Come fly with me: Flyers' checklist

Shattered, exhausted and worn out, I boarded an early-morning flight last week and fell asleep within seconds (www.meera-ashish.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/flying-health.jpg). Since I'm not accustomed to getting a few hours of unbroken sleep at a stretch when flying — even if I am tired — I was pleasantly surprised to wake up and find there were only two more hours before we landed in New York. Yawning, I made my way to the back of the aircraft to get that much-needed fix of hot water and stretch my rather achy legs.

My habit of continuously drinking water, and that too mostly hot water throughout a flight, has made me almost forget how dehydrated I can become — well, you just have to see how deformed a plastic bottle looks at the end of a flight to realise what your body might be going through in the skies. Frequent flyer that I am, the insulated mug I was gifted a year ago has become my essential flying partner which I can fill up again and again during the flight, provided I get an aisle seat. And I also carry a couple of peppermint or any other herbal tea bags with me along with my healthy food fixes — a granola bar, baked crisps and a little can of yoghurt.

Hot water works magic on flights and serves more than one purpose. Apart from hydration, since I feel colder than most people, drinking hot water keeps me relatively warm, though I still need to wear a couple of layers on flights and dress as comfortably as possible. Secondly, it most certainly helps digestion, which always becomes sluggish on flights and due to which I don't eat anything too heavy, oily or spicy. On my previous flight, I didn't have my insulated mug with me and therefore refilled my Starbucks paper cup after finishing a gingerbread latte.

In the rush of leaving for the airport and changing handbags, I also forgot to carry a good-quality hand cream — another important item for flights. The best brands for that thick kind of hand cream I like — not the usual milky stuff — are L'Occitane, Bliss (Lemon+Sage) and Cocoa Butter.

Lastly, when I woke up, my neck was thankfully not aching the way it normally does, only because of the neck pillow that fit snugly around my neck and shoulders. Bulky it may be, unless you get the inflatable kind, but a neck pillow certainly helps on longer flights and especially if you fly as frequently as I do.

So, aside from carrying a good book, a favourite magazine, a notebook and a laptop, these are the few things that help me have easier, more comfortable and agreeable flights. And watching a good chick flick never hurts!