Enter The Dragon…

Enter the Dragon…

It was the D-day for me…yeah it’s about embarking on Chinese venture…I reached Bangalore Airport at around 7.45 or 8.0. Thought it would be an easy go ‘check-in’…but realized its not….only when I saw the mammoth queue landing in front of the baggage sign on…it took time to complete of my formalities. Luckily got the window ticket…was more than happy for that. I was put into the cabin-crew; thought it would be boring…but couldn’t get bored though….for obvious reasons…:D. I wasn’t in a mood to leave the corridor. Suddenly came in the announcement, that the flight I was supposed to fly had got delayed by half an hour. I was more than happier to hear that.

Finally came my Voyager….it was a colossal Boeing 747; the heart of the plane opened her arms widely. It was around 11:00 PM when the Boeing began her journey gently climbing up into the sky towards the destiny carrying all her beloved ones. Once it reached an altitude of 33,000 feet the craft was whisking the air. Take off was the awesome experience, at least Bangalore looked ecstatic from sky pack. I was sitting almost over the left-wing engine, it was a great view. The earth was laid with ‘Carpet of Lights’

Our road map…oops rather Air Map…was displayed on a flat screen…information was quite adequate. It also mentioned the Time at each zone. Thai Air-hostesses were very warm…in acknowledging to requests. I had the legion of ‘Inscrutable Americans’…was a nice read. I had gained the time when we were in Bangkok around 3.30 in the morning…huh it was a huge Airport…having 77 bays…suddenly thought of Bangalore Airport: D. Seriously we lag a lot when it comes to infrastructure…I was literally lost in the mammoth Airport….was suppose to wait for 2 more hours to obtain the ‘Boarding pass’ to Hong Kong. Did a window shopping across the Airport…by the time I completed one row 2 hrs had fled apart….:D,

Again was lucky enough to board into Thai Airline Boeing 747 with a window ticket. The only difference this time was that I was over the right –wing engine…We boarded around 8:00 AM (HST). This time it was early morning and was able to have an eye on each and every cloud that passed by…There were few ecstatic blissful views on the way to Hong Kong…especially when we passed at some place where we were sandwiched between two layers of clouds…

I had fallen asleep, suddenly listened to the announcement of entering Hong Kong terminus…ohh gosh watta view it was…it was a Da Vinci’s painting of a Monalisa…a huge cluster of mountains…..at the middle of the rocks one can find the tall sky scrapers in huge numbers trying to kiss the sky…there was huge dam at the higher end of the cluster and Sea at the other end…infact the city is in the middle of the mountain chain and Sea.

Suddenly the craft started to lower drastically, knew it would be landing…suddenly I was awestuck to see that we were landing on Sea…then found a narrow trajectory leading its way into the Island…that was the most zeal able landing one could had…yes it was Hong Kong…the beautiful city. I thought Bangkok was a huge Terminus but I was wrong when I saw Hong Kong terminus…that changed by opinion. Suddenly Air-India flight landing dragged my eyes…realized yeah I m missing India even in this beautiful place…

Hong Kong airport was build hardly 8-10 years back. It’s a ‘Man-Made’ island; there’s been a record that they shifted to that place in less than 48 hrs. The place here is very systematic…juss like the function of our ‘Heart’ is to pump and generate the blood…the function of each and every member who works for Hong Kong Airport is well defined…its managed very well tooo.

From Hong Kong it was suppose to be an hour journey, I had 2 means of commutation to reach Shenzhen from Hong Kong. One is boarding a Bus and the other is a Ferry. Although my mind had prioritized on boarding a Bus when I was in Bangalore, I changed my plans to take a Ferry. Y you may wonder…here is the answer…if I take a Ferry I would have commuted with all mediums…Land, Air and Water…thus decided to go by Ferry.

Had to fetch a Ticket for the Ferry, to reach the counter one has to take an Inline Train, he reached a distance of 2 Kms in less than 30 seconds. Now u may wonder it was outside the Airport. I say no, I was inside the HK Airport. Since it was Hong Kong had to convert the currency to Hong Kong dollars to buy a ticket. Any currency you expect to be converted its none other than Travelex, once the ticket was bought I had to take a Bus to the Ferry terminus. The bus service was called as Sky Pier. Since the Bus to Ferry terminus was bit late, I was supposed to wait for 2 hrs in the Bus Lounge. It was a nice opportunity to roam around the malls, again went wild with my window shopping.

Soon it stroke 2’O clock in my watch, rushed to the bus lobby to board the bus. It was a gigantic Mercedes make bus. He dropped us at the Ferry terminus; finally we were out of Hong Kong Airport. It was an awesome travel again. Was enjoying listening to the honking of the ferry and there fellow members; we soon reached the destination in less than 40 minutes.

It was around 3:00 PM CST, there was custom check at Shenzhen departure. Unfortunately the lady couldn’t tally me with the one in the Passport. It took 10 minutes to confirm her that I was the same guy as in the passport. Gosh I had entered the Dragon’s land escaping from Dragon’s jaws…:D,

We boarded a taxi to Huawei City located in Bantian…it took half an hour to enter the city. Roads are very much etched and buildings are posh…Huawei city is almost in the outskirts of Shenzhen but still one cannot find its in outskirts. Finally entered the Huawei City…I was dumbstuck…totally lost for second time…its simply huge…u find ppl everywhere…there are around 24-28 complexes in the campus…one such were my Apartments; which was supposed to be found first. The taxi driver was lost tooo…it took some time to make him understand how to go and where to go…for obvious reason they are not familiar with 26 lettered language and are more familiar with 3,600 lettered language.

Bingo!! Was the expression after dropping down…rather drooping down…:D, found all my colleague friends who were here. We were welcomed ‘warmly’ on a power-strip off day. I was given a room with number 351, was waiting for a key but got a card. Yeah it was my key to open the door of apartment. Nothing to worry, it works in the absence of power too…I entered the room…dropped the luggage…

This was the place I will be for next 6 months…watta bed…u never woke up once u sleep….:D, the apartments are very clean. We are entitled with hell a lot of facilities. Took a cold bath as it was pretty humid…n had a nap…then hit the roads of Shenzhen for first time. Before telling my adventure of Shenzhen strolling let me tell u about the view from my room’s balcony. There is full of trees/plants and then a road and a not so huge mountain on the other side. Can spend hours watching the place/people walking down the streets. No coming back to Shenzhen strolling…as it was Sunday my friends here usually go to Indian restaurant which is around 20 kms from our apartments. The hotel is called as Taj Restaurant…not bad it tastes true Indian…had Vada for the first time in China…:D. I also had the privilege of viewing Wachanben. It’s the SP road of Shenzhen, u find all damn electronics around here…there are branded as well as unbranded. The best part I liked was the Mini-Bus service…he takes juss 2 Yuans to take u to any part of the city. Isn’t it great….one more special thing about this service is that…there is no Bus-Stop as such….if u just whip ur hand in air…he will stop for the service…:D, imagine me whipping hand…:D

By the time we left back to our apartments it was around 11.30 in the night…I was damn tired and it was also raining like hell….

Juss went back and slept, woke up around 7:00 to realize it was morning. I couldn’t have had a better First day in this short journey to Shenzhen.

After all these I still say ‘East or West…India is The Best’…