Se Plaza, downtown Sao Paulo
Just a quick note. I am now in Brazil. After a fairly strenuous few days of traveling I made it to Sao Paulo.
The journey went something like this.
Up at 4:30 am with a taxi to the airport at 5:00 am. Stand in line at the airport (they open at 5:30). Bags x-rayed and taped, pay airport tax of 1500 nrs, check-in. Fill out immigration form, have the passport stamped. Wait some more, another security check, wait some more. Get on the plane, food, drink, land, get off plane. Nothing unsual, the flight to Delhi is short, and other than the first 10 minutes after take off there wasn't anything to see.
In Delhi, walk from the arrival lounge upstairs to the departure area. They do not let you into the departure are until 3 hours before your flight, so one goes across the road to the resting area, which charges 30 irs for 3 hours. It is 10:00am in the morning, my flight to Milan takes off at 2:30am, so I have a while to wait. Add to this, the fact that I had no Indian rupees, as there are no banks outside the terminal, and I couldn't get back in to change money, so we made a deal. For 5 dollars I could stay in the resting area all day until my flight leaves. The way it worked is that they give you a piece of paper with the time you came in and if you leave, they check it when you come back in. The resting are consists of rows of seats with two large tv's mounted on the ceiling, a gift shop and a small bookstore. That's it. So if you want something to drink, or go to the toilet you had to leave and come back in. Our deal was that after every three hours I would come out and he would make the ticket valid for another three hours. What he did was simply change the number on the single ticket I had. All fine and well, I couldn't care less, as long as I could lie down in relative comfort and, come and go as I pleased. So that is how I passed the day, lying, sitting, watching the Indian version of CNN (in Hindi). Around 20:00 they guy gets off work, but I still need a validated ticket for the rest of the time, so I tracked him down before he left and made him give me another ticket for the last few hours. He tried to insist that it wouldn't matter, I could just stay and no-one would check. This was an unacceptable solution for me, so just on principle I made him get me another ticket, so in the end I paid for 18hours rest time, and he issued two tickets for a value of 60 irs. The exchange rate they were using was 36rupees per $, which is not too bad considering the actual rate was around 41rupees per $. Anyway some quick math, 2x30 = 60, 5 x 36 = 180 so a nifty profit of 120rupees for the gentleman at the gate... And that is the way it goes.
The departure area was packet, but with a little patience and some luck, I got checked in and spent a while in the waiting area before boarding the plane. The plane then spent 30 minutes on the tarmac before taking off. To my surprise the plane was packet, a surprise because I had just checked the seating arrangements on the Alitalia website, and according to the official seating chart for the plane it was half empty (of full, as you please). The internet information and the actual information for the plane did not match. So it was a pretty uncomfortable flight to Italy, specially since I had so looked forward to having a whole row to myself so I could stretch out...
The three days in Milan were wonderful, great weather, nice relaxing hotel, and the first full night sleep I had had since I left Pokhara back in May..
Then it was time to leave. The first problem, as I tried to check-in they would not allow me on the plane because I did not have an onward ticket from Brazil. Ok, no problem, "look here is proof that my bike is on its way to Santos"... No luck, after talking to one supervisor, and he/she to another the answer was I would not be allowed on the plane without an onward ticket. Ok, so over to the ticket area, where I purchased a refundable ticket from Sao Paolo to Buenos Aires, which was the cheapest she could find in a hurry. Ok, with onward ticket in headed back to the check-in area. This time they didn't even ask me for an onward ticket! The reason was not that I didn't need one, rather, when I purchased the ticket, it was entered in my details in the computer, so she didn't need to ask me.
So again, looking forward to a half empty flight (I looked it up again..) I boarded a full airplane. A little over 11 un-rested hours later, disembarked in Brazil.
more to come....
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