Bon Voyage!!

2nd July 7.00 Pm ,Bangalore,India.

Its 7 in the evening have to catch a flight at 11 and still havent started packing.well lets not panic.Have everythin ready but just need to dump it in the bag.The checklist goes like this Passport,Visa,Tickets,Forex,Clothes,Medicinesn blah blah blah except for me..i had never realised i was about to leave for 20 days all alone to some country called Mauritania no one had ever heard about...Everythin had happened so fast i never got time to think on it..neyways all i knew i had to go..At th back of my mind was the England vs Portogal Semili final which was happenin as and when i was packin my bags..i managed to pack everythin in time,had my dinner and get ready to leave for airport..Mihir,Doctor(HArdik) and Rachita were ther to drop me at the airport..Made a final call at home talked to Mom n Dad ..n left for the Airport..

On my way to airport my bike got caught by police.. :-( it has a registration of Guj and the police was in no hurry to lemme leave for the Airport.. somehow managed to leave him aside n reach the airport T about 10 PM . .1 hour before the flight.. went to the Jet Airways counter.. to realise that my flight to Bombay was 90 mins late... so wud reach bombay only by 3 in the mornin..i was a lil confused as my connectin flight for dubai was at 4.30 AM .. neways Mihir and Rachita were ther to cool me down.. spent some nice time with them watchin the Eng-Por Match..though Eng lost in the penalties,this cud be the worst start to my trip,i managed to get a kick for my trip sittin n chattin with both of them.. as good as sittin in a ccday or our fav place The Beach..

finally i asked them to leave at 12.15 Am and went for my security check...after the technical lag,the flight had arrived frm hyd and was about to leave for bombay.. there were 7 passengers havin the same connecting flight to Dubai from bombay.. Jet arrival staff in Bombay was waiting for us to help us in the Transit...Finally took off in the jet flight.. one of the most scariest flights i've been through.. a small jet having 2 propellers each side.. did gimme some jitters.. neways i planned to sleep for 2 hours and take some rest..met a Madu(marwadi) guy in the flight.. he was travellin to Jaipur n was workin for some textile firm..which intersted me the reason being my roots from Surat and my dad works in textiles as well.. spent some gud time chatting with him..at around 3.00 Am in the mornin i cud c the curvatute of Marine drive as my flight was descending..As usual in mumbai was pouring.. and felt some gud heart beats as the propeller jet was landing .. landed and picked up my luggage .. and ran for the cab that was supposed to take us to the international terminal..Jet had been really helpful in helping us in the same.. reached the international terminal at around 3.30 AM ..one hour before my flight time. as expected the Emirates counter was waiting for us to arrive.. and the check in from ther on was smooth and quick.. no major hiccups.. the official at the immigration was totally amuzed listening to my final destination noukachott,Mauritania...few questions n answers and i got a green sign from him.. the flight had been delayed for 30 mins..so got some time to catch my breath before the final boarding announcement was made..while sittin n waitin.. i discovered a small group of children dressed as if they hav just completed an english premiere leauge match .. bundle of energy they were talking about the last quater finale match between Brazil n France.. i had missed the match while i was in the flight.. so i was carefully listening to their words.. n tryin to get the final score of the match ,, was really happy to knw tht history repeated itself.. France defeated brazil 1-0 thanks to henry's goal.. made me feel touch better after england's loss earlier.. later found out that the same group of children was goin for to England to attnd some football camp..nice to hear that too.. really wud like to see Indian football improving....The final boarding announcement was made and i joined the queue..

The flight took off at about 5.00 AM in the morning from Mumbai...the warm welcome frm the crew of Emirates made me feel a touch comfy ;-) .. got a seat next to the window and the no one sitting next to me.. though it was just some 3.5 hours journey it i enjoyed making myself comfortable ocuupyin both the seats..was a lil sleepy but scrathced a while on the TV screen in front of me .. found FRIENDS on one of the channels... the episode where Monica fights it put for the Wedding dress..later put on some lounge music .. n never realized when i closed my eyes.. i think the hostess did wake me up for some food... had some fruits and retired again.. next when i woke up we were about to reach Dubai.. could make out the desert from the sky above ...the roads seemed like snakes making their way through the sand..heard another announcement but wait a min.. wht are they speakin .. Arabic?? a quick realization boy u r no more in India.. :-0 .. as the flight was about to land..i could see the beautiful airport of Dubai.. it was a very long aiport.. and Rohit(my manager) had warned me to rush things ther..i had to catch another flight to Casablanca in about 1.5 hours.. i started preparing for the same..


