India, 20 Nov 2009 (Friday) – Once again we are under-slept and travel weary as we get up at 6am to be out of our 2-bedroom apartment in Bangalore by 7am. We head the harrowing roads back to the airport, through security lines segregated by sex, and onto a Kingfisher Airlines turboprop to Coimbatore airport. Kingfisher – owned by man who owns the large Indian beer company – is actually a very nice airline, with recorded announcements in this alluring, sexy voice, and a pretty good vegetarian meal served on such a very short trip. (You hardly get peanuts on most of the US airlines, even on 4 hour flights.) The inflight magazine is a trip … I’ll have to take some pix later an upload them.

After landing, a big red tractor pulls in our luggage, and our new driver gets us to Palakkad, south India. (It’s pronounced Palghad, which I later learns how it is pronounced in the language of this region.)

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(Good thing DAD has his helmet on! Note the family of 4 on the motorcycle.)

After a great flight on British Airways down to Bangalore (or Bengaluru, as it’s officially named now), I finally arrive in India. I have to admit, standing in the airport I could’ve been in Mexico or any other tropical airport. The people and outfits look as normal as an afternoon at LAX back home in California.

The body scanner – a big TV hooked up to a video camera, showing everyone as a heat signature like in some crazy video game – was India’s way to catch people with a fever and stop the spread of swine flu. And as a member of one of 3 countries considered infected, we had to be reviewed by medical personnel before being let in.

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