Flight to Delhi

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The 22 hours of flying to Delhi, India….

Portland to Los Angeles = 2 hours
Los Angeles to Frankfurt, Germany = 10 hours
Frankfurt to Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India = 8 hours
Mumbai to Delhi = 2 hours

There was one hitch at the beginning of my trip (coincidentally on my birthday) when my flight to LA got delayed due to weather in Chicago and eventually cancelled due to mechanical problems. This caused me to miss the flight in LA to India. But they rescheduled me for the same flight the following day. Luckily I was planning on getting there a day before the trip starts.

Starting in LA, I was on Air India airlines so I got to have my first taste of Indian airplane food. I really lucked out on the 2 long flights. The flight was less than half full, so I got 3 seats all to myself, allowing me to have tons of leg room and to be able to lay down across the seats.

After we boarded the plane in Mumbai, the flight ended up getting delayed for three long hours on the runway due to heavy fog and zero visibility in Delhi. They didn’t have the air conditioning on very high since the fully packed plane was idling.

After finally arriving at the Delhi airport, I got through customs, got my luggage and found my hotel’s driver holding a sign with my name on it. It was big comfort seeing your name on a sign after arriving in a new continent for the first time and not knowing how many people speak English. I started to get into what I thought was the passenger side of the SUV only to notice a steering wheel there. This is when I realized that they drive on the left side of the road, which makes sense since they were a British colony when cars were first around.

The drive from the airport to the hotel was an eye opener. There were cows, sacred to Hindus, wondering the streets everywhere. Driving on the roads in Delhi is something I would never want to do. They seem to use horns in place of turn signals, stop signs, and LANES. This makes the streets quite noisy with constant honking from every direction.

It felt great to take a shower at the hotel after being on planes for a couple days. After resting a bit, I walked around the area near the hotel, which is close to the main town center, Connaught Place. The streets in the area smelled a bit like a zoo, and were packed with people, bikes, taxis, and motorbikes.

After the sun went down, I noticed a few large bats hanging out in the trees behind the hotel.

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Photos

Air India 747
I spent 38 hours in all on this plane including the trip back home.

Large bat
Hanging upside down in the lower right of this photo

Comments

[Erica]

I'm Jealous!
>> Starting in LA, I was on Air India airlines so I got to have my first taste of Indian airplane food. << I wish I got Indian food on airplanes!

[Gina]

Asian streets
The street scene and driving experience seems common to Asian countries. I just got back from the Philippines and being away for a long time, I have forgotten how they drive over there. That's the standard practice over there though. You don't see anybody getting mad when honked at or someone cuts in front. Everybody seems polite and let the car in front go first.