Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Indian Ocean 2012
Flight Log 7: UL102
Malé (MLE) - Colombo (CMB)
I managed to be the first person on board - not an unusual occurrence in itself, yet it was unexpected after a bus transfer from a busy gate. Many Economy passengers boarded through the front entrance, despite a gate announcement asking them to use the rear door, but in all honesty it hardly mattered. I accepted a glass of apple juice - orange juice and water were also offered - and this was followed up by a hot towel and a menu. As previously, there were five rows of 2+2 seats in the Business Class cabin. On this occasion, however, the cabin was far from full. Even better, there was no-one in either 1C or 2A - perfect!
Doors were closed at 0905 and the engines were started three minutes later. We pushed back five minutes ahead of schedule, taxied along the runway itself, performed the aircraft equivalent of a pirouette and left Malé behind at 0915. Soon after the cabin crew were released from their seats, I was given a tablecloth and my meal tray appeared soon thereafter, itself followed by a selection of croissants and toast.
| BRUNCH |
| Fruit juices |
| Fresh fruit |
| Yoghurt |
| Main dishes |
| Cheese Omelette, onion and tomato relish, mushroom fricassee, roasted potatoes |
| Fish Curry Sri Lankan style, brinjal pahi, vegetable fried rice |
| Kurakkan String Hoppers, potato white curry, tempered dhal, pol sambol |
| An assortment of bread and preserves |
| Freshly brewed Ceylon tea and coffee |
I had the cheese omelette and found it to be very much nicer than the scrambled eggs offering on the outbound, so much so that I scoffed the lot without hesitation! In a similar vein, I decided to have tea on this occasion and it proved to be a huge improvement on the disappointing coffee served on the flight out to the Maldives. I was intrigued to see that, on this short hop in Business Class, the tea was served in an individual teapot; I had only previously seen this in full international First Class. Perhaps it should have come as no surprise that Sri Lankan would get it right where tea was concerned, considering the country's history of tea production.
As I enjoyed what was billed for this flight as 'brunch', I couldn't help noticing something rather startling: as far as I could tell, I was the only one of the ten passengers in Business Class to accept the meal. (Make of that what you will!)
For a flight that had proceeded very smoothly up to this point, there appeared to be a final minor glitch when I had to ask for a landing card during the descent, as none had been offered up to that point. We made an unusually hard touchdown in Colombo at 1054 and were on-stand just four minutes later, comfortably ahead of schedule.
 |
| Date: Tue 29 May 2012 |
| Aircraft: Airbus A320 |
| Scheduled dep: 0915 |
| Actual departure: 0910 |
| Scheduled arrival: 1110 |
| Actual arrival: 1058 |
| Cabin: Business Class |
| Seat: 1A |
