The Journey – Part 2

The flight from Paris to Delhi was not as exciting as from Atlanta to Paris. By the time I got onto the plane I was so exhausted I feel asleep before we even took off.  The food on the flight was not as delicious as the first flight plus I was so full from the first segment the thought of food made me sick. I did try to eat the vegetable main course but couldn’t stomach it! I slept off and on the entire flight, I must say a full length recliner seat is awesome! When we finally landed in Delhi it was so foggy out I don’t know how the pilots saw the runway. Steven was watching the altitude monitor and said that the plane went from like 700 feet to on the runway, I was not paying any attention to this at that point all I wanted to do was get off the plane but it is scary to think about if you were watching the monitor.

Getting through the airport was not as difficult as I originally managed. I did have a little trouble with customs, I filled out my form when I was half asleep on the plane and forgot to fill out half of it. I am sure the customs officer was like stupid American women fill out the form already.  After we got our bags and exchanged some money the next task was to exit the airport and find our driver.  The stealth skills of Steven spotted Rajesh our driver sent by the hotel. I quickly managed to offend him by extended my hand out to shake him. He shook Steven’s hand and I felt that I should then shake his. I was then told that it is offensive to initiate a handshake. Upon my research I have learned men may shake hands with other men and women may shake hands with other women; however there are seldom handshakes between men and women because of religious beliefs.  Also, I tend to be completely ignored by all men. The influence on Hinduism and the caste system is very prevalent here, when I am out with Steven he is the head of the hierarchy and I am pretty much copped liver! I am looking forward to 6 weeks of being the only female in the group so I will be completely ignored and treated like a second-class citizen.

I hope Rajesh is not too offended by the handshake and will one day forgive me. He did a very nice job of telling us about some fun facts about Delhi. For example, trucks are not allowed to drive on the highways during the day because of all the traffic and pollution and only allowed to drive at night. The fog was so dense I couldn’t see too much of the outside. From what I could see it reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire. There were lots of homeless people and shacks on the roadside and the sidewalks or sides of the streets were filled with trash. After about a 30 minute drive from the airport we finally made it to the hotel. The hotel grounds are gated and guarded 24/7. Before we could enter the hotel grounds the car was searched  (the trunk and the engine area). We then were allowed to enter through the gate, when we exited the car we went through metal detectors and all of our luggage was screened. You need a hotel key card to enter your floor on the elevator. Overall, the hotel is very nice and is actually one of the nicer hotels that I’ve stayed at (pictures to come later). What I think is a kinda cool thing is that you need your hotel key card to turn the lights on in the room. This took me a while to figure out but it is a cool way to save electricity! As soon as figured out the lighting situation I took one sleeping pill and passed out!