Friday, January 23
Caught a midday flight on a cramped little jet from Saint Louis to Newark. For some reason that 2 hour jaunt seemed to take forever. Spent several hours hanging around Newark before the process of boarding the giant 777. Took off and traveled up and over Labrador, skirted Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Crossed Latvia, where Barb's paternal grandmother was born and then Belarus and Russia before dropping down across Afghanastan and Pakistan after a few other Stans.
Made it safe and sound and an hour early into Delhi at 8:30 pm due to a great tail wind. Indira Ghandi International Airport is a sparkling modern airport from which we walked out into the cool air of light fog and heavy smoke into a sea of male faces waiting behind a barricade for people exiting the terminal. It is amazing how quickly you find the face you know in such a crowd - Butch was there to meet us, along with our official escort. They took us away from the exit area while Rahul called our driver and within ten minutes our Toyota Innoza van arrived and whisked us away. There was, as expected, lots of traffic, lots of honking and all sorts of vehicles, including the ubiquitous green and yellow auto-rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, a couple of riders on horses, 2 vivid and noisy wedding processions, tiny little shops specializing in just one specific set of wares and some fancy hotel properties were along our route to the Sheraton Four Seasons. We arrived at the hotel to find Susi waiting for us in the lobby. Our escort checked us in, we freshened up, initiated our journey together with some biriyani and a Kingfisher beer, a shower and a not so successful effort af going to sleep. Jet lag and time changes will impact us for at least a few days, but we are here at last!
Caught a midday flight on a cramped little jet from Saint Louis to Newark. For some reason that 2 hour jaunt seemed to take forever. Spent several hours hanging around Newark before the process of boarding the giant 777. Took off and traveled up and over Labrador, skirted Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Crossed Latvia, where Barb's paternal grandmother was born and then Belarus and Russia before dropping down across Afghanastan and Pakistan after a few other Stans.
Made it safe and sound and an hour early into Delhi at 8:30 pm due to a great tail wind. Indira Ghandi International Airport is a sparkling modern airport from which we walked out into the cool air of light fog and heavy smoke into a sea of male faces waiting behind a barricade for people exiting the terminal. It is amazing how quickly you find the face you know in such a crowd - Butch was there to meet us, along with our official escort. They took us away from the exit area while Rahul called our driver and within ten minutes our Toyota Innoza van arrived and whisked us away. There was, as expected, lots of traffic, lots of honking and all sorts of vehicles, including the ubiquitous green and yellow auto-rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, a couple of riders on horses, 2 vivid and noisy wedding processions, tiny little shops specializing in just one specific set of wares and some fancy hotel properties were along our route to the Sheraton Four Seasons. We arrived at the hotel to find Susi waiting for us in the lobby. Our escort checked us in, we freshened up, initiated our journey together with some biriyani and a Kingfisher beer, a shower and a not so successful effort af going to sleep. Jet lag and time changes will impact us for at least a few days, but we are here at last!
Yay! Glad you made it safely barb. I am in Jeff city to see dick Gregory speak with Laura and Paul. Keep updating and be well!
ReplyDelete