MANASVI SHARMA BAWA

Travel, for the soul of a wanderer is the most open soul of them all. Travel, for your mind shall open to possibilities. Travel, for the World will teach you what your sheltered home couldn’t.

No, I am not quoting Shakespeare, I very often do but not this time around. These are my thoughts just in poetic words. Traveling has always been something I liked doing and growing up in an Army house it came naturally. But recently I have been introduced to a World that is beyond my imagination and comfort zone.

This was my second trip to Australia and second solo air journey. Airports can be very scary places for someone who hasn’t traveled abroad before. The “oh my GOD is my luggage overweight”, “OH MY GOD, Immigration”, “OMG OMG security check” and the worst of them all, “OMG what if I miss my connecting flight” fear looms on your mind. Adding to that all the American movies I have seen about immigration, security checks and big bad men. Jesus!

Anyway, I was trained and trained well. My husband and in-laws were hands on and told me all the to-do’s and don’t. Phew. So there I went on my third international trip and here is how it all unfolded.

1. Packing: I am a compulsive packer. I pack ten days in advance just t be very sure I am not missing anything. For a trip to Sydney in the month of August I needed to pack woolies and lots of them. Even though the winter is phasing out by the time, it still gets chilly and with the winds its most definitely safe to wear a sweater. So I packed and like a pro.

• Hack 1: Roll them clothes. After extensive research I found that if you rolled your clothes, you could fit more things in and it was true. So I rolled it all, from sweaters to pants to shirts to mufflers. I rolled everything!
• Hack 2: Avoid going overweight. You have a certain amount you can carry in your check in baggage, try and keep it that much or you have to pay up more! Avoid.
• Hack 3: Always carry one change of clothes, your intimates and a book (if you like reading) in your cabin luggage. Bags magically don’t arrive with you sometime, trust me, its happened to me. This advice was given to me by my in-laws and husband, I swear by it.
• Hack 4: Just pack what you need. We girls have a tendency to carry everything, avoid!

2. Airport formalities: For some reason immigration officers love chatting me up. I am okay with that as long as they are nice to me and don’t point any fingers at me. But the scary part is the luggage weigh in. I was carrying a LOT of things this time around. I was allowed 30 kgs (Singapore Airlines) as check in baggage and 7 for cabin baggage and I put the weighing scale at home to test and then some, but I was still worried. (I am a worrier I have realised, I pack ten days before the scheduled departure as I mentioned earlier. Also each extra kg you add to the 30 costs a good amount, budget bye bye). Anyway, as I put my big red samsonite bag on the weighing belt I was just praying it to be below 30 and *voila* it WAS!! *Sigh of relief*  That done, I moved to immigration, had a good chat, went through to security and then I was out in the open to enjoy Duty Free and eventually board my flight.

3. Delhi-Singapore-Sydney: I din’t get lost and that is the biggest thing! I was ready to board the flight on time on both occasions. Also, when you are at Changi Airport, Singapore the chances of you getting lost in duty free or the terminals is very high. I am not kidding. It’s all so beautiful and big that it can be overwhelming. My advice, be before time (that was the advice I was given and it worked) because when you are in transit your gates can change half an hour before the security check starts and it has happened to me once.

4. Touchdown at Sydney Airport: The Sydney Airport isn’t as big as I expected it to be. It’s fairly easy for you to find your way without asking anyone, the sign boards help. You need to fill out a couple of forms like the immigration form and a form inquiring about your health status and these are given to you while you are waiting board in Singapore itself, so I fill mine up on the get go instead of waiting for the last minute. Right, so once you’re done with immigration, head to baggage and that takes time. My bags din’t show up for the longest time and I did end up picking someone else’s bag only to realise on time and put it back. Phew. Then came the mighty customs line and being Indian I was made to stand in a line with the sniffer dog too (I was not carrying any spices but a guy ahead me was… why people? Why? Just buy them there!). Anyway, all the formalities done, i was set to get out and meet my mister…

Just a few takeaways from all this;

• Singapore Airlines were great to fly with, they were organized, empathetic and took care of us very well.
• Changi Airport is like Christmas all year round, that airport doesn’t remind you of how long you still need to go, it just makes you happy.
• Sydney airport has the sweetest chatty staff. You see a smile the moment you land.
• But, the airport needs to have WiFi in the departure area, sometimes you really need it.

In the following blogs you will see all things a traveler in you requires to pack your bags and get going to Australia!!!! More on the Sydney trip in the next post, phase II of my trippy.

Stay tuned guys!!!

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