USA....and me. Part1- In Singapore and Tokyo

It started out with getting an admit, then it was the visa.......then massive loads of packing and finally, a journey day. I still did not believe or could not make myself believe, I was leaving for USA. Its such a big thing in India to be actually off to the states....immediately you join the ranks of (as considered by people in India) some lucky few. Well, while saying goodbye to Hyderabad and Kolkata ..it sure didn't seem like I was one of the lucky few.
So it was with some salty tears and nervous steps that I began this journey.
The flight was Singapore airlines. Once in your seat, you were in a totally different world. There was a screen in front of you and a remote attached to the seat handle. There was a blanket and a pillow.... (and I remembered how Maa had been worried I would be cold because I had forgotten to pack a shawl). The magazines in front carried all the in-flight movies to be shown, ranging from Madagascar to Lilo and Stitch to ......Plus music channels with one hindi and also a channel which continuously monitored the flight progress and mapped the route.
Whoa.....where was I :)...
The flight attendants were very pretty and helpful, with an ever-friendly smile on their faces. I slept but towards the fag end of the flight...It landed in Singapore at 6:30 their time...around 4:30 our time. Once I stepped into the Changi terminal........that was it! I lost my senses and a smile lit my face as I looked around. Firstly there were these walk elevators....once you used them and came to the centre of the terminal, you were literally surrounded by all foreign shops.... from prada to gucci.... scents perfumes, electronic goods, food, diamonds, singapore kimonos, mobiles, pdas ...you name it ...they had it and you could have it too provided you had money. The terminal was amazing.......even after USA I still think, that place has no equals. On top of that, once I saw terminals with free internet and hardly any crowds milling around it...imagine my glee at mailing home from an airport....not to say blogging too.
The next flight was at 9:45 a.m singapore time. This was the headache one, over the Pacific and into LA. The last one had almost completely avoided flying over the Indian ocean. This one would not have been able to avoid the Pacific even if it tried. But the plane itself was disappointing...it seemed crowded and clustered with very little foot space or corridor space.... and even the ceiling seemed lower than the last one.
I was puzzling over how an 18 hour journey plane can be such when a 5 hour journey one was luxury. In the flight itself, I kept dozing off......my head falling in front...and the two people beside me must have thought I was drugged. I was nearly missing lunch but woke up just in time to order a turkey. If you are wondering how it tastes, I did not enjoy it much ...and the plate went back quite as much filled as it had come. But they do make it colorful....you have small cheese packets from australia, salads with red berries....ice-cream which I had to skip for my throat.
I had thought the flight was a direct one , it turned out that there was a stop in Tokyo. I was smiling to myself to think that for a non-globetrotter I would be covering three countries in a matter of 48 hours...wow!! I forgot the name of the Tokyo airport ...but it was clean ....people were extra helpful.... more than people in Singapore (I had gone around in circles looking for a help counter there.)
It was a half an hour wait for a transit pass and we boarded our plane again. The plane had been cleaned , a new pillow and blanket placed. The movie range and music had increased.....I had a japanese girl for a co-passenger and another japanese s/w professional beside her. I relaxed in my seat and promptly fell asleep.
There was hardly much to be seen from the plane....but the pilot pointed out Mt.Fujitsu. It was like a towering volcano mountain in a bed of clouds and it was amazing to see it dominate the small circular window-holes for quite sometime.
Next stop ...... LA. But I have to crash in today so I sign off here. By the way I will keep my time of posting as Indian time for today ...maybe change it when I actually get to the part about USA.