Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: New Year in India (2016/17)
And so to Kerala
I slept until 8:45am - giving an impressive total of 11.5hrs - and felt very much better for it, while still recognising that I hadn't entirely shaken off whatever it was that had been affecting me. Breakfast was once again at the Cubbon Pavilion, and today's clientele seemed to consist largely of business people. We then passed the remaining time in the room, repacking and relaxing until eventually checking out in time for our booked 12:30 transfer to the airport.
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A thoroughly impressive airport experience awaited us at BLR, with all formalities being effortlessly completed. Buying 'Red Carpet' passes for around GBP6 each proved to be a masterstroke, providing access to an impressive lounge with plenty of space. We got some food, the cost of which was included in the passes, and bought a beer each.
Our stay in the lounge passed all too quickly and
soon it was time for the flight itself, the second short domestic
hop of the trip on board Air Asia India. We had only been on board
for a couple of minutes when it became apparent that I was going to have a
mother and screaming baby behind me in 2F. Very much worse was the
fact that the baby was clearly needing changed, a situation that was
causing the most appalling pong!
Ah well, it couldn't really be helped. I told myself that it was
payback time for being in the lounge earlier.
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Once again, our driver was waiting for us on arrival at our latest destination: Kochi (also known as Cochin) in the state of Kerala. We were transferred to the Crowne Plaza in a Toyota Etios, a car model developed specifically for the Indian market. The hotel looked very nice from outset, and we were delighted to hear that we had been upgraded to a Junior Suite.
Drinks and dinner were in the lobby-level ConneXions bar. Neither of us particularly liked the overall 'feel' of this venue, which seemed to be lacking in atmosphere. Better news was that whatever minor ailment had been nagging at me during the last 24hrs now seemed to have disappeared altogether.