We Arrived, After More Than 24 Hours

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Well, we finally made it to Delhi, India. It may be exotic, but it is also a long ways away, even by plane. Everything went well, as far as connections. The first flight, from Pensacola to Houston took around two hours, in a rather small United jet with about 18 rows of 4-wide seats. Houston International is a pretty big airport, with lots of choices for food and such. Since it was lunch time when we arrived, and I’d already found out that the 4 or 5 hour flight to Newark didn’t serve an y meals, we decided to eat lunch in Houston, a t the Panda Express. We split a 3-entrée, 1-side “big plate” for about $9. We had Honey Walnut Shrimp, Mushroom Chicken and Broccoli Beef for the entrees and mixed vegetables for the side. Everything was quite tasty, but the veggies were all a bit crispy. I know that is how they are supposed to be, but I prefer them soft. The flight left from a different gate then we were originally told, but we had no problem finding the correct gate.

We had a considerably larger plane for the flight to Newark, with about 30 rows of 6-across seats. The flight left pretty much on time and arrived in Newark on time. I normally book international connections to be at least 4 hours after arrival, but this one was a little shorter at just 3 hours. We arrived in Newark a bit early, but had to sit on the tarmac waiting for our gate to clear, so we arrived right on time after all. At Newark, we again had a slight change in gates from what the tickets said, but again plenty of time to find the correct one. I found it amazing how long most folks were willing to stand in line for the flight. My wife and I just sat nearby and waiting for the line for our section to go down.

The big flight from Newark to Delhi left a little late, but arrived in Delhi pretty much on time. This flight was by far the longest we’ve ever taken, lasting around 13 hours and 38 minutes. I didn’t count, but I’m sure the rows were over 30 and they were 9 seats across. We sat in the back of a section, right near the toilets, so that was nice. Manoli and I did both get some sleep, after a half decent Asian or Indian style dinner. My expensive pillow was nice, but probably not worth the money, since the seats recline so little. We spent most of the time eating and watching movies and TV shows. About an hour before landing, they turned the lights on and served a breakfast meal, again sort of Asian or Indian.

The airport in Delhi is gigantic! To get to customs, we had to walk down a very long corridor, and that was only one of several long corridors from what I saw. I took a photo of Manoli under the sign welcoming us to India and include it here. First, we had to get in line for our e-Tourist Visa that we’d applied for online, but at least the line was smaller than other types, including the residents and foreign passport lines. For the first time, we went thru some more extensive and unusual screening. After checking our passports and Visa approval papers, we had to have our left hand, right hand, and both thumbs scanned. This wouldn’t be so bad, but apparently the scanners are a bit touchy and I had to try several times for all 3 scans, applying some hand sanitizer, that I assumed cleaned dirt and residue from my hands. Oh well, we finally cleared that part and made our way to baggage claim. No problems there, and we grabbed our bags pretty quickly, and headed out to find our “ride” to the hotel that we’d arranged and paid for ahead of time. There were a few guys with signs even before baggage claim, but after we got some Indian currency from an ATM, and left the terminal proper, there were over a dozen guys standing along the rope with signs. It took me a few mintues to find the one with “John Petty”, and we had to wait a few minutes for another lady on an Intrepid tour, then we were on our way.

The driver stopped at the Taj Princess Hotel, and for some reason thought all 3 of us were going there. I finally showed him our paperwork that said ours was Hotel Perfect, and after dropping the lady off at the Taj Princess he took us to our hotel. Hotel Perfect is nice enough I guess, looking fairly modern and clean, but it was a rather narrow spot in a long row of connected buildings. Apparently the other lady that had shared our ride was taking a different tour with Intrepid. We’ve already heard that others on our tour have checked in, and I think another showed up while I was writing this. I’ll supply some photos of the hotel tomorrow. We are in a very nice room on the 3^rd floor, with a big double or maybe queen size bed, decent bathroom and shower, and a TV with lots of channels. They will serve breakfast tomorrow morning. The porter took our bags up to our room, but unfortunately we didn’t have any smaller bills, so we’ll tip him tomorrow. It is after midnight, and although I slept some on the plane, I’m going to head to bed.

Tomorrow I’ll have a lot more photos to share, along with some great stories and impressions of India.

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Comments

[Sheila Payne]

Safe arrival
JC, glad to hear you and Manoli arrived safely. Disfruten!