The long passage from Turkey to India

1.2.19

Happy 8 year anniversary of moving from the UK to Turkey to us!

We had no intention of travelling afar this year but when John’s son asked to come over for a few weeks with his girlfriend, having a house sitter was just too tempting.

As in previous blogs there has been last minute dramas. Our new rescue dog Maisy almost died after she was neutered, She was critically ill and the vet didnt know if she would make it.

It was just awful waiting to see if she would recover but thankfully she is absolutely fine. Just so glad we had it done 3 weeks ago or would have had to cancel our trip. (The vet has since had a warning and a fine. A few weeks later she came into season ( Maisy, not the vet) and had to be reneutered elsewhere …at this point we complained).

Sadly last week Johns dad was rushed into hospital, he has a large aneurism and renal failure but doctors can’t predict how he will be so we are going to continue with our plans, there is nothing we can do by rushing off to the UK.

The weather this winter in Fethiye has been just horrendous. Yesterday many places were flooded and there has been crazy storms for what feels like forever.

Of course from today the sun is going to shine and will even reach 21 degrees by Wednesday next week.

So, Jack and Lucy are in charge of the house and animals. (On their first trip out of our house we came back to find 2 stray dogs at our gate. They’re under strict instructions not to rehome all the waifs and strays by the time we get back!)

Our alarms were set for 4.30am, by 2am I was up and making a picnic. Just impossible to sleep when worrying about missing your flight.

Parked at Lykia Resort Hotel in Dalaman at 6am, very efficient. The guy was waiting outside for us and didn’t go to the ‘Lewis Hamilton Speed Academy’ like the guy we had from the last park and ride to the airport company we used.

Our flight to Istanbul was at 8am.

We saw Dave and Marian, some ex pat friends at Dalaman airport and again when we arrived in Istanbul.
They are off to Thailand and later to meet up with other friends of ours in Agonda. They were last seen in Duty Free.

To pass the 5 hours in Istanbul we sat for ages playing rummicub with coffee in Mc Donald’s while waiting to be able to check in.
Absolute chaos as families of 8 people with overweight bags were in front of us.
Watching them trying to cram excess baggage between their cases would have been amusing if it wasn’t so annoying.
They were hiding shopping under their arms and covering with coats.
I will try this tactic next time I’m smuggling parsnips from the UK.

We boarded our Air Arabia flight on time and apart from their mountains of contraband needing to be stowed overhead and a screaming child behind us it was trouble free.
I expected all of the announcements etc to be in Arabic, but were all in English.
Even the prayer on the tv screens before take off had subtitles.

This is the same screen I banged my head on as I slid in an ungainly fashion into Johns kindly donated window seat, via the screen.
They should have a ‘Mind your Head’ prayer too.

It all feels real now. I’ve been scarred for life by the Turkish airlines and the credit card palaver before Sri Lanka. I never get excited now until the boarding pass is in my hand.
Added to this paranoia, a friend was unable to check in recently as his passport number was wrong on his Indian visa. He had to reapply and travel and meet his wife and friend in India a couple of days later.
Despite checking and double and triple checking our visa and passport numbers I still breathed a sigh of relief.

Sharja is our first stop, we weren’t even sure where it is -it’s near Dubai and Google says it’s the conservative cultural capital.

Alcohol is not permitted there, so no alcohol was allowed on the flight.
We did ask at check in about taking alcohol and as a transit passenger it is allowed. However once in the duty free shop we realised we have a cupboard full of booze at home. We aren’t likely to want more than the occasional beer, so bought nothing.

Our pre ordered sandwiches arrived shortly after take off and our bottles of water. Marinated halloumi had sounded fab, it never warned me about gherkins and cucumber. Yuk.
Overall we were very impressed with Air Arabia. We had low expectations as a budget airline but it was very comfy.

Sharja airport is a busy little hub. Very old fashioned with extortionate Costa Coffee and a duty free shop with the alcohol hidden behind a huge pillar.
Interestingly it was cheaper than Istanbul.
People were taking selfies with the alcohol in the background!

We found fabulous hot drinks at a kiosk near our boarding gate with a lovely lady serving who was fascinated by rummicub!
We have jumped an hour ahead which is totally confusing as I can’t sync my fitbit without wifi.
We landed at 7.30pm and next flight is at 10pm to Kochin.
I’m so glad we arranged for our Airbnb to pick us up, too tired to be navigating.

It’s been a very long day.

Just a few minutes later I’d been in 2 ‘European’ airport toilets that have soaking wet seats and had to paddle in the cubicle despite there being squat toilets available.

Drives me mad but I know there will be far worse to come!!
Couldn’t help wondering if we will all be using squat style holes in the ground after Brexit.

Our Sharja to Kochin flight was a little late taking off, I still have my chicken tikka sandwich as trying to sleep was more important than eating. I’m sure we will find a worthy street dog to eat it today.

I ate too much bread today, 4 rolls from home and the halloumi surprise roll.

Looking forward to some curry.

Kochin airport is very modern and squeaky clean. I hope they’re not luring me into a false sense of security.

Immigration wasn’t much fun, you have to sit in front of the Officer. My heart stopped when he asked what happened to my passport. ‘Washing machine’ I said with an apolgetic grin. He was not happy and consulted with 2 other officers. Eventually I was let in with orders to look after it properly.

It’s definitely a bit splodgy but you can read it. He was particularly concerned about a slightly blurred stamp from Vietnam in 2014.

Jude and his son from Fort Kochi Cukoo nest (their spelling not mine ) were waiting for us. His son drove the 45km whike Jude pointed out places of interest which I’m sure will be fab in the daylight.

The only impression of our room before falling asleep is that its very green.

It’s so clean, you could eat your dinner off the mat.

Finally a chance to relax.