Our day started early at 5 am for the final pack. Transfer to the airport to catch our Qantas 9:30 am flight to Bengaluru, (formally known as Bangalore), India. Our 12 hour flight in economy was wonderful, with top class service from our new friend flight assistant, Charlize. She noticed our Around The Wickets shirts straight off the bat and asked about the logo & what we were going to do on our trip. She then bought each of us a small bottle of bubbles, to celebrate our first ATW adventure.
During food, unfortunately she dropped some of the lunch curry onto Rina’s white ATW shirt. This incident resulted in first class treatment now being provided, culminating in us being given Business Class pajamas, Qantas cap & topped off with a visit to the flight deck, once we landed in Bengaluru.
After introductions to the Captain & First Officers, with photos to boot, we made our final farewells & headed off to collect our bags.
One thing that is clearly evident thus far is once you mention you are going to watch cricket, conversations are immediately engaged & new friends are made.
We were met by our prearranged driver to take us to the Taj Motel and the drive was a lovely 45 minute journey from the airport through some very lively Bengaluru traffic & streets.
We were greeted warmly at the Taj only to find that our booking was at the “other” Taj approximately 10 minutes from the airport. After more cricket conversations with our temporary Taj friends our driver returned to take us back to the “airport” Taj.
This may sound troublesome, but it wasn’t too bad as we got to see some of Bengaluru at night such as the Government building which was beautiful & illuminated to highlight it’s grandeur.
Once back at our night’s accommodation, we settled in with dinner and refreshments & ready to begin a new day of adventure to Vadodara tomorrow.
