Deep River to Delhi: The Longest Day

Talk about a long trip! I left the house at about 9:30 am on Saturday Nov 29 and reach my hotel in Delhi India at about 11 pm on Sunday Nov 30 (and ok ok in all fairness there is a 10.5 hour time change). Still the self-induced sleep deprivation have made it hard for me...but last night I slept 9 pm til 7am and I think I am officially adjusted to India time and am no longer in a complete daze.
So I fly Ottawa to Newark (about an hour) and the scenery on the way to Newark...in-fricken-credible! We landed as the sun was starting to go down but was slightly cloudy...the views over NYC were spectacular. Wish I could have photographed. I somehow managed to get the "executive" seat on the little Embraer...seat 1A. Tiny plane though...3 seats on each row (1 on one side, 2 on the other).
Newark is a pretty big hub for flights anywhere in the world, bigger than La Guardia. In some of the line-ups, I chat to some other travellers. You can certainly tell who's been paying attention to the news. They ask me where I go, I say "India." Then most people do a double take...hahaha! Others..."Oh cool, that sounds like a great place...have fun!" The flight attendant on the way to Newark told me she thought all flights to Mumbai had been cancelled...but in fact as I was preparing for the 13 hour flight (walking as much as possible thru the airport) I found the flight to Mumbai and to be honest, it looked like more people were travelling to Mumbai than were travelling to Delhi.
The flight Newark to Delhi. It's a big comfy Boeing 777...a giant in comparison to the earlier flight...9 seats per row but VERY comfy, lotsa space. The plane is maybe half full. There's another girl on the aisle seat, I have the window and managed to get the best views over NYC once again.
On the flight they give us Indian food. It's good...but still airplane food. A few differences between what you might get on a regular flight:
- Instead of coming with butter, my roll comes with "hot and sour pickle jelly" WTF!? It's gross. Some of the ingredients: mango, lemon, coriander, pickles (of course), and lotsa salt.
- Salad - has a nice side of HOT GREEN PEPPER!
- In place of dinner mints: "Dinner Epilogue" - that's right folks, it's the perfect mouth freshner and stomach soother all in one. Actually this is quite good. It's fennel, coriander, sesame seeds, peperment, and rose extract, and tamarind leaves and sends an immediate cooling sensation to my stomach. This I like!
Oh oh! And I almost forgot to mention the Bollywood film. So you have individual TV's and can choose what channel to watch. I see there's a Bollywood film playing - "Kissimat Connection" (and as I previously mentioned wanted to be a token blonde in one of these). Ironically enough, the film takes place in Toronto!! The movie is clearly all green screened, but there are a few scenes at Scotiabank that are bam on...cards not working in the ATMs etc. Unfortunately the one token Canadian blonde chick seemed to have an Australian Accent. This I plan on fixing!! :) The acting is comparable to Degrassi...very over-acted...TOO emotional...one small difference, they randomly break out in song and dance! Oh man, it's hilarious. The film definitely has deepened my desire to be part of Bollywood, if only for a day.
So getting into Delhi. Everytime I checked the forecast, it called for "Smoke". The picture was of sun but the description was "Smoke." I didn't quite understand until I got there. We obviously flew in at night (9 pm) and in comparison with flying out of Newark (crystal clear lights a twinkling)...there is a thick haze surrounding the city. You can't see much clearly at all until you're RIGHT there. YUP, now I understand the Delhi Smoke.
I expected my experience on leaving Indira Gandhi International to be scary and overwhelming. I expected a lot of attention and had pre-arranged my hotel to pick me up with a name placard. I should note that on the flight to Delhi, there were more than a handful of white people, some of them hippies going to the yoga centers, some of them older retired couples going on WWF tours, and some mixed couples, and maybe another trekker or two. Anyways, getting out isn't so overwhelming at all! People are helpful, my hotel actually arranged 2 people to wait (one on either side of the airport) so that for sure one of them would catch me. I find them no problem and then try to sleep right away. Delhi is colder than I thought though and I actually had to get out my fleece pants believe it or not...it is probably 5-10 deg at night.