How It All Began

Since I first knew them in 2018, my good friends UJ and GJ had been asking me to visit them at their home in Pune, India every time we met up over the years. And after repeated invitations, the stars finally aligned and we made it happen. We decided that I should go in December when it is cooler. After consulting our calendars, the dates were set – I will be there for six days, from 1 to 6 December 2024.

In the past two years, I had also joined UJ and GJ on two of their overseas cycling trips – the first trip was to Vietnam and Cambodia in November 2022, and the second trip was just recently in January 2024, to Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. During these trips, I also got to know many other members of their cycling group and become friends with them. Hence, this trip to Pune would also be a great chance for me to catch up with the rest of the gang.

For my flights, I booked Indigo, one of India’s budget airlines. There is no direct flight from Singapore to Pune so I’d have to transit in Chennai. For my two-way air ticket, I paid S$556.30, including 30kg checked baggage and two meals (one meal each way). It was a little pricey for a budget airline but it was for travel in December so prices were higher.

I also had to apply for a visa to enter India. Click here to visit the website of the authorised portal for visa application to India. The e-Tourist Visa is offered in three validity periods – 30 days, 1 year or 5 years. Strangely, for Singaporeans, the e-Tourist Visa costs the same (US$25) for all three validity periods, so I naturally chose the 5-year option. There is an additional banking charge for payment gateway card transactions (for debit or credit cards) amounting to 2.5% of the e-Visa fee. Thus, I paid US$25.63 (S$34.11) in total for my e-Tourist Visa.

For my overseas mobile data, I bought an eSIM from Voyafly. I used Voyafly for my recent trip to Japan and it worked well so I decided to use it again. For my 7 Days Unlimited Data (Plus) plan, I paid US$35.65 (S$47.61). Lastly, I also purchased travel insurance from Great Eastern. I paid S$31.49 for the Essential Plan. With all the necessary things done, I was all set…or so I thought.

One month before my departure, on 1 November, Indigo threw a small spanner in the works when they informed me via email that my outbound flight had been “affected due to operational reasons”. They put me on an alternative flight to transit at Bangalore instead of Chennai, at no extra cost. However, the flight timing was also affected.

With the revised flights, I would now have to spend a longer time in transit and arrive in Pune much later at 1:55pm, as opposed to 6:40am originally. It meant that more than half of the first day would be gone. But since this trip was meant to be a totally relaxing one, I did not have anything planned for the first day so the late arrival was not a big issue. At least Indigo gave me enough advance notice.

[Exchange rate: Rs 100 (Indian Rupees) = S$1.65]

Day 1 – 1 December 2024, Sunday

My revised flight 6E1006 was scheduled to depart Singapore at 5:30am. It was an awkward timing as I had to leave home in the middle of the night for the airport. I managed to sleep for 4½ hours before waking up at 1:45am to wash up and get ready. My pre-arranged Tada car picked me up at 2:40am, and I arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 2 just before 3:00am. The advance booking for my Tada ride cost S$30.25.

At T2, the queue for the Indigo check-in counter was already quite long and I waited about 35 minutes before it was my turn. That’s why it’s important to arrive early at the airport, especially since I couldn’t do web check-in for this flight.

As it was very early in the morning, most of the retail shops and F&B outlets inside the Departure Transit Hall were not open yet. Even McDonald’s was opening at 4:00am. For an international airport like Changi, you would expect everything to be running 24/7 but that isn’t the case. In the end, I went to The Hainan Story to grab a quick breakfast. There was only one staff member and the service was slow. I paid S$6.30 for my kaya butter toast set. By the time I got my food, it was getting late so I had to wolf it down and quickly make my way to the boarding gate.

This was my first time flying on Indigo. It was a small plane, with a 3-3 seating configuration. The legroom was quite generous but the seats were rather thin. My back ached slightly by the end of the 4½-hour flight.

As expected, I was the only non-Indian on the flight, because Bangalore (aka Bengaluru) is not a tourist destination. I chose the window seat, as usual. A young Indian couple sat beside me, but they also had a toddler on their lap. My first thought was that I would not be getting much sleep, but thankfully, the toddler remained quiet and did not make much noise during the flight.

I was able to get about an hour of sleep before my meal was served at 6:25am. It was a chicken supreme salad. I wasn’t remotely hungry and the salad wasn’t very appetising but I ate it all (except the cucumber) because I don’t like to waste food. And it’s always good to eat more green vegetables.

