My friends are constantly going back and forth from San Francisco to Australia, and I understand that these flights are among the truly gueling contests of bottoms-against-seats in the entire world. In past trips to India, I have flown to Europe first, which is about a 10-hour flight, and had a civilized layover of a day or so, and then continued on an 8-hour flight to Delhi. Breaking up the “seat time” like that can be quite enjoyable. Some carriers even have Internet access onboard, and although the bandwidth is only a trickle, it’s enough that it provides significant connectivity with the outside world. (On past trips to India I have had limited Internet access in-country, and getting on a flight that allows me to trickle the email in, and then take a look at it before I hit Europe, can give me a head-start on those important messages that have been arriving in my inbox while I was away from the Internet.)
So this time, on my way to India, I flew to Chicago first (see “Building a Pervasive Game”) and a couple of days later I took a 15-hour flight from Chicago to Delhi. Leaving Chicago at 7pm Sunday night works out really well. After a long day finalizing and testing the TMPP pervasive game for the LUMA I was beginning to tire a bit (it was really cold in Chicago), so once the flight left the runway I dozed fitfully for about five hours, and then, as is my custom, I began to “go with the flow.” I avoid jet-lag by staying awake when it’s light and sleeping when it’s dark. So right now, all around me, as we are about to fly past St. Petersburg, Russia, it is morning (local time) and the sun is shining outside, and I am awake, but most of my cabin-mates are still dozing. They’ll be well-rested when we reach Delhi, of course, at 8:30 pm Monday night, and I doubt they’ll be able to sleep properly for a couple of days. I, on the other hand, will be ready to get a good night’s sleep, and tomorrow, Tuesday, I’ll be ready to move on.
This flight would be a five-battery flight, incidentally (if I had five batteries, that is) so I limit my writing (on the computer) on these long flights, because I only carry two batteries.
The great circle route from Chicago to Delhi is interesting – and it probably differs greatly from what it would have been in other political days. Almost straight north from Chicago, near Hudson’s Bay, over Greenland, Sweden, down over Russia (the LCD route display shows Moscow “on the horizon” right now, though a half hour later we will turn and head east instead, and then straight south). And ultimately over Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India to Delhi.
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