A view of The Netherlands from our descending airplane Equipment 762. We had such a long almost 10 hour flight and it was a beautiful wet sight to wake up to, knowing we almost made it to our destination, safe so far, and finally about to land on Netherlands’ main international airport, the AMS, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Ah, no matter how smooth or turbulent the flight, the most important thing is that we all make a safe landing in every journey we take, right?

Today I had a nice chat with my youngest brother. Thanks so much for technology that allows us to get in touch with our families and loved ones who are in other parts of the world. I’m thankful my family is doing well in the Philippines. My youngest brother is adjusting to his new environment, living in a big city with my cousin and her family, so he will be ‘safe’ while studying or schooling there. He wants to be a pilot, always had wanted to be one since the time he knows what he wants to be when he grows up, he was so young and cute then and his mind never changed. We are so proud of him. We trust he will be fine and do well, but part of me is still ‘worried’ for him, (how much more my mom feels?!), after all, he is our baby brother. But I believe all these things will make him into a fine young man, matured and smart, as he is. He has just uploaded their pictures at school, with all the airplanes big and small, I really enjoyed it and happy for him to have his dream to be realized. We still have a long way though as it is costly and we all will help him, family as we are.

We headed up early in the morning to the airport for Mumbai – Jaipur – Agra flight. We would be flying domestic and majority will be locals there. I know we would be safe it was just that kind of strange feeling I had for the moment. Our flight was delayed which is a part of the chain of late flights, but it was a comfort to be finally in the airplane flying to Jaipur. In my mind i was looking at the map of India and considering how big it is, we would have some hours flying up north. In countries like this one, security is of concern so they don’t allow photography in some airports, but we mistakenly took one in Jaipur when we arrived there around 1pm. The next flight to Agra will not take off till 3:00pm but again the flight was delayed for an hour, and the ground staff told us that the delay was due to air traffic congestion, as if we didn’t know better. We wait for another thirty minutes extension to the delay. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, it is still different when I think about the saying that goes in my place “gi-Indian, mostly late, or worse yet, will not show up“, seems the saying is based on real life.

It was so much of a relief when the plane finally arrived. But what surprised us most was that hubby and I were the only passenger of that plane for the whole trip to Agra! It was hubby’s first time also to experience that; it was like we were on chartered plane, with people attending us. But in fairness, the service was great and they were very accommodating. Kingfisher airlines has just taken that route not long ago and for sure in the future they will have many passengers going there so they will not lose some in flying such a new and big plane with only one or two people.

le 20 décembre 2007