Left the US on Lufthansa at 4:30 pm on January 12th from JFK. Met Ferris (my roommate for the trip) at 2pm in the Business Class Lounge where we waited and caught up on events since our last meeting. The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful save for the fact that I had a gentleman sitting next to me who exuded shall I say a "most foul stench"; I was unable to change seats due to the fact that our flight was full so was forced to tackle the challenge of sitting next to a man who otherwise looked quite nice (clean, well dressed) but who reeked. It was 7 hours to Frankfurt breathing through tissues (the stewardess at one point took pity on me and offered Tiger Balm to rub under my nose) and retreating to the rest room where I could breathe freely. I'm sure this was the first time I ever thought of an airplane bathroom as someplace that was sweet smelling, but on this particular flight, it was!
At last we reached Frankfurt at about 6:30 am on January 13th where we had a 6 hour layover until our connecting flight to Delhi. A couple of hours before the flight departed we met up with Cliff and Cathy (our other intrepid travelers). Cliff has lost 25 lbs over the past few months and looks marvelous. I'm eager to observe what he eats and learn. Cathy is in fine fiddle and is eager to return to her favorite country. We boarded the flight to Delhi at 12:55pm and landed in Delhi uneventfully at 1:30 am. I must say it was nice landing with the entire gang; knowing we had all made it and that we simply needed to stagger through the process of picking up bags, changing money and finding our driver all together.
Had a delightful surprise landing at the new, beautiful and supremely modern Indira Ghandi International airport. I took a picture as we entered immigration of the brass Buddha hands posed in various mudras over each of the booths. Lovely! Got to our posh and gorgeous hotel, The Imperial, very quickly given the hour of our arrival and lack of any traffic from the airport. We were immediately struck by the dense sooty smoggy quality of the night air. I tried to photograph it but there were so many particles in the air that my camera couldn't even focus.
I know Delhi isn't known for its air quality but I don't recall the air being this bad when we were here just a year ago. The hotel check in process is always rather lang when you first arrive in India because a representative from our travel agency, Spirit of India, accompanies us and once at the hotel reviews our itinerary, gives us vouchers and airplane tickets, etc. This is all great but believe me my memory of now of what we covered at 3am is only a blur. Good thing everything is written down. Then Ferris and I were escorted to our room. It took us a bit to locate a non-smoking room (we need to make sure we've requested these in every city), find our pajamas and get into bed. I looked at the clock at lights out was at 4:30 am.
At 10 am we met Cliff and Cathy for breakfast (actually they'd been up for hours and had already eaten theirs). Apparently Yoko Ono is staying at The Imperial; she's in town for a big art performance and several peripheral exhibitions. We left our international phones with the concierge who had offered to get SIM cards for us (whew; now we don't have to waste time tracking these things down ourselves) and headed off with a van and driver at noon.
I should absolutely mention that I was not prepared at all for current Delhi weather. It is quite chilly here, even in the daytime, which I did not expect or pack for. I have a feeling that at least for this northern part of India I'm going to wish I'd brought my long underwear. I only brought cotton Indian clothes (long khurtas and wide pants) and if it hadn't been for a light rain jacket that I happened to throw in at the very last minute, I would have frozen today. Our room last night was an ice box; the hotel has brought a space heater and more blankets to the room which should made a big difference tonight. We only have two days in Delhi this trip (today which is our arrival day and tomorrow, Sunday) and want to enjoy the city but we also want to relax a bit before hitting our travel agenda hard.
So today we returned to a few old haunts - Santushti Village and Hos Kas. Had lunch at Santushti then drove to Hos Kas for a walk around this bustling old neighborhood full of galleries and shops. We enjoyed browsing around for a while. Then Cliff discovered that the neighborhood contained an old ruin and led us off onto a walk to a quiet private area that we'd never seen before. The sun was beginning to set and we watched children playing and people enjoying hanging out watching the sun set over a large pond.
Returned to the hotel and immediately had a celebratory cocktail in the bar. We quickly realized that we were too tired to travel for dinner so migrated to a beautiful Thai restaurant within the hotel for a light dinner. This restaurant is decorated as if you were inside a Thai temple and seeing the architecture alone is worth a trip.
At last we reached Frankfurt at about 6:30 am on January 13th where we had a 6 hour layover until our connecting flight to Delhi. A couple of hours before the flight departed we met up with Cliff and Cathy (our other intrepid travelers). Cliff has lost 25 lbs over the past few months and looks marvelous. I'm eager to observe what he eats and learn. Cathy is in fine fiddle and is eager to return to her favorite country. We boarded the flight to Delhi at 12:55pm and landed in Delhi uneventfully at 1:30 am. I must say it was nice landing with the entire gang; knowing we had all made it and that we simply needed to stagger through the process of picking up bags, changing money and finding our driver all together.
Had a delightful surprise landing at the new, beautiful and supremely modern Indira Ghandi International airport. I took a picture as we entered immigration of the brass Buddha hands posed in various mudras over each of the booths. Lovely! Got to our posh and gorgeous hotel, The Imperial, very quickly given the hour of our arrival and lack of any traffic from the airport. We were immediately struck by the dense sooty smoggy quality of the night air. I tried to photograph it but there were so many particles in the air that my camera couldn't even focus.
I know Delhi isn't known for its air quality but I don't recall the air being this bad when we were here just a year ago. The hotel check in process is always rather lang when you first arrive in India because a representative from our travel agency, Spirit of India, accompanies us and once at the hotel reviews our itinerary, gives us vouchers and airplane tickets, etc. This is all great but believe me my memory of now of what we covered at 3am is only a blur. Good thing everything is written down. Then Ferris and I were escorted to our room. It took us a bit to locate a non-smoking room (we need to make sure we've requested these in every city), find our pajamas and get into bed. I looked at the clock at lights out was at 4:30 am.
At 10 am we met Cliff and Cathy for breakfast (actually they'd been up for hours and had already eaten theirs). Apparently Yoko Ono is staying at The Imperial; she's in town for a big art performance and several peripheral exhibitions. We left our international phones with the concierge who had offered to get SIM cards for us (whew; now we don't have to waste time tracking these things down ourselves) and headed off with a van and driver at noon.
I should absolutely mention that I was not prepared at all for current Delhi weather. It is quite chilly here, even in the daytime, which I did not expect or pack for. I have a feeling that at least for this northern part of India I'm going to wish I'd brought my long underwear. I only brought cotton Indian clothes (long khurtas and wide pants) and if it hadn't been for a light rain jacket that I happened to throw in at the very last minute, I would have frozen today. Our room last night was an ice box; the hotel has brought a space heater and more blankets to the room which should made a big difference tonight. We only have two days in Delhi this trip (today which is our arrival day and tomorrow, Sunday) and want to enjoy the city but we also want to relax a bit before hitting our travel agenda hard.
So today we returned to a few old haunts - Santushti Village and Hos Kas. Had lunch at Santushti then drove to Hos Kas for a walk around this bustling old neighborhood full of galleries and shops. We enjoyed browsing around for a while. Then Cliff discovered that the neighborhood contained an old ruin and led us off onto a walk to a quiet private area that we'd never seen before. The sun was beginning to set and we watched children playing and people enjoying hanging out watching the sun set over a large pond.
Returned to the hotel and immediately had a celebratory cocktail in the bar. We quickly realized that we were too tired to travel for dinner so migrated to a beautiful Thai restaurant within the hotel for a light dinner. This restaurant is decorated as if you were inside a Thai temple and seeing the architecture alone is worth a trip.
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