As soon as the crew wished me sayonara..i entered the airport all confused n lost.. didnt knw which way to transit.. kept on following the signs of "transit" .. after walkin for say 10 mins continuos... a good exercise after 2 flights..i reached the security check for the transit..found the officials at the dubai airport a lil strict and rude..we were all asked to remove our shoes,jackets,mobile,wallet,belt.. evrythin was scanned.. and for guys who knw me.. i wear a terribly low waist jeans always a size + then normal.. was really funny the way i was carryin my jeans..laughin n talkin to my self.. nice to get such light moments after the such a hectic travellin schedule..finally cleared the security and rushed to gate no 7.. right at the other end of the airport.. again a long march .. but this time around exploring the airport n a whole range of ppl at this airport..it was sure an amazin sight.. so many diff ppl.. all talkin diff languages .. an new and first exp of this kind for me .. it was really amuzing...finally after walkin for 10-15 mins i reached the the gate n checked in..

sat ther and imagining how my next destination Casablanca would be.. didt get much time as we were quicky asked to board the flight...againt the emirates crew as warm as u wud expect them to be.. It was goin to be a long flight 9 hours .. the longest i hav travelled since my last trip to hyderabad in a bus before 4 months..this time around i was accompanied by an old lady goin to Casablanca.. the only 2 words i understood from her was "Sallam walle ko" and "Shukriya" .. though i found her really sweet.. all the while i was watchin IceAge-Meltdown she was watchin the same n njoyin almost all the type of cartoon she sud find.. i slept for almost 2 hours as soon as the flight took off.. scratched the TV again and found the Brazil vs France match i had missed.. wathced the same till i saw henry scoring the all imp goal of his life.. literally kickin the favs Brazil out of the tournament..again slept for a while listening to my fav lounge music..really freaked on the same.. still 3 hours more to landing and the it nevers seemed to end.. was having juice throughout my flights .. food was somehow not looking tht welcoming.. till i got some yummy chicken roasted ..really enjoyed it..by now i was gettin a lil frustrated.. countin cities.. tunis gone algiers gone and casablanca to come.. before i freaked out the announcement was made.. again in Arabic.. the flight started to decend.. and cud make out pathces of brown n green land... this is supposed to be the city of Casablanca the exotic capitol of Morrocco..it was around 12.50 PM local time and my next flight was after 11.50 PM so i was in no hurry at all this time..the flight landed and i got down.. it was very sunny .. so i got d chance to put on my new Aviators i had bought just before leavin bangalore.. 8-) !!

The Casablanca airport was small n decent.. quickly realised my inability to understand french..reached the transit and found a decent place to sleep .. met a policeman inquired with him about my flight... he seemed a nice guy and was really happy to knw tht i was an Indian..tried to say namashkar to me and started talkin Sharukh khan ..he never knw i hated sharukh khan .. still i was in a way happy with the kinda popolarity he enjoyed even in Morrocco..about 10 hours at the aiport was goin to be tough.. somehow i managed to sleep for sometime... when i woke up i explored the duty free shops at the airport..walked 3-4 times the strech of the casablanca airport..already staretd thinking about a warm bed waitin for me at Noukchott .. still atleast 9-10 hours away..Later on issued my boarin pass at 8.00 PM..met an Indian guy who was travellin to Noukchott as well.. had a coffee with him n chatted with him for about n hour n more..entered the boardin gate one hour before the flight.. and was again amazed to c ppl njoyin a bollywood movie Kuch na kaho.. bollywood sure had reached places...Finally the flight was announced and i found a cozy corner and jus laid down .. didnt wake up for food or drinks nothin.. slept a strech 3 hours..finally the much awaited last announcement was made... was about to reach Noukchott..2.30 AM local time..But sadly after a long trip all my excitement of reachin my final destination was gone..the flight landed and i entered the airport.. the scenes were chaotic as expected..was looking for Mouhjeb my driver who was supposed to carry my
VISA..he found me rahter than me findin him.. thankin him a lot.. i reached the official and got my VISA done..draggin myself with the luggage..reached the car..to mu suprise a Mercedes..yeah but don build hopes its jus an old 60s model..almost everyone in Noukchott owns one..thanks to Moujheb finally reached my apartment..arranged a few things and slept.. slept like i never slept before...
k finally i reached the much talked about destination Noukchott..will write more as soon as i wakeup!! till den chao n sleepwell..cauz i knw this blog without pics will make u do tht!!