Tag: Trivandrum

Nepal, Tibet & Kerala Day Twenty-One: From Kovalam To Home Via Red Tape & Doha, 27 April 2002

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Rise early – 5:30, early breakfast 6 o’clock, depart 6:45.

Say goodbye to Lerhic and Sharji, to embark on one of the most bureaucratic check-ins we’ve ever had – business class or no!

Final straw – after being told to go through security before going to the Business Lounge, we were told that we should not have gone through security before the Business Lounge and were stuck.

First world probelm this, i do not need to be told, thank you.

Mr Anonymous-Officious really got my goat by pretending he would help and then obfuscating obstructing.

As I made increasing loud and threatening complaint, charming Kochi (Qatar’s answer to Mr Sharma) saved the day, so we spent 30 blissful minutes in the best Business Lounge this side of Bangalore.

That’s all I wrote, folks, so the rest of the journey home have passed incident free.

Nepal, Tibet & Kerala Day Eleven: Kathmandu To Cochin Via Bangalore, Trivandrum & Mr Sharma, 17 April 2002

There is a placeholder with links to the itinerary and all the photos from this trip – click here or below:

Rose 4 o’clock-ish because flight has been brought forward 1 1/2 hours. I get irritated when we see the old flight time still on the board but Mangal gets the obsequious and ubiquitous Mr Sharma to explain that we really do have to leave at 7:15, not 8:45.

Mr Sharma pops up everywhere to make sure we are happy – including, hilariously, even on the plane.

That really is not an exaggeration. Mr Sharma came over to ask if we were OK and if we wanted anything so many times. When he disappeared from the boarding lounge, I said to Daisy, as a joke, “I bet he even pops onto the plane to make sure we are OK”…which he did! We had trouble containing our laughter, while telling him that we were still OK and didn’t need anything else.

We arrived at Bangalore and I sniff a chance of accelerating at arrival in Cochin by switching to the Cochin flight, but I’m 10 minutes too late. Dejected, will retire to the dreariest to business class lounge for Pepsis and waiting.

Arrived [Trivandrum] early (20 minutes) and even set off 10 minutes before we were due to land.

Sharji our driver is a pleasure, but the route seems so hazardous we cannot rest. I invent mosques and cricket matches game. From 3- 3 to 8-3 [in favour of] mosques, to 21-11 [in favour of] cricket matches, when we declared the winner.

Arrive [at Malabar House] late and knackered but switch rooms to a better suite and have dinner in room. I had seerfish in a delightful sauce, Daisy had a chicken dish.