Midnight Twice

It's a strange feeling to welcome in a new day twice. The plane seemed to be chasing immortality, if only we could keep running from the sun. But eventually empty fuel tanks, exhausted passengers and time zones catch up with you.

Left about 4:00pm Fri... arrived Kuala Lumpur at midnight Oz time, 9:00pm local time. I watched a Jackie Chan movie `Forbidden Kingdom' (forgettable) and the new`Get Smart' movie (better than i expected, lots of chuckles!!!) In KL it took me three trips on the internal airport monorail to find my gate to Hyderabad, which ended up being almost opposite where i arrived! But i got to see the airport and it filled the 90mins before we took off again. Somehow we managed to fly for about 4 hours, arrived in HYD about 5:30am Oz time, midnight Indian time. So on 31st October i landed in two different cities on two different continents, both at midnight.

Rajiv Gaandhi International Aiport is brand new and huge.... wow asia knows how to build airports! It was a funny feeling arriving knowing there was no-one i knew waiting for me. Felt the jitters kick in, grabbed my bag and headed out into a sea of dark faces hoping someone was holding a board with my name on it. And there he was, a lovely Indian bloke who drove me to the hotel. After relief came a recognition of a familiar smell.... beetle-nut juice (chewed by the blokes here... I guess their version of jerky???... then spat onthe ground). Some things change, others stay the same.

Now here i am sitting up in bed in the very flash Hyderabad Airport Novotel, playing with my new toy and waiting for Anil to pick me up at noon. Sooooo, will i hit the gym, take a swim or look for some breakfast?