We thought of visiting India for years but today we are finally on our way to explore a small slice of this huge country. It is a 24 hours flight with only one relatively short stop in New York so we are sure to be tired when we get there. At least we leave on time, something that is not a given especially in recent years, in fact there are no plane hiccups at all which is really great.
We are excited on the first flight and cannot sleep as we cross the US mainland towards New York. There are so many things that can go wrong and we are a bit apprehensive, will everything work okay?
After using our lounge pass in New York to eat a good steak the airline food is quite bad. Especially the snack is borderline uneatable but we try to do it anyway as we arrive late in the evening and there will be no food in Delhi the first evening.
We arrive in Delhi and it is time for the incomprehensible long walk that happens in all airports towards the immigration counters. We have also our first encounter with an Indian toilet, all of them are equipped with showers as we will learn throughout the trip. Passing the border is relatively easy it is just time consuming and then it is time to find our driver. We at least know he is outside as we get a Whatsapp message that he is waiting for us and in the end it is easy enough to identify him. We receive a garland of flowers, freshly cut, and then it is time for the one hour drive to the hotel.
Checking in is quite cumbersome in India with a lot of formalities and everyone needing a copy of the passports but we finally are done and it is time to check out our room which is actually quite nice.
We even have a bathtub which is great especially as it is not usual at all in India with a shower with no stall being way more common as we soon learn. Another thing that we are going to miss in the other hotels is the heat, while this one has a reliable heat source many of the other ones have only AC and have no provision for the cold of the winter, weird.
After a good night sleep it is time to watch the city waking up from our balcony. It is also time to start getting used with the smog and the smell of burning in the air that we assume is due to farmers surrounding Delhi. It is quite pervasive and makes all photos a bit blurry like we always are taking photos through fog.
As we are up early in the morning we start seeing lots of birds in the trees we can see serendipidously from our balcony. We see rose-ringed parakeets and pigeons, lots of them and then the more special birds start to appear like the beautiful yellow-footed green pigeons. House crows and black kites are also new lifers for us but very common here especially on this rainy morning.
We have arranged with our driver to meet at 10 AM so it is time now to get down for breakfast. We walk the corridors trying to find the restaurant that we were pointed to the day before when we could barely walk as we were quite sleep deprived.
We finally identify the right room and get down to the business of getting food from the buffet and also ordering from the menu. As the price is quite high, for India, we do our best to get our fill of the varied food and then it is time to return to the room to wait for our car.
While waiting we go to the balcony and watch for more birds. And they keep on coming including our first Indian Grey Hornbills, a couple of beautiful birds and Red-whiskered bulbuls that really seem to enjoy the tree while being followed by five-striped palm squirrels. And then it is on to explore Delhi.
