Qatar Plane Ride

So right before take off, my cell phone rings (yes, I realize it should have been off)  and it's Amy Lee!!  Haha!!  She  tells  me that her and Sean are going to get us at 3:20am from the airport when we land in India instead of her driver since she wanted to make sure he would be awake that whole day since he would be driving us around!  Whohoo!!

Qatar's planes are known for having more leg room and having more of a recline to their seats. Awesome!!  Except if you need to get out of your seat while the person in front of you is fully reclined.

The arm rest in the aisle seat does not fold up.  I think there was about 4" of space between the seat in front of me and my arm rest.  I had to pull off some wild yoga moves to try to maneuver out of my seat each time Kevin or I needed to get up.  Kevin could care less about disturbing the dude in front of me.  He was like a bull in a china shop nearly up-righting the seat in front of me each time he tried to squeeze past. :)

Upon landing in Doha at 6:21am, we had to deplane onto the tarmac where a shuttle took us to the terminal.  The first thing that  struck me was how humid it was. It was only 77 degrees out.

The Doha airport itself is well lit and looks very modern.  It is spacious and seemed very clean and well maintained.  They are going through a $1b USD renovation which should be done by 2012 - can't imagine what it will look like then!

We went through the transfer line and had to get re-screened.  I noticed that not everyone took off their shoes  so I elected to keep my sneakers on.  The security screens seemed more concerned about where my cell  phone was rather than if I had  my shoes on.

We waited about 1.5 hours before boarding our flight to Hyderabad.  After checking out tickets, we had to go down the escalator to wait for the shuttle which would take us to our plane.  The problem was that the  shuttle wasn't there yet so we were herded like livestock, penned into a small, un-air conditioned area, chomping at the bit to go through those sliding doors once they were unlocked.

The security person  finally came to let us board  the shuttle only to keep us locked up as hostages once we got alongside the plane.  It was probably only 15 minutes, but having to stand with all my equipment on my back with a heavy tote bag draped over my arm, in a tiny shuttle where the term "personal space" has no meaning, made it felt like I had been standing there for two hours.

Still in our excited vacation mode, we just go with the flow.  Nothing can dampen our spirits.  Not even the baby that sat  behind me kicking my chair the whole way to Hyderabad.  India, here we come!!