Aloft

28 January 2005

I've been living in airplanes since yesterday morning at 5:30 AM. San Francisco to Denver. Change planes. Denver to Newark. There I met Roxanne, who had the tickets for the rest of our journey, at the KLM check-in. Newark to Amsterdam through the night. From 7 AM to 10 AM we wandered around the Amsterdam Airport.

I think my first taste of India was waiting at gate A25 for our flight to Delhi. A25 was the gate at the far end of one wing of the airport, much larger, and MUCH more crowded than any of the others. The boarding process was long and untidy. We stood in line for what seemed like at least an hour (though I have to say my sense of time is no longer reliable), pressed on all sides by people. Families with small children were called to board first; beyond that it was more or less a free-for-all. But once inside the plane, we were back in the Netherlands. The flight thus far has been pleasant, the airplane very clean, and the flight attendants very blonde.

We will arrive in Delhi at 1 AM local time, I'm told. I have no idea at all what time that is in Pacific Standard time, which is the last stable time I experienced. I didn't take a watch on this journey, though in Amsterdam that seemed like a mistake, and Roxanne and I spent a good portion of our layover looking for a travel alarm in those upscale airport shops. We didn't find one or at least we didn't find one worth the euros it cost. Maybe you are right, Frank, and India won't require knowing what time it is.

I certainly don't know what time it is now.