I flew back to India from Hong Kong and because of heavy rush and our urgency ( we were originally booked into Cathay I think) , we were booked into Biman by the secretary.
The plane looked used and dilapidated but then the service topped it all. They were charging money for all drinks sans Cola’s and I think it was a few US $ per drink, and the hostess did not have change in US $ to give us back our balance, so we tipped most of what Biman owed us.
Never the less we settled for veg dinner and what we got on this late night flight was yellow dal and white rice, nothing else. If there was anything else it probably did not look palatable or I would have remembered.
Now the plane would suddenly turn silent and kind of plunge as though we have hit an air pocket, but by now all of us ( I think we were around 6-8 guys from work flying together) were so dejected with the airlines and service that we joked ’’ the pilot must be saving fuel by shutting off the engines periodically’’. Hope that was not true.
Never mind the fact that when we landed in Bangladesh in Dhaka, THEY ACTUALLY TOOK AWAY OUR PASSPORTS. I didn’t believe it but I was told that they will be returned to us when we are boarding the plane for onward journey.
I was sooooo scared for my passport. I mean I have never actually parted with my passport except for the scanning by immigration officers in airports in various countries. I was glad when we got it back, but then during this time I was apprehensive and with a good reason.