Thanks everyone for their messages which I hope to reply to soon.
We flew into here yesterday for some will deserved R and R. You will note that this stop was not on the itinerary but that is another story involving Indian Air Traffic officials but our main drive was to "get the fuck out of India" so we didn't argue. Anyways, the last few days...
Monday June 24: Phuket, Thailand to Chittagong, Bangledesh. (7hrs)
After spending only 1 day not in a plane we flew to Chittagong. Great trip mostly up the coast of Burma and over Rangoon. Upon approaching Bangladesh we started to see the effects of the monsoon, many flooded areas and houses under water. Seems to be a typical day there.
We landed at Chittagong which has a brand new (air conditioned) airport which was good since it was over 30 degrees and about 80% humidity. We had tea with the Customs official who seemed to organise everything from his office (they don't seem to get many visitors there). The whole process took about 4 hours.
We then went into town and saw the real Bangladesh which can be best described as 4th world. We stayed at the "top" hotel in town (USD 60/night) which had mold on the walls and a carpet that looked like the skin from a dachsund. This was the "presidential suite". However, people were friendly and although there were many poor, we walked the streets at night without any security worries. Jason met a new friend who he is now going to sponsar (?)
Tuesday June 25 - Chittagong to Patna, India (7 hrs)
After saying goodbye to our friends in Chittagong (had to refuse tea this time) we took off after the usual 3 hours at the airport. The trip to India was uneventful but there was alot of cloud so we could not see the ground very much. The flooded houses gradually gave way to drier conditions and then very dry places. We landed at Patna just as the rain started to fall and as usual were surrounded by curious officials of various sorts. The tower actually let us park the plane almost in front of the terminal as it was more secure there. There was the usual 4 hours to get through all the 20 forms and questions from everyone.
We had a good look around the town which seemed quite nice and small (1 million) by Indian standards. Again no security worries other the worry of getting run over. We went into the top hotel in Patna to watch the Germany vs. Korea World Cup game which was sponsared by LG. For some reason we were asked to make a speech at the end of the game as "Foreign Guests". Capt. Bahnsen gave a good address to the LG convention.
Wed. June 26 Patna to Ahmedbad (4hrs)
The next morning after a request for USD 50 from the Immigration guy (we gave him a pack of smokes) and the now normal 4 hours processing time, we were off.
This was a relatively short flight over the top of India which looked quite dry. The monsoon had just arrived that day and we felt that we were only one day ahead of it. Upon arrival at Patna we went to AAA Aviation and arranged to have the oil changed in the plane. The operation here trains pilots in Cessnas imported from Canada and did a first rate service. The guys contact is in London, Ontario! We ran into a big problem with the Customs guy who said that we needed to report to him upon arrival, even though we were on a domestic flight. (he came up with a new term "domestic international"). We told him we were sorry as the process (like most things in India) is not clear. All in all, it took us about 7 hours to get out of the airport. Due to the late hour we didn't get much time to look around and going to bed was the best option.
June 27 - Ahmedbad to Muscat ( 7hrs)
We made to the airport expecting our Customs friend to be waiting but he was not around. As it was, it only took us 3.5 hrs to actually leave. We had to wake up the Immigration guy who was having a nap on the floor of his office so he could stamp our passports.
The weather was the upmost in our minds as the Monsoon was following us north and heavy rain was falling in Mumbai. The weather office guy said we should wait a day and see how it looked but we could see that it was coming up on us. We decided to go for it. The Air traffic office in Mumbai wanted us to divert south to Bombay (200 nautical miles) south due to a procedural issue. We told them the weather was fine (it was actually pouring rain with alot of turbulance.) as to divert south was to go right into the storm. In the end we flew along the north west edge of the monsoon in heavy rain over India and the Arabian Gulf for over 2 hours before getting out of it. It was a bit hairy to say the least but we "rode the Monsoon".
After some aerobatics in the approach to Muscat, we landed. It took about 5 mins to walk through immigration and they actually did not look at our passports. (we are air crew after all.). We checked into the Grand Hyatt and are paying a about the same rate (air crew rate of course) than the Presidential Suite in Chittagong. Its about 40 degrees here but it cools down to 33 at night. We are going to chill out and then take at leisurely flight over to Dubai on Sat.
Today we heard that 35 people died in drowns due to heavy rain in Gujarat State in India which is where we were. If we had waited a day as the weather guy suggested, we may have been there until August.
Mark
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