We made it!
From Boston to London, neither of us really slept, partly because the flight time was mostly outside of sleep time (we left at 7pm, so by the time they serve dinner and you watch a movie, it’s nearly time to land), and partly because we had the absolute BEST flight attendant working our section of the plane. Jake was absolutely hilarious, and we chatted with him on and off the whole flight (enough so that another member of the crew asked if we were taking Jake with us on our trip since we had such a great time with him on the flight).
By the time we got through immigration, I was a zombie. A tired zombie with a pounding headache. Heathrow is hostile to sleep, but it turns out they have an AmEx centurion lounge which we could get into with my credit card. SO much more civilized! Still didn’t offer anything that I would call sleeping space, but there was food, comfortable seating, it was quiet, and our stuff felt much safer there than it would in the mayhem of gen pop.
The 2nd flight was also fine. I was a bit worried because our boarding passes said we were in row 77, but every seat map I could find for Virgin Atlantic only went to 66 rows, but there were, in fact, 85+ rows on this massive jet, so we were ok. I slept a bit, but Melissa slept very little (if any), so we were dragging when we landed in Delhi at 3am. By the time we got through immigration, to our bags, and found our driver, it was 4:30am – an hour I am confident I have never seen before.
We checked into the hotel, then slept for 6 hours. It was such good sleep. After some coffee, our driver picked us up and we headed from New Delhi (where our hotel is) into Old Delhi to walk around the markets a bit and get oriented to the city.
Driving here is certainly not for the faint of heart. Cars, rickshaws, tuktuks, pedestrians, handcarts…it all is just sort of there, on the road, moving in whatever direction desired. Red lights mean very little and I wouldn’t trust a pedestrian light for any amount of money. Our driver has done an admirable job so far of navigating safely, and we survived 2 rickshaw rides, as well!
The markets lean more toward wholesale or mass-produced things in the area we were in; it wasn’t for souvenirs. Still, walking around and looking at all the things for sale (and how they are displayed) was very interesting. It’s crowded everywhere, yet people don’t seem to bump into each other much.
Everything looks slightly chaotic, but there’s a hum and fluidity to the movement along the street that makes it feel less daunting. Or maybe you just get used to it by shutting down some of our senses to prevent overload. Or maybe both.
We went for an early dinner at a local establishment, Sandoz, and it was delicious! I really appreciate that India understands vegetarianism, and finding food I can eat is a breeze. Some dal, butter masala paneer, and paneer-stuffed naan…mmmmm. And despite being a slightly costly place by Delhi standards, we only spent $17 total on dinner. I jacked up the bill by getting a Diet Coke (Indian Diet Coke is very good, I can report!).
Tomorrow we have a lengthy day of driving, heading over to Ranthambore National Park. We have 2 safari drives, and I am hopeful that at least one will yield a Royal Bengal Tiger sighting. Along the way, our driver said he would make some stops in the villages and countryside so we can get a sense of what life is like for the vast majority of Indians who don’t live in one of the major cities. I’m ready for it!
Vacation Days 