My first flight ever (1980)

A little travel twist.

The first time I went on a plane, I was booked on a flight from Bombay to Dubai. There was a stopover in Bangkok for a few hours, and I decided to go out into the city, maybe see what this new place was all about. Back in those days, there was no ‘three hours before’ thing. So, I hopped on the bus and went along with wherever it was taking me for 45 minutes. I don't remember how much exactly, but it must have cost less than fifty cents. I was hoping to see some shops or plazas or civilization, but didn’t find anything for a while, and so at the first sight of some shops, I got off the bus. It turned out there wasn’t much, and I just walked around in my suit (that's how you travelled back in those days), dragging my baggage along. After about an hour, I took the bus back to the airport. It’s easy, you take the bus to and then the same bus fro, that way you don’t get lost.

I arrived at the airport, and hung around the duty free for a bit, then proceeded to the departure gate. You might be wondering about security, well back then they searched you, but they didn't check your bags - if they did check, they would have found a huge bag of cheesy chips that I carted from India for my brother in law, along with my other baggage. I felt there was still an hour or so left, but after I boarded the plane, it actually took off within 10 minutes… It seemed that I had not adjusted my watch, but I made it on time anyway. Or else ? Well, don’t know what else could be. It was my first flight ever and a risk I took, but I know my folks at home were praying for me to have a safe flight, and so I was protected. I definitely remembered to check the clock on every flight after that.