Trip to India December 16th 2005-January 7th 2006
December 16th/17th: Off to India..... My best friend and college roomate Louise and I got on the plane in Newark 8:30 PM Friday Dec 16 for our non stop flight to Delhi. Packed flight, great food, new plane (777). Watched a couple Sex and the City DVDs, popped a sleeping pill and slept for around 7-8 hours. Flight was smooth and seemed far shorter than 14hours. "Business first" sleeper chairs recline 170 degrees and are very comfortable. Continental provides a great pillow. Arrived Delhi airport 9:30 PM Saturday. Air was incredibly heavy with incense and smog. Louise's luggage no where to be found. Oh, oh. Then saw that it had been put in the "elite: area" and had been there for 30 minutes. Crisis averted. Our tour guide was waiting for us. Baggage guys lunging at us grabbing our trolleys. They disappear into the fog with our luggage. For some reason, they seemed to know where our car was. Who knows.... Got into a Toyata "Qualis,"(Indian SUV) but not before having strings of orange mums put around our neck (you get used to these--on every arrival in every city). The Imperial hotel looks like it is from another time and place. Very British. 150 year old Royal palms line the drive. As you drive in, they check under your car for a bomb. Uniformed doormen looking like they are from the"Raj" period open your door. More mums and a tikka (red powder) placed on our forehead at the Imperial. We were checked into a very nice "Heritage room" They offered us juice, and even though we had been warned not to drink juices, I was so tired and so thirsty, I threw caution to the wind. No problems ensued. Marble floors, huge bathroom and dressing room, overlooking the courtyard. Slept well. Been a long day.....
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 | Permalink | Posted by Patricia Pomerleau on Sunday, January 22, 2006 |
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