Flying Out Of India

Flying Out Of India

So I finally got a chance to set foot outside of Indian Soil. It has been a quite overwhelming experience till now. The numerous problems and documents I needed before even reaching the airport . Not to forget the huge amount of money invested before starting the trip.

So I am going to Australia for 2 weeks. Melbourne Specifically.

There have been basically 3 Major Things I had to worry about

1. Tickets - I booked them a lot in advance. I managed to save around 10k . but i could have saved more if i had booked a day earlier. It was such a pain to see the price go up by 6k in one day. Book 4-5 Months in advance for the best fares.
2. Visa - This took me a lot more time than expected not because of the embassy but because It took time to get the documents. The visa took about a week after I submitted all the documents. It was an e-visa . It costed me about 10K so pretty much make up for the money I saved on tickets.
3. Travel Card & Cash - I got the Travel Card from HDFC Bank. The person handling it was foolish enough to take almost half an hour to give me the rates and they were wrong. I had to go the next day to give another check.

I also got some nice and shiny Australian dollars . Bled my poor Indian pockets though. These babies are each more than '₹3k worth .

The Cab arrived half an hour before, to my amazement. But it was well compensated by the amazing Bangalore traffic. At several points it felt like the car was driving through a river.

Thankfully I arrived at the airport well ahead of time and everything went smooth after that. And I am sitting here near Gate 20 , watching random people eat, sleep and mostly stare at their phones/laptops. Sometimes I overhear about some Singapore airlines flight being rescheduled and cringe inside. I am sitting here in the last few moments before I begin an epic Journey to Melbourne.

As it happened in the Hobbit

Hobbit: You! Mr. Bilbo where're you off to?

Bilbo Baggins: I'm already late.

Hobbit: Late for what?

Bilbo Baggins: I'm going on an adventure.

I bid adieu with your warm wishes for a nice and safe journey and leave you with my dinner .

Reaching Melbourne