[This article has photos]
I have just landed in the Land of Dreams. Had quite a big journey of 40 hours from Bangalore to Charlotte.

My journey was something like this. Catch flight from Bangalore to Delhi. Then wait at the Delhi airport for 6.5 hours. Then fly to Paris. Wait in Paris for 6 hours. Fly to Atlanta. Have immigration and customs check. Spend 4 hours at airport. Fly to Charlotte in North Carolina, US.

My father and Madevi (our cook at Mysore & also my childhood caretaker) helped me pack my luggage & dropped me to the airport. I made sure that my ticket, passport, travel insurance & invite letter are with me. Checked in my baggage and boarded the Jet-Airways to Delhi. Got a window seat (got it in all the 4 flights). So, most of the time I was looking out of the window & it was quite interesting. It made me realize once again how small Earth really is.

Landed at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi. Neelesh & Karthikeyan (my college mates who now work for Indian Airlines at Delhi airport) were there to welcome me. Spent some time with them. Got some Euros & change for my $100 note at SBI counter without any brokerage at the International terminal! Then checked in my baggage, had security check, finished immigration formalities. I met a very friendly, young & loving Kannada speaking couple from Bangalore, Sushma & Praveen. Spent my time at the Delhi Airport with them. They were apparently headed for US for a long term stay. They were my co-passengers in the next two flights of Air-France till Atlanta. The journey to Paris was quite good. Was sitting next to the window & was very interested to look out of the window when we were flying over Pakistan & Afghanisthan. But it was night & also the lights inside my plane was on because we were being served lunch. So, I coudn’t really get a view of these two countries. Had a sound sleep and I got up when we were flying over Europe. Did get the night view of many European cities. Europe is quite heavily populated with lights glowing in the night everywhere. When we landed in Paris I couldn’t really catch a glimpse of Eiffel tower as it was dark.

Once again spent my time in the Paris airport with the Bangalore couple, so I never really got bored. The Charles De Gaulle airport is supposedly quite big. But, since my terminal was not very big I couldn’t really get the feel of the large airport. Had some food at the restaurant there. Didn’t really find the people at the shops and restaurants there as friendly and smiling as I would have expected them to be. Afterall even they are humans! After a one hour delay from the scheduled time I started flying towards US. My next seat was occupied by a girl from Cameroon who doing her bachelors in US. She was quite interesting. She has been the only co-passenger in my flights till date who has spoken with me for long time inside the flight! They serve wine and champagne on board in Air-France. Had champagne for the first time in my life!

Reached Atlanta which was my port of entry to US. Finished the immigration check and the customs check. Both went on smooth. Could see lot of Indians in the Airport. They were quite helpful for me as I was new to the airport. One NRI even gave me his cell phone to call my friend at Charlotte! Then took the flight to Charlotte. My friend/collegue Chiranjeevi was there at the airport to receive me. I reached my new abode in the taxi.I liked my appartment very much. Its well furnished and has all the necessary equipments. Will write an entry on that

Didn’t really have too much of jet lag. I think my body has been designed to be a traveller.

There was one more notable thing about my journey. During the journey I read the book Illusions, Adventures of a reluctant messiah which I got as Christmas present from Shakun. Its one of the most interesting books I have ever read in my life.

A beautiful view from the window. The moon was looking quite big & it was actually a breathtaking view. If I had a better camera…

Neelesh & Karthikeyan at the Delhi airport.

Inside the Air-France flight. Boeing.

Personal TV inside the Air-France flight. This channel gives information about the flight like where in the world our flight is flying. Others were watching movies & I was watching this channel & was reading book!

Restaurant at my terminal in the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris.

Duty free stores at the Paris airport, selling wines & other drinks!

At the paris airport.

A view from the window of my appartment at Charlotte.