Travel Travails

After 8 years I am touching the country I grew up in, it feels familiar and yet vague. The UAE, more specifically the Dubai Airport, I can’t go out since I am in transit for UK. Every moment there is an announcement, my ears perk up in attention only to find that the announcement is made first in Arabic and then in English. Reminds me a lot of my childhood days, especially when I saw at Duty Free Patchi Chocolate collection, the very same chocolates that my dad used to get me for my birthday and which I would carry to school every year for my friends and teachers. God, how things have changed? Growing up in UAE, latter part of my school and college education at Kerala, final touch of my education at Chennai and then so many more years there itself for my career, married into a family who is settled in Pune and now travelling to Scotland UK.

Its 2:15 am here now, India time 3:45 am and Shaiwal is sleeping away, I feel disoriented and perhaps even a little disturbed, I would love to go out of the airport right now and slip into the city. Not knock on the doors of either relatives or friends staying here, but just roam around and see how far the city has changed, go to familiar spots and just silently say hi……maybe someday I will.

The next leg of my journey begins in 4 hours and I suppose we have another 6 hours of travelling to go before we reach Glasgow and from there an hour by road to reach Edinburgh. It will be only 12:30 noon UK time when we finally reach but it would be almost 24 hours of journey for us. Need to reach and make sure we don’t sleep till at least 9pm so that we can reduce the effects of jet lag as much as possible.

Anxious moments – I started shivering from the cold in the flight from Chennai to Dubai itself and that’s just a/c, wonder how Mother Nature will greet me there in UK? I heard it just stopped snowing a few days back. Even with the tonnes of warm clothes I am carrying and wearing I still somehow get the feeling that It’s all going to be inadequate. The bright side however is that I might be able to burn calories trying to withstand the cold. :)

Tuesday – 9th March

I am in Scotland now, reached yesterday afternoon. Its definitely cold here but its bearable if you have tonnes of layers of clothing on and gloves and woollen caps and muffler…..oh hell when you have your entire wardrobe on you are okay? :) I saw snow peaked mountains for the first time and they reminded me of the Himalayas. Luckily for me the snow has mostly melted off so the temperature has picked up. However I did see traces of snow on the way from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

Our hotel which is called the Original Raj hotel is Indian in its décor and UK in its management, its even got pictures of Gayatri Devi hung up in the sitting room. Inside our room we have a heater which allows me to come out of my clothes cocoon for a little while. A healthy ten minutes walk leads us to the nearby shops. I enjoyed the walking part, made me feel alive, although I must admit that the cold wind cuts right through my clothes and makes my skin feel as if it had been in cold storage. I saw a post office nearby and a church, two things which made me happy.

Got our food from Greggs, which I gather is a famous chain for sandwiches, bread and baked products. It prints on its food stuff the calories in it, like for example a chicken salad sandwich we bought has 380 calories in it. The speciality of this place is that it sells bread items which are made freshly on that day itself, no old stuff. The sandwiches are lovely albeit with no salt and no spice, but still very yummy. I am hoping to keep a count of my calorie intake and try not to balloon up out here.

The fruits look amazing especially the green apples, I got a particular kick while picking them up since we rarely get them in India, if at all we do. There is a small castle near the hotel and I am just itching to get inside, Shaiwal however assures me that I would get prosecuted the minute I did. There are a lot of Keep out signs hung all around the small castle, well you win some and you loose some, right?

Once I get more used to the weather here I plan to go for long walks, right now I almost had my ears frozen off after just a half hour walk today morning. I hope we find a decent place to stay at soon, not that the hotel is any bad but because it’s so inconvenient to live out of your suitcases, I keep thinking I have to pack all this back when we have to move out.

Oh yeah i almost forgot i had this lovely moment today where the hotel receptionist called up around noon and enquired whether i would require any room service. I declined since i had already stocked up some sandwiches. Later however, i discovered that what i had declined was not food but an enquiry as to whether i wanted my room cleaned out or not!!!! Boy - o - boy, what a mess!! :D

Signing off
Exuberant Traveller