My flight to India was rather uneventful but good. It was a 7 ½ hour overnight flight to Muscat, Oman followed by a 2 ½ hour flight to Delhi. I watched Toy Story 3 on the first flight and certainly had a few chuckles...I wonder if I woke anyone up...good movie! I didn’t have much time between my flights but Muscat is a relatively small airport and I have been there before, when I travelled to Nepal three years ago so I knew where to go to catch my next plane.
I was mentally prepared for the potential sensory onslaught that could hit me on exiting the Delhi airport. I read on some website forums about the touts and beggars, the smell of urine in the airport, the sticky heat – basically a full sensory onslaught. But I was amazingly surprised that none of this really came to fruition. The airport was modern and tidy (I wonder how much it was cleaned up for the Commonwealth Games that were recently hosted here). Walking out of the airport I wasn’t hassled by anyone. I simply walked to a taxi stand, prepaid for the cab and then hopped in one. Of course driving is a bit different here than in England although they also drive on the left hand side of the street, however the concept of a lane is somewhat lost here and the car horn is an important and well used tool, not in anger but just to let nearby drivers know “I’m here, watch out.” Having been to Nepal before I think helped to lessen the shock value of this road jockeying although it still had me pulling my forearm in from the open window on more than one occasion to avoid losing it.
The weather forecast was described as “smoke” and the sun was barely poking its way through. This limited visibility but in some areas huge modern buildings rose up from an otherwise dusty and littered roadside where the odd shanty could be seen. India definitely is a land of a wide range of class levels.
My taxi driver didn’t know exactly where the hotel I was staying at was but he stopped numerous times asking for directions from motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Everyone was quite helpful in trying to set us straight. Finally finding the hotel, I was a little surprised that the security guards used a mirror to check the underneath of the taxi and there was a metal detector at the front door. The hotel is quite posh and as Elena joked back in Spain when I showed her the website, I need new clothes to fit in here! I’m staying at this specific hotel as my good friend and former co-worker Tony is out here on a business trip and he offered to let me stay with him. It will probably be the fanciest place I stay in for this whole trip!
Fancy Schmancy...
Our schwanky room:
The view from our room:
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