Visa and immigration now, which effectively bars me from entering any Islamic country in the future! (अरेरे…)

Israel smells different than Toronto. The weather was really good, around 15deg and quite sunny. The landscape and the feel (including chaos on roads) reminded me a lot about India, specifically the city of Indore.

Airport to Jerusalem:
It is confusing to navigate from the airport to Jerusalem (सर्वसाधारण उच्चार “जेरूसलेम्” असा आहे.), and here’s what I did: Go to Level 2 of the airport and exit from the sign marked ‘Buses’. Once you are out, cross the street and walk left for some distance until you spot bus stops. Bus #5 takes you to Airport city from where there is a connection to Jerusalem (and other major cities). Bus 947 will bring you to Jerusalem Central Bus Station (CBS). Ticket 20 NIS.

New Israeli Sheqalim (NIS) – referred simply as Shekel (शेकेल) – is the official currency of Israel. Approximately, 1 USD/CAD = 4 NIS and 1 NIS = 10 INR.

Shabbat:
Shabbat (शब्बात) is the Jewish holyday holiday and it lasts from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Literally, ‘Shabbat’ means ‘a day of rest’ in Hebrew (हिब्रू). A Jewish ‘day’ starts with sunset (exactly opposite to that of the Hindus). The phrase ‘sabbatical’ originates from this word. Weekend in Israel is on Friday and Saturday. The implication of Sabbath is that everything in Israel (specifically, Jerusalem) stops on this day. This includes shops, buses, everything. I will have more interesting details later (in the same sequence that I learnt them).

By the time I reached Jerusalem CBS, it was 15:30 and Shabbat had begun. This meant that the whole city virtually shut down. The crowds and chaos on the street barely 10 minutes back had gone and everything had a deserted look. The only way out was to hire a taxi, and just like one would expect in India, the taxi drivers had complete monopoly to decide their own rates (demand-supply economics). Little did they know that I was born with bargaining skills!

Taxi drivers – same all over the world?
I paid the cab driver and was supposed to get 10 NIS in return. I was unfamiliar with the currency and too tired to check what he gave me. Later I got to know that the driver returned me a 10 Agorot coin instead of 10 Shekels (That’s like giving you a 10 cent coin instead of a 10$ one) ….. hehehe! Anyway!

To be continued (of course)…

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