Vinny’s Blog

If you were wondering that it was a long weekend and you did not a post from me. That is because, I was out on a very short vacation.

The other day before my vacation. I was having lunch with a new friend of mine and was telling him about my earlier trip to India and something that my friends in India said was taken as a very funny joke at this lunch. They recommended that I post that joke on my blog, so far I did not find a suitable fit for it until now.

Here it goes, in US everybody has to schedule mostly everything. From eating out to watching movies to having vacation. Now something like a large event that needs to be planned scheduling it is OK, but having dinner with friends ? going to movies with friend what’s up with that ?

My friends in India found it too funny at first and rather boring at last. As per them when people in US schedule for movies/dinners. They agree on a date and time to go to a particular restaurant/movie. How do they know in advance that they are going to enjoy that dinner or a movie on that day  ?.

The way it’s done in India is, Nike way - ‘just do it’ . If you feel like it you do it…..feel like going out for dinner – JUST GO. Wanna go the movies – JUST GO and that’s how you enjoy it the most. Enjoyment cannot be planned that’s too boring– think about it ! My friends in India, found life in America boring at last.
 
Now if I can move on describing my very much planned scheduled fun vacation trip to ?????.  I’ll let you guess it, it’s very easy, you can’t go wrong, I will provide enough clues and believe me if you still get it wrong buddy- YOU NEED A VACATION !! and you might want to do it the Indian way….just pack your bags and GO don’t schedule it.

Anyway, once at the airport (rushing to get there). I realized that it’s deserted, rather puzzled with the scene, I was trying to figure out what’s going on. This is a weekend, long weekend, vacation weekend and airport is thinly populated. Then it hit me right there…it’s the slowing economy…..that’s right. If you really want to gauge economy get to a transport hub of a busy city. If you see crowd getting thinner (less people I mean, not weight – that’s not possible in America) , it’s a sure signal that fun time is over and people are more worried about saving money than spending it on vacations. Americans have seen some rough time lately a lot of people have lost jobs, no wonder less people are going on vacation this year. I am doing my part though taking some vacation spending money to boost the economy. Year is not over yet and neither are my plans to travel.

Having airport available to a lot less people I started to stroll around the terminal. I found few eye catching advertisement on the walls. Eye catching ? Looks like now companies have gone full force in US to give exposure to India. These ads might indicate that. Since my inquisitive mind always raises questions, these ads and the airport raised a few questions too.

AT&T Ad at AirPort

Why there is exposure for India ? why not for China ? China is bigger economy and what not, how come they don’t have posters displaying Chinese Ads. I also expect these airports to be filled with Chinese tourists but not.

Aishwarya Rai

Actually if you may have noticed on most flights you might find more Indians compared to Chinese citizens. Not that I have an official survey results on it of some sort, but it has been my general observation.

I have read about airlines loosing business big time, but at the airport in the city I live in AirIndia is given a separate floor, they have such large demand that the floor could not be shared with any other airline and so they get a whole floor for themselves. Case in point – more Indians traveling no matter what for people traveling with kids this is most friendly airline to travel with. And don’t ask me how I know about it. Just take a guess and you won’t be wrong, let your common sense prevail.

BTW (by-the-way) I couldn’t tell a difference between Chinese, Japanese , or a Korean. They all look alike to me. There is a joke on that too. There was a look alike competition in China – guess what everybody won. Kidding aside I have free tickets for you to go to China click here to know more. Japan and Korea don’t have that big a population but only if 3% of Chinese were traveling that will keep a lot of airlines in business around the world and airports busy. Not to mention lot of noodle shops at the airport, one shop along could not be enough. Some people think I am more American and don’t appreciate China – you’re wrong.

Then it’s time for us to make our way towards the gates for boarding but before we must go through a security check first. This is another indication of slowing economy, I counted and recounted I found 15-17 TSA (security guys) 3 or 4 of them moving from one checkpoint to another and back in line right behind me there were a total of 10 people. Wow 17 security guys to check 10 people that’s fantastic.

I had yet another interesting observation at the airport. First all of these security procedures have made boarding slow. Now to speed up the boarding process they have come up with a method called ‘fly clear’ here is a link to their website http://www.flyclear.com/ and for a fee of $128 for the first year, you can now pass through security faster. Wow ! yet another way to create employment has been found !! excellent !! This will sure give GDP a boost,  a couple of points now. All this is going to make boarding fast and airports so secure that not only GDP will jump higher but not even a mosquito can enter the terminal without some security guy checking it out first. You never know, if thought carefully mosquitoes can be used to spread terror so it’s important we check everyone of them.

Anyway, back to my trip..so we boarded the plane and soon it took off. We are served salted peanuts (6 to 10 peanuts in a pouch) as munching snack on the plane, coke, water OJ, AJ was free, everything else was for sale, you want beer you can buy it. They played a movie for onboard TVs and for 2 dollars you can buy the headphones to listen to the sound. Airlines have gone as cheap as they possibly can go. No blankets and no pillows anymore. Serving dry snacks in pouch took away need for plastic forks and spoons and plates. That day is not far when they will ask you to bring a cup incase you want to drink water on board. Standing travel might be allowed and it will save you 50% on ticket cost. I think train travel where ever possible is a much better option.

We flew with Delta airlines and luckily this is one of the airlines that does not charge any money for first check-in baggage. It could be anything from 25-35 dollars, if I am wrong about the first check-in luggage, I may not be about the 2nd check-in luggage. They definitely charge for the 2nd bag you check-in. If you plan to fly in America domestic you must check with your airline. Don’t forget to check the weight limit on first check-in baggage either, it’s lot less than what it used to be.

You smell though your brain, I read this long time ago in some science magazine. Road itself does not take you anywhere traveling on it does. Nose only breath the air you’re in, sensors in it sends signals to the brain, which then analyzes and recognizes if there is any scent to it or not. This is how bad smell causes headache not nose ache.

If you remember new car smell, leather left in sun that kind, well, plane was surrounded with that kind of smell and by the time we landed at our vacation destination both me and my better half had severe headache. At first I kept my mouth shut as I did not want to be the one sounding complaining. But as soon as she opened her mouth about it even before she could complete her sentence I agreed and nodded my head aggressively to acknowledge the terrible headache I got. My guess again is airline did not have money to get rid of the smell it would have caused serious damage to airline profit.

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