I touched down at Bengaluru Kempegowda International Airport Terminal 2 at 7:27am, 13 minutes ahead of schedule. India is 2½ hours behind Singapore. I was surprised by how beautiful Terminal 2 was, because I had visited Banagalore before in 2012 and the airport looked nothing like this. In fact, I thought I was back home as it looked a lot like our Changi Airport, with brown hues, warm yellow lighting, classy decor and abundant greenery. Even the toilet was elegantly furnished, with Dyson taps and hand dryers.

I discovered that Terminal 2 opened only very recently, in 2023, so it is spanking new. The architects envisioned it as a “terminal in a garden”, which sounds like Singapore’s “city in a garden” concept. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

After clearing Immigration, I had to retrieve my luggage and drop it again at another counter for the second flight. The process took only a few minutes so it wasn’t bad. After exiting the Terminal 2 building, I took a shuttle bus to go to Terminal 1. I was grateful I didn’t have to take my luggage with me for the transfer to Terminal 1.

It was a cloudy and drizzly day, slightly chilly at 20 degrees C. UJ had warned me a few days ago that it was getting colder and he asked me to bring more warm clothes. I was decked out in a sweater, with another T-shirt underneath so I was sufficiently warm. The shuttle bus ride to Terminal 1 took 8 minutes and I arrived at 8:27am.

It took me a while to figure out where to go and what to do because there were several queues for the different departure gates, and I wasn’t sure which queue to join. I eventually chose a random queue. A military person in army fatigue checked my passport and boarding pass before allowing me to enter the terminal building.

Once inside, I recognised Terminal 1 from my visit 12 years ago. As I already had my boarding pass (issued in Singapore), I went straight for security check. The queue for the X-ray bag check was very disorganised. The people manning the machines were all in military fatigues, which looked a bit intimidating. There was not enough manpower to manage the queue and the trays, and people were trying to cut queue all the time. It was a bit of a free-for-all situation.

Once I finally got past it, I heaved a sigh of relief. I walked around the Departure Transit Hall and saw a Relay bookshop so I went in to browse. I realised that books in India are much cheaper than in Singapore. I bought two books – Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Rs 299, on offer) and Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (Rs 550). I paid Rs 849 (S$14.45) for the two books. In Singapore, each book would already cost S$24.95.

As I had about two hours before my flight, I utilised my last Priority Pass entitlement for the year and went to the Zero Eight Zero (080) Lounge to chill. The lounge was very nice and the food was not bad. I had an omelette, potatoes, paratha, sausages, pancakes, fruits and cakes, filling up my stomach nicely.

Boarding for my flight 6E6014 was supposed to start at 11:30am but it was delayed by some 40 minutes. It was because a lady on our flight left a lighter in her checked baggage, which is not allowed. The Indigo staff paged for her numerous times over the PA but she was nowhere to be seen. An Indigo staff then approached me and asked if I was travelling alone, or with a companion. Apparently, the lady they were looking for had an Asian name, and the Indigo staff thought that she could be travelling with me. The staff member was trying her luck because I was the only Chinese, non-Indian face in the crowd.

They eventually tracked down the lady at 12:04pm, and instructed her to quickly proceed to Gate 15 to remove the lighter from her luggage. Once the offending item was removed, we were cleared for boarding. I was so tired I slept for most of the flight. We touched down at Pune International Airport at 2:14pm, about 20 minutes later than scheduled.

The moment I stepped out of the airport, I was greeted by UJ, and we exchanged big hugs. It was so good to finally see him in Pune. I made it! UJ said that he intentionally left his car at home so that he could let me try riding the Metro. I told him that was exactly what I wanted to do on this trip, to experience living like a local.

The Metro station is not connected to the airport. We walked a short distance before hopping on an Autorickshaw (commonly called an Auto) to take us to the nearest Metro station, Ramwadi. The Auto had a meter on board but UJ negotiated the fare with the driver so he didn’t use the meter.

It was a bit of a squeeze with my luggage taking up half the space but I didn’t mind it one bit. I love taking Autos (or tuk tuks) because we don’t have them in Singapore. It was rather warm in Pune, at 29 degrees C, so I removed my sweater. It was also quite hazy. As we rode the Auto, the familiar sounds of honking and the weaving through traffic all came back to me. It was then I knew I was truly back in India.

We alighted at Ramwadi at 3:08pm. The Metro station is aboveground so we took the elevator to go up to the platform level. The station is much higher than our MRT in Singapore. UJ had already pre-purchased our tickets on the Pune Metro app so we didn’t need any physical tickets. He scanned the QR codes on his mobile phone at the gantry and we were through, a completely hassle-free process.

