Last leg to Bangalore

So for the next leg - I'm flying on a Lufthansa 747 jet. And I thought First Class in United was nice...I actually liked Business class in Lufthansa better (aside from the great food on United). Check out these gorgeous Recaro seats -- they look like space-pods from a sci-fi movie. (yeah - I'm obsessing about seats, I'm spending 8 hours in them so it matters).



And equally impressive was the remote control for the seat. LOTS of buttons. So that kept me busy for quite a while. And I was able to get a couple hours of sleep because these recline almost fully flat -- and I can watch movies and tv shows on demand.



For food - United First class wins. For seat quality, comfort and geek-factor -- Luftansa is the best. The seats even had power-plugs for laptops or iPods. But something was wrong with mine. I would get power, but only for about 5 minutes. Maybe on the return flight I'll have better luck.



I was wondering whether we'd fly over Iraq, Iran or Pakistan. But it turns out that we took a more southerly route around Israel, Saudi Arabia, and near Egypt.

...When we landed -- the Bangalore airport looked more like an forgotten inner city school than an airport that receives international flights. But it was late (1am), and I wasn't too picky. And everybody there was polite and efficient.

I converted dollars to rupees at the airport - 43 for every dollars. So now I feel rich!



After customs - we started to look for our driver that was supposed to be waiting. He turned out the be the best dressed guy in Bangalore.



There was a crowd of people outside the airport -- many with signs. And a few beggars. As we were loading the trunk of the car - one of them in crutches hovered over us -- but I was warned by others that once they see you give money - you might get bothered by others nearby ... it's like feeding pigeons or ducks I suppose.

I tipped the driver and the bellman at the hotel with the smallest bill I had which was 10 rupees. No idea if I'm insulting them or being generous. (that's 25 cents). The next morning I asked the front desk what's a good tip - and they said 10-15. So I'm in the window of acceptable tipping.

The rooms at the Royal Orchid are clean, and comfortable. The furniture and decor is sparse and not too fancy. And There is wood flooring instead of the carpeting you find in US hotels. The bathroom was above average with lots of marble, and as a bonus -- it did have a Plasma TV (with bad reception!).

Time to get some rest!