We made it to New Delhi. It was a long day with a 11.30 hour time change. The first flight from JFK to Dubai was twelve and one half hours of flight time. The flight from Dubai to Delhi was only three hours.
We flew Emirates and I highly recommend them. The first flight we had a double decker plane. It seemed to take a long time to board and unload as there were lots and lots of people on that flight. The service was the best I have experienced and the seats were very comfortable. They fed us lunch, snack and breakfast. The food was interesting but I managed to find enough to eat. Wine, beer and cocktails are included with the meal. They gave us a little goody bag that had a sleep mask, toothbrush, tooth paste, a bookmark and slippers. The only complaint I had about this flight was it was too cold.
The second flight was the same airline but a smaller plane. The seats were not as big and this flight was too hot. They served us one meal.
Immigration and customs were fairly easy. I put my passport in passport control and got completed right away. Nicole had to leave her fingerprints. We went through immigration and again I got through easy but they fingerprinted Nicole again. We suspect she got targeted because she has traveled so much. Customs was a walk through with no stop or bag search.
My bag was on the carousel by the time we got to it but we had to wait for Nicole’s bag for about 25 minutes. We had to check bags as Emirates only allows one bag brought on board and both of us had backpacks and a carry on.
A guy from the tour company met us when we came out of customs. The ride to the hotel was a bit scary. Three marked lanes for traffic was five plus motorcycles. I had to keep my eyes closed most of the time. You could have touched the car next to us most of the time. It took about 45 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel. It is very hazy and smoggy here. Saw beautiful buildings and slums.
When we got to the hotel there was a security guard and he made the driver pop the front lid of the car open as well as the back end. We had to put our bags through a security thing and a lady took us back one by one and used a wand on us.
The tour guy got us all checked in after we waited for about 15 minutes. We finally got to our room. I laid on the floor and propped my legs up as my ankles and calves are very swollen. It will take a day or two for them to go down.
I think we will skip dinner tonight. I feel all I have been doing the last day or two is sitting and eating. I’m too tired to manage a foreign restaurant tonight anyways. I did manage to sleep some on the flight but Nicole was not able to do so.
We meet our tour group in the morning. Breakfast is at 7:00 and we leave on a tour of Old and New Delhi at 7:45. I’m grateful we had the evening free and hope we both get a good night’s sleep and will be ready to see new sights tomorrow.
I’m too tired to write much tonight. I am very messed up as to what day it is and how we left Sunday morning and only flew for 15 hours yet it is Monday evening. That time thing messes with me.
Grateful for a safe trip, grateful for a quiet hotel that has hot water, and grateful for the sleep I am going to get tonight.