I can now add BIAL to the ‘been-there-done-that’ and can claim to have survived to tell the tale.
After much deliberation, I had decided to spend Saturday night at a friend’s who stayed pretty close to one of the Airport bus-stops and take the 0600 bus from Koramangala. So Sunday found me rushing to the Koramangala stop by 0600 and was pleasantly surprised to see the bus already occupied by some 6-7 people. Soon, I dumped my bag and laptop on the luggage rack and seated myself in one of the available seats. The bus finally started on its way at 6:15 after the driver handed around flyers and cards giving bus schedules and phone number of Taxi service to drop you off to the bus stop (Cel Cabs, the card claims. On call 24 hours taxi. 60609090 You can now book CelCabs in: Bangalore 080) and the conductor came around duly to collect the fare. After handing over 150 bucks I enquired more to satisfy my curiosity than anything else about the travel time to BIAL. One hour 30 minutes. That saw me smirking in his face and him smirking right back with a just you wait and see face.
After making past traffic jams (yes at 6:20 in the morning too) at Madiwala market the bus settled into a smooth pace and I almost dozed off but sadly, that is one thing the BMTC buses do not facilitate. If those school-boy benches did not allow 154 cms of me to doze, then I am sure no body can achieve that mean feat comfortably. The bus has got plenty of stops and the driver even stopped whenever people stuck their hands out to flag it down! After staying awake to watch Yellahanka go by, I finally plopped into la la land even if it did involve rather painful bumps at the contact point between the window pane and skull and was woken up by a particularly steep curve by which time; the bus had almost made it to BIAL. I did manage to catch a fast disappearing glimpse of rolling greens and all that (for those to whom such things really matter) and finally set foot at the BIAL. One look at my watch and I was gloating. The conductor was wrong after all! It did not take me 90 minutes but only 60! (Does it really matter? I won in the end)
Now that the traveling bit had been taken care of by nicely air conditioned though a wee bit noisy and on the whole rather comfortable BMTC bus Route No.7, I was in a much better mood with the whole new airport thingie. There is even a BIG BIG Louis Vuitton case in the lobby (darn, I did forget to take my camera along) and that itself notched BIAL a bit higher in my cool list. The rest of the story was a breeze. Sufficient signage around and wide counters and even shopping places etc (Crossword, Shoppers Stop, French Connection, Calvin Klein, Hidesign, some sweets store, Cookie Man and Barista) in the post Security Check hold all added to the charm. The toilet facilities, I did not check out though I did see suspended signs for them.
My flight did take off surprisingly on schedule too. The return journey though saw me waiting for a full sad 30 minutes from landing of my plane to getting out of airport and into bus and that was the sore bit. Waiting for baggage is still irksome and my guess is that all the aero-bridges do not function. Bus ride back to Koramangala took another hour and was back home eventually by 00:30. So 90 minutes plane ride from Bombay to BIAL and 90 minutes getting home from BIAL!
The only other International Airport I have been to is O’Hare International and though BIAL has its own merits, I have to concede it is no where near that scale. On the whole, BIAL has been managed quite well and for a week old airport, I say cheers to it.
PS: Thank You Thulasi for the pic! Dude, with friends like you around, who needs cameras I say!
