Have to tell this…

Well we landed in Bangalore at about 11:30 PM India time. It was a nice feeling to be back home. Only thing was that it was not going to be like that after sometime.

I think India is the only country where the customs does a check on your belongings with an eagle-eye. They mark bags that they think are carrying some valuables and other new stuff. And ya they make you pay for the duty and stuff like that. I really wonder how much it matters if someone gets a digicam or a video cam from outside. I managed to give a cheeky “oh! That’s an old digicam” dialogue and get away with my new canon digicam.

We reached the baggage collection center by around 11:45 PM. I thought ya I should get my bag in the next 5-10 mins and should be home before 12:30 AM, catch up on some sleep and then get to office at the morning. If you have not come to Bangalore airport, it should take the award for the most mis-managed, ill-equipped airport in the whole country. The conveyor is long enough for a 20 seater flight and the area is as big as a 2 standard classroom. Ok, all that is forgiven, but why do the Indian airports have 20 year old tractors pulling the luggage from the plane to the terminal.

We waited for more than an hour for our luggage to reach us. I am sure if they allowed us, we could have gone to the plane, taken it out ourselves in less than 15 minutes. Afterall, the plane is parked some 20-30 feet away. But noone in the airport knows what is happening. The customs guys in that area got the wrath of the passengers. They blamed the Malaysian Airlines and because we could not find anyone from the airline, I think let the blame rest with the airlines. Atleast they wouldn’t pass the buck.

The KLIA is about 50 acres, you take a train to reach the main terminal. But the luggage is there even before you reach. Our own Bangalore airport is couple of hundred square metres in area and we wait for about and hour and half for our luggage to reach us after flying for three and half hours. Customer service is unknown in this industry in India. Please privatize it.

I have put some pics of the KLIA. This is the 5th level. Level 1 has the KLIA express the train that gets you back to the city in 45 mins and the rest of the four floors are shopping malls and ticket counters. Can someone just remake the Mumbai airport with one tenth of these facilities.