- My first flight and the first foreign trip, to France
- My first cave exploration – Grotte “Le Cuves” de Sassenage
(This is an old account of First Foreign trip, written way back in 2002 on loose papers by Jaishree. She had no desire to put it on the blog. She feels that its old and not well-written. I differ. I feel that whatever be the style of writing, it honestly captures her feelings, at that time, of her very first foreign trip. So I typed the article and I am sharing it. Read this diary account of a first time air-traveler).
Foreign Trip to France
The famous novel “A tale of two cities” by Charles Dickens describe London and Paris. This summer (year 2002) when Manish went to Grenoble, France (a very beautiful city of France), I got the chance of visiting one of these two big, historical cities of Europe. Manish had planned for a four-day vacation after two weeks of reaching there. We decided to visit places around Grenoble for first two weekends.
The Flight
Let me start with our flight. We took a Swiss Air Flight from IG Airport, New Delhi at 1:05 am.
Delhi gives a fantastic view of glittering roads and moving vehicles from the sky, creating a confusion of it to be a Deepawali night. After just a few minutes when our plane crossed NCR boundary (of-course sky boundary), nothing was visible and there was complete darkness outside.
As I am among those unlucky fellow who cannot sleep anywhere except on a proper bed, I continued looking on the screen options on a small TV set in front of my seat. After seven hours of flying when my watch showed 8:00 am it was the dawn time in Europe. Slowly and slowly the sun took away the dark cover of night to let the mother earth awake refreshed and invigorated.
The Experiences of my first flight
As I was continuously watching outside from window. I did not miss a single scene. Now the cottony clouds were very clearly visible from the window giving me a feeling of flying on Alladin’s carpet.
Soon the air hostess arrived smilingly concealing the swollen eyes of sleep on board. Being a vegetarian I enjoyed my tea with toast, followed by a delicious apple juice.
This was my first chance to taste packed juices and till date I enjoy them so much that after every few days my taste buds crave for them – best is pineapple followed by litchi and apple.
My first Foreign trip – View of Zurich from the Plane
After a short while it was the time to land at Zürich. As plane started coming down, the unbelievably beautiful Switzerland opened its arms to embrace everyone in a way as serene and loving as a mother throws its arms to her children.
Pink, green and brown belts with visibly small houses appeared and disappeared into completely dark green belts. It was just like the kid’s game where they have arranged colorful blocks and tiny houses just freely without worrying for any limitation.
As our plane drew closer to ground, these belts revealed them to be nothing but beautiful farms with moderate to large houses, each invariably occupied with a sparkling blue swimming pool.
All these 15-20 minutes nature touched my soul healing it, rejuvenating it, removing each and every bit of undesirable thoughts and worries. When I got out of the plane, I felt so lightweight as eyelids. Everything, everywhere was presenting in nature the serenity of child’s eye.
My first Foreign trip – Arrival at Zurich Airport
Zürich airport is a very busy airport. Our next flight to Lyon, France was after two hours so we took place in the non-smoking section of the sitting hall.
There one can see all races of the mankind, whites, Asians, brown, blacks and soot blacks. You can distinguish people by their dresses, languages and the list goes on depending upon the extent of one’s knowledge.
Having taken a thorough look at each and everyone, I felt myself attracted to various duty-free shops offering jewelry, watches, miniatures to very large-sized Swiss bull bells, paintings, crockery, beverages and many more – feast for human eyes but a robbery on pocket.
After closely watching things twice or sometimes thrice calculating their cost in Indian Rupees. Consoling myself with Thoreau’s beautiful lines, “Enjoy the land and world, but don’t desire to own it”, I returned to Manish with a forty inch smile. He, as usual saw me very happy, beamed with joy.
My first Foreign trip – Flight to Lyon from Zurich
We checked out next flight time and gate number and proceeded in due time to the gate. A bus took us to our next plane in just two-three minutes. This was a small plane compared to the previous one. It had a seating arrangement of 2×2. As soon as I took my seat, I turned my head to take another view of Switzerland.
The plane started running and stopped, then it started again and this time it flew. Now we are going from Switzerland to France which shares common boundary with former.
On this small journey the plane give a panoramic view of Switzerland. Small and large blue lakes started appearing amidst widely spread farms and houses and only sometimes a few large buildings when it was urban area.
I started counting lakes without compromising on the scenic ground but after reaching 16 I stopped. Switzerland is a country where every few kilometers there is a natural lake.
My first Foreign trip – Lyon to Grenoble
This is half an hour journey landing us at Lyon airport in France. There we collect our luggage without any hassle and look for the enquiry counter to know about the bus-gate.
The girl at the desk gives me first French conversation by saying, “BonJour” (Good day) and of course the bus timings for Grenoble.
Our bus is to arrive after twenty minutes. The bus arrives without any noise and so arrives the conveniences which are for-the-first-time-in-life for me.
You don’t have to climb in the bus, you just step-in. The luggage space is on both outer side, where luggage weighing thirty kg can be very easily slided-in from the trolley.
Passengers simply punch their ticket. There is a seat for everybody. Seat is so comfortable that one wonders if he is in the bus or in his own sofa-set. The bus starts and moves on without a slightest of noise jerk or bump. Now our bus is entering auto-route which charge you and provide you a much speedier and shorter way through.
My first Foreign trip – Views from the bus Journey
Lush-green surroundings, meticulously clean roads (noise-less windows help me sit without headache), azure sky allures me to keep my eyes open despite a strong urge to sleep.
There for the first time I found that the electricity can be distributed underground also as against the havoc of visible electricity wires in Delhi.
Half-sleepily I enjoy vegetation, mountains, water-falls, and clean, clear (un-interrupted by wires) view of sky. At the end of auto-route, our bus slows down to sensor checks which allow one to pass only if they sense the cards installed inside your vehicle. “Wow” no manual checking!!
One hour journey ends at Grenoble bus-stop where we take a taxi to our Apart-Hotel ‘Citadines’.
My first Foreign trip – Advice for important communications
Many French people do not speak English. Here I learn my second French word – ‘Parle Anglais’ (Do you speak English?).
Manish gives me an important advice if a person doesn’t speak English, don’t make a complete sentence, just speak the essential words loudly and clearly. We tell our taxi driver the name of our hotel and he drops us there. Labour, as in any developed country, is very costly here in France as well and that accounts for expensive taxis.
My first Foreign trip – the Apart-hotel Citadines
‘Citadines’ is an apart-hotel. As soon as you enter inside you note a difference from their Indian counterpart.
There is no sentry here. Law and order situation in Grenoble and almost everywhere in France is good except in Paris.
Almost all buildings here have simple glass-doors which can be opened by pressing correct access code and this code can be changed easily. The Hotel does not boast a big staff, just three or four members only. The girl at the desk hands over the key to our apartment.
When Manish opened the door, I was just speechless. It was a compact apartment. Each and every facility was provided which included fully equipped kitchen, room with bed-cum-sofa, TV, music-system, dining, study table, simple but aesthetically designed lamps and a beautiful bathroom.
By then I was very tired, so took a quick bath and fell asleep.
My first Foreign trip – unforgettable experience at La-Bombay
When we got up it was six pm and I was feeling very hungry. Manish took me to the “La Bombay” restaurant where food was ready and the owner welcomes us as if it was our home. We ate heartily and the generous owner “Bittuji” refused to accept money for food.
It was the first of many such events of hospitality which were to come by and by.
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