The Pune Metro currently has two lines – the Purple and the Aqua lines. Generally, the Purple line runs in a North-South direction while the Aqua line runs in an East-West direction, with an interchange station at Civil Court. There are 30 stations at the moment and five of them are underground. The best thing is that riding the Metro is very affordable – the minimum fare is Rs 10 (S$0.165) and the maximum fare is only Rs 35 (S$0.58).

We would be using the Aqua line today, which is entirely aboveground. From Ramwadi to Nal Stop (12 stops away), the fare is Rs 25. However, UJ purchased our tickets on the Pune Metro app and one ticket costs only Rs 17.5 (S$0.29), because there is a 30% discount on weekends for digital tickets booked using the app. On weekdays, the discount is 10%. The discounts are being offered to encourage commuters to switch to digital ticketing, to reduce the environmental impact associated with paper tickets. Such a great initiative!

The gleaming Metro train pulled up at 3:20pm. As Ramwadi is the terminal (first) station, we were able to get seats on the empty train. The train cabin was clean, bright and the air-conditioning was good. It was a very comfortable way to travel in Pune city, far away from all the noise and air pollution on the roads below.

Upon alighting at Nal Stop 30 minutes later, we walked for five minutes and reached UJ’s apartment. The building was a little old but it had a certain charm to it. I especially loved the old-school lift, where you had to manually close the iron grills before the lift would move. This kind of lift used to be common in Singapore but we don’t have any operational ones in existence today, so I had a great kick out of taking it over the next few days.

The moment I stepped into their apartment on the fifth floor, I was given a big welcome by GJ, who was eagerly awaiting my arrival. Likewise, it was wonderful to see her in Pune. GJ led me to the sofa and performed a simple ritual to welcome me to their home. She applied some sandalwood perfume on my hands (which smelled really nice), lit a tea candle and said a little prayer before making a mark on my forehead as a sign of blessing. The mark is called a Tilak and it is made of red turmeric powder. After that, UJ and GJ gave me a tour of their home.

Their apartment was small and cosy, with a living room, dining room, one bathroom and one bedroom. However, it had a large outdoor terrace, which was partially covered with a glass shelter. It was super chill, with a swing and colourful prayer flags hanging across the terrace. It was a simple but very homely home. I loved it.

After settling down, GJ proceeded to make me a cup of tea. And when GJ makes tea, she really “makes” tea. While boiling the water using a small pot, she cut slices of fresh ginger and used a small mortar and pestle to crush the ginger to release the juice. She then poured the ginger into the pot and added the tea leaves to boil together with the water. After using a sieve to remove the ginger and tea leaves, she added some fresh cow’s milk to my cup of tea. And the milk wasn’t the commercial tetra pack kind either. The resulting tea was soooo good. I think it’s partly because of the ginger, but more importantly, it’s because it was made with so much love and effort.

The three of us sat down in the dining room and had tea with some snacks like mango burfy, Bakarwadi, rice puffs and nuts. At that moment, I felt genuinely happy that I had made it there, to be with UJ and GJ at their home in Pune after talking about it for years.

At 5:40pm, we drove out to Deccan Gymkhana club for some pre-dinner exercise. It was nothing strenuous – we just brisk walked for five rounds around the cricket field. Each round was 430 metres so we clocked a little over 2 kilometres. I had been sitting on the plane for many hours so it was good to stretch my legs and get the blood pumping.

We were home by 7:00pm and UJ and GJ went about preparing our dinner. UJ had already cooked the mutton curry earlier in the day and the breaded chicken was already marinated by GJ, so all that was left was to fry the chicken and the paratha.

UJ and GJ’s son, NJ, his wife and two daughters also joined us for dinner. It was my first time meeting them and they were lovely people. It was immediately apparent that they are a close-knit family and there was so much love going around. I felt really grateful to be welcomed as part of their extended family for the next six days.

The food was of course, delicious. The curry was bursting with flavours and the meat was so tender. Paired with the crispy paratha, it was simply perfect. The chicken was yummy and it went well with the basmati rice. It was a very enjoyable dinner and a great way to start my trip.

NJ and family left around 9:15pm. It was not really goodbye because we would see each other many more times over the next few days. By then, I was quite tired after a long day of travelling. The night temperature dropped to around 21 degrees C and we slept in the bedroom with the windows open, so it was nice and chilly, like natural air-conditioning. I slept very well